Eight
The news that a peach almost as big as a house had suddenly appeared in someone’s garden spread likewildfire across the countryside, and the next day a stream of people came scrambling¹ up the steep hillto gaze upon this marvel².
Quickly, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker called in carpenters and had them build a strong fence roundthe peach to save it from the crowd; and at the same time, these two crafty³ women stationed themselvesat the front gate with a large bunch of tickets and started charging everyone for coming in.
‘Roll up! Roll up!’ Aunt Spiker yelled. ‘Only one shilling to see the giant peach!’
‘Half price for children under six weeks old!’ Aunt Sponge shouted.
‘One at a time, please! Don’t push! Don’t push! You’re all going to get in!’
‘Hey, you! Come back, there! You haven’t paid!’
By lunchtime, the whole place was a seething⁴ mass of men, women, and children all pushing andshoving to get a glimpse of this miraculous⁵ fruit. Helicopters were landing like wasps⁶ all over the hill,and out of them poured swarms⁷ of newspaper reporters, cameramen, and men from the televisioncompanies.
‘It’ll cost you double to bring in a camera!’ Aunt Spiker shouted.
‘All right! All right!’ they answered. ‘We don’t care!’ And the money came rolling into the pocketsof the two greedy aunts.
But while all this excitement was going on outside, poor James was forced to stay locked in hisbedroom, peeping through the bars of his window at the crowds below.
‘The disgusting little brute⁸ will only get in everyone’s way if we let him wander about,’ Aunt Spikerhad said early that morning.
‘Oh, please!’ he had begged. ‘I haven’t met any other children for years and years and there aregoing to be lots of them down there for me to play with. And perhaps I could help you with the tickets.’

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