Twelve
James decided¹ that this was most certainly not a time to be disagreeable, so he crossed the room towhere the Centipede was sitting and knelt down beside him.
‘Thank you so much,’ the Centipede said. ‘You are very kind.’
‘You have a lot of boots,’ James murmured.
‘I have a lot of legs,’ the Centipede answered proudly. ‘And a lot of feet. One hundred, to be exact.’
‘There he goes again!’ the Earthworm cried, speaking for the first time. ‘He simply cannot stoptelling lies about his legs! He doesn’t have anything like a hundred of them! He’s only got forty-two!
The trouble is that most people don’t bother to count them. They just take his word. And anyway, thereis nothing marvellous, you know, Centipede, about having a lot of legs.’
‘Poor fellow,’ the Centipede said, whispering in James’s ear. ‘He’s blind. He can’t see how splendidI look.’
‘In my opinion,’ the Earthworm said, ‘the reallymarvellous thing is to have no legs at all and to beable to walk just the same.’
‘You call that walking!’ cried the Centipede. ‘You’re a slitherer, that’s all you are! You just slitheralong!’
‘I glide,’ said the Earthworm primly².
‘You are a slimy beast,’ answered the Centipede.
‘I am not a slimy beast,’ the Earthworm said. ‘I am a useful and much loved creature. Ask anygardener you like. And as for you…’
‘I am a pest!’ the Centipede announced, grinning broadly and looking round the room for approval.
‘He is so proud of that,’ the Ladybird said, smiling at James. ‘Though for the life of me I cannotunderstand why.’
‘I am the only pest in this room!’ cried the Centipede, still grinning away. ‘Unless you count Old-Green-Grasshopper³ over there. But he is long past it now. He is too old to be a pest any more.’
The Old- Green- Grasshopper turned his huge black eyes upon the Centipede and gave him awithering look. ‘Young fellow,’ he said, speaking in a deep, slow, scornful voice, ‘I have never been apest in my life. I am a musician.’
‘Hear, hear!’ said the Ladybird.
‘James,’ the Centipede said. ‘Your name is James, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’

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