Three
It was at this point that the first thing of all, the rather peculiar¹ thing that led to so many other muchmore peculiar things, happened to him.
For suddenly, just behind him, James heard a rustling² of leaves, and he turned round and saw an oldman in a funny dark-green suit emerging from the bushes. He was a very small old man, but he had ahuge bald head and a face that was covered all over with bristly black whiskers. He stopped when hewas about three yards away, and he stood there leaning on his stick and staring hard at James.
When he spoke³, his voice was very slow and creaky. ‘Come closer to me, little boy,’ he said,beckoning to James with a finger. ‘Come right up close to me and I will show you somethingwonderful.’
James was too frightened to move.
The old man hobbled a step or two nearer, and then he put a hand into the pocket of his jacket andtook out a small white paper bag.
‘You see this?’ he whispered, waving the bag gently to and fro in front of James’s face. ‘You knowwhat this is, my dear? You know what’s inside this little bag?’
Then he came nearer still, leaning forward and pushing his face so close to James that James couldfeel breath blowing on his cheeks. The breath smelled musty and stale and slightly mildewed⁴, like air inan old cellar.
‘Take a look, my dear,’ he said, opening the bag and tilting⁵ it towards James. Inside it, James couldsee a mass of tiny green things that looked like little stones or crystals, each one about the size of agrain of rice. They were extraordinarily⁶ beautiful, and there was a strange brightness about them, a sortof luminous⁷ quality that made them glow and sparkle in the most wonderful way.
‘Listen to them!’ the old man whispered. ‘Listen to them move!’
James stared into the bag, and sure enough there was a faint rustling sound coming up from inside it,and then he noticed that all the thousands of little green things were slowly, very very slowly stirringabout and moving over each other as though they were alive.

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