Six
‘Sponge! Sponge! Come here at once and look at this!’
‘At what?’
‘It’s a peach!’ Aunt Spiker was shouting.
‘A what?’
‘A peach! Right up there on the highest branch! Can’t you see it?’
‘I think you must be mistaken, my dear Spiker. That miserable¹ tree never has any peaches on it.’
‘There’s one on it now, Sponge! You look for yourself!’
‘You’re teasing me, Spiker. You’re making my mouth water on purpose when there’s nothing to putinto it. Why, that tree’s never even had a blossom on it, let alone a peach. Right up on the highestbranch, you say? I can’t see a thing. Very funny… Ha, ha… Good gracious me! Well, I’ll be blowed!
There really is a peach up there!’
‘A nice big one, too!’ Aunt Spiker said.
‘A beauty, a beauty!’ Aunt Sponge cried out.
At this point, James slowly put down his chopper and turned and looked across at the two womenwho were standing² underneath³ the peach tree.
Something is about to happen, he told himself. Some thing peculiar⁴ is about to happen any moment.
He hadn’t the faintest idea what it might be, but he could feel it in his bones that something was goingto happen soon. He could feel it in the air around him… in the sudden stillness that had fallen upon thegarden…
James tiptoed a little closer to the tree. The aunts were not talking now. They were just standingthere, staring at the peach. There was not a sound anywhere, not even a breath of wind, and overheadthe sun blazed down upon them out of a deep blue sky.
‘It looks ripe to me,’ Aunt Spiker said, breaking the silence.
‘Then why don’t we eat it?’ Aunt Sponge suggested, licking her thick lips. ‘We can have half each.
Hey, you! James! Come over here at once and climb this tree!’
James came running over.
‘I want you to pick that peach up there on the highest branch,’ Aunt Sponge went on. ‘Can you seeit?’
‘Yes, Auntie Sponge, I can see it!’
‘And don’t you dare eat any of it yourself. Your Aunt Spiker and I are going to have it between usright here and now, half each. Get on with you! Up you go!’

分享到：