James and the Giant Peach Read online

  Once they passed a snow machine in operation, with the Cloud-Men turning the handle and a blizzard of snowflakes blowing out of the great funnel above. They saw the huge drums that were used for making thunder, and the Cloud-Men beating them furiously with long hammers. They saw the frost factories and the wind producers and the places where cyclones and tornadoes were manufactured and sent spinning down towards the Earth, and once, deep in the hollow of a large billowy cloud, they spotted something that could only have been a Cloud-Men's city. There were caves everywhere running into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the Cloud-Men's wives were crouching over little stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husbands' suppers. And hundreds of Cloud-Men's children were frisking about all over the place and shrieking with laughter and sliding down the billows of the cloud on toboggans.

  An hour later, just before dawn, the travellers heard a soft whooshing noise above their heads and they glanced up and saw an immense grey batlike creature swooping down towards them out of the dark. It circled round and round the peach, flapping its great wings slowly in the moonlight and staring at the travellers. Then it uttered a series of long deep melancholy cries and flew off again into the night.

  'Oh, I do wish the morning would come!' Miss Spider said, shivering all over.

  'It won't be long now,' James answered. 'Look, it's getting lighter over there already.'

  They all sat in silence watching the sun as it came up slowly over the rim of the horizon for a new day.

  Thirty-two

  And when full daylight came at last, they all got to their feet and stretched their poor cramped bodies, and then the Centipede, who always seemed to see things first, shouted, 'Look! There's land below!'

  'He's right!' they cried, running to the edge of the peach and peering over. 'Hooray! Hooray!'

  'It looks like streets and houses!'

  'But how enormous it all is!'

  A vast city, glistening in the early morning sunshine, lay spread out three thousand feet below them. At that height, the cars were like little beetles crawling along the streets, and people walking on the pavements looked no larger than tiny grains of soot.

  'But what tremendous tall buildings!' exclaimed the Ladybird. 'I've never seen anything like them before in England. Which town do you think it is?'

  'This couldn't possibly be England,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.

  'Then where is it?' asked Miss Spider.

  'You know what those buildings are?' shouted James, jumping up and down with excitement. 'Those are skyscrapers! So this must be America! And that, my friends, means that we have crossed the Atlantic Ocean overnight!'

  'You don't mean it!' they cried.

  'It's not possible!'

  'It's incredible! It's unbelievable!'

  'Oh, I've always dreamed of going to America!' cried the Centipede. 'I had a friend once who - '

  'Be quiet!' said the Earthworm. 'Who cares about your friend? The thing we've got to think about now is how on earth are we going to get down to earth?'

  'Ask James,' said the Ladybird.

  'I don't think that should be so very difficult,' James told them. 'All we'll have to do is to cut loose a few seagulls. Not too many, mind you, but just enough so that the others can't quite keep us up in the air. Then down we shall go, slowly and gently, until we reach the ground. Centipede will bite through the strings for us one at a time.'

  Thirty-three

  Far below them, in the City of New York, something like pandemonium was breaking out. A great round ball as big as a house had been sighted hovering high up in the sky over the very centre of Manhattan, and the cry had gone up that it was an enormous bomb sent over by another country to blow the whole city to smithereens. Air-raid sirens began wailing in every section. All radio and television programmes were interrupted with announcements that the population must go down into their cellars immediately. One million people walking in the streets on their way to work looked up into the sky and saw the monster hovering above them, and started running for the nearest subway entrance to take cover. Generals grabbed hold of telephones and shouted orders to everyone they could think of. The Mayor of New York called up the President of the United States down in Washington, D.C., to ask him for help, and the President, who at that moment was having breakfast in his pyjamas, quickly pushed away his half-finished plate of Sugar Crisps and started pressing buttons right and left to summon his Admirals and his Generals. And all the way across the vast stretch of America, in all the fifty States from Alaska to Florida, from Pennsylvania to Hawaii, the alarm was sounded and the word went out that the biggest bomb in the history of the world was hovering over New York City, and that at any moment it might go off.

  Thirty-four

  'Come on, Centipede, bite through the first string,' James ordered.

  The Centipede took one of the silk strings between his teeth and bit through it. And once again (but not with an angry Cloud-Man dangling from the end of the string this time) a single seagull came away from the rest of the flock and went flying off on its own.

  'Bite another,' James ordered.

  The Centipede bit through another string.

  'Why aren't we sinking?'

  'We are sinking!'

  'No, we're not!'

  'Don't forget the peach is a lot lighter now than when we started out,' James told them. 'It lost an awful lot of juice when all those hailstones hit it in the night. Cut away two more seagulls, Centipede!'

  'Ah, that's better!'

  'Here we go!'

  'Now we really are sinking!'

  'Yes, this is perfect! Don't bite any more, Centipede, or we'll sink too fast! Gently does it!'

  Slowly the great peach began losing height, and the buildings and streets down below began coming closer and closer.

  'Do you think we'll all get our pictures in the papers when we get down?' the Ladybird asked.

  'My goodness, I've forgotten to polish my boots!' the Centipede said. 'Everyone must help me to polish my boots before we arrive.'

  'Oh, for heaven's sake!' said the Earthworm. 'Can't you ever stop thinking about -'

  But he never finished his sentence. For suddenly... WHOOOSH!... and they looked up and saw a huge four-engined plane come shooting out of a near-by cloud and go whizzing past them not more than twenty feet over their heads. This was actually the regular early morning passenger plane coming in to New York from Chicago, and as it went by, it sliced right through every single one of the silken strings, and immediately the seagulls broke away, and the enormous peach, having nothing to hold it up in the air any longer, went tumbling down towards the earth like a lump of lead.

  'Help!' cried the Centipede.

  'Save us!' cried Miss Spider.

  'We are lost!' cried the Ladybird.

  'This is the end!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper.

  'James!' cried the Earthworm. 'Do something, James! Quickly, do something!'

  'I can't!' cried James. 'I'm sorry! Good-bye! Shut your eyes everybody! It won't be long now!'

  Thirty-five

  Round and round and upside down went the peach as it plummeted towards the earth, and they were all clinging desperately to the stem to save themselves from being flung into space.

  Faster and faster it fell. Down and down and down, racing closer and closer to the houses and streets below, where it would surely smash into a million pieces when it hit. And all the way along Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, and along all the other streets in the City, people who had not yet reached the underground shelters looked up and saw it coming, and they stopped running and stood there staring in a sort of stupor at what they thought was the biggest bomb in all the world falling out of the sky on to their heads. A few women screamed. Others knelt down on the sidewalks and began praying aloud. Strong men turned to one another and said things like, 'I guess this is it, Joe,' and 'Good-bye, everybody, good-bye.' And for the next thirty seconds the whole City held its breath, wait
ing for the end to come.

  Thirty-six

  'Good-bye, Ladybird!' gasped James, clinging to the stem of the falling peach. 'Good-bye, Centipede. Good-bye, everybody!' There were only a few seconds to go now and it looked as though they were going to fall right in among all the tallest buildings. James could see the skyscrapers rushing up to meet them at the most awful speed, and most of them had square flat tops, but the very tallest of them all had a top that tapered off into a long sharp point - like an enormous silver needle sticking up into the sky.

  And it was precisely on to the top of this needle that the peach fell!

  There was a squelch. The needle went in deep. And suddenly - there was the giant peach, caught and spiked upon the very pinnacle of the Empire State Building.

  Thirty-seven

  It was really an amazing sight, and in two or three minutes, as soon as the people below realized that this now couldn't possibly be a bomb, they came pouring out of the shelters and the subways to gape at the marvel. The streets for half a mile around the building were jammed with men and women, and when the word spread that there were actually living things moving about on the top of the great round ball, then everyone went wild with excitement.

  'It's a flying saucer!' they shouted.

  'They are from Outer Space!'

  'They are men from Mars!'

  'Or maybe they came from the Moon!'

  And a man who had a pair of binoculars to his eyes said, 'They look pritt-ty peculiar to me, I'll tell you that.'

  Police cars and fire engines came screaming in from all over the city and pulled up outside the Empire State Building. Two hundred firemen and six hundred policemen swarmed into the building and went up in the elevators as high as they could go. Then they poured out on to the observation roof - which is the place where tourists stand - just at the bottom of the big spike.

  All the policemen were holding their guns at the ready, with their fingers on the triggers, and the firemen were clutching their hatchets. But from where they stood, almost directly underneath the peach, they couldn't actually see the travellers up on top.

  'Ahoy there!' shouted the Chief of Police. 'Come out and show yourselves!'

  Suddenly, the great brown head of the Centipede appeared over the side of the peach. His black eyes, as large and round as two marbles, glared down at the policemen and the firemen below. Then his monstrous ugly face broke into a wide grin.

  The policemen and the firemen all started shouting at once. 'Look out!' they cried. 'It's a Dragon!'

  'It's not a Dragon! It's a Wampus!'

  'It's a Gorgon!'

  'It's a Sea-serpent!'

  'It's a Prock!'

  'It's a Manticore!'

  Three firemen and five policemen fainted and had to be carried away.

  'It's a Snozzwanger!' cried the Chief of Police.

  'It's a Whangdoodle!' yelled the Head of the Fire Department.

  The Centipede kept on grinning. He seemed to be enjoying enormously the commotion that he was causing.

  'Now see here!' shouted the Chief of Police, cupping his hands to his mouth. 'You listen to me! I want you to tell me exactly where you've come from!'

  'We've come from thousands of miles away!' the Centipede shouted back, grinning more broadly than ever and showing his brown teeth.

  'There you are!' called the Chief of Police. 'I told you they came from Mars!'

  'I guess you're right!' said the Head of the Fire Department.

  At this point, the Old-Green-Grasshopper poked his huge green head over the side of the peach, alongside the Centipede's. Six more big strong men fainted when they saw him.

  'That one's an Oinck!' screamed the Head of the Fire Department. 'I just know it's an Oinck!'

  'Or a Cockatrice!' yelled the Chief of Police. 'Stand back, men! It may jump down on us any moment!'

  'What on earth are they talking about?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said to the Centipede.

  'Search me,' the Centipede answered. 'But they seem to be in an awful stew about something.'

  Then Miss Spider's large black murderous-looking head, which to a stranger was probably the most terrifying of all, appeared next to the Grasshopper's.

  'Snakes and ladders!' yelled the Head of the Fire Department. 'We are finished now! It's a giant Scorpula!'

  'It's worse than that!' cried the Chief of Police. 'It's a vermicious Knid! Oh, just look at its vermicious gruesome face!'

  'Is that the kind that eats fully-grown men for breakfast?' the Head of the Fire Department asked, going white as a sheet.

  'I'm afraid it is,' the Chief of Police answered.

  'Oh, please why doesn't someone help us to get down from here?' Miss Spider called out. 'It's making me giddy.'

  'This could be a trick!' said the Head of the Fire Department. 'Don't anyone make a move until I say!'

  'They've probably got space guns!' muttered the Chief of Police.

  'But we've got to do something!' the Head of the Fire Department announced grimly. 'About five million people are standing down there on the streets watching us.'

  'Then why don't you put up a ladder?' the Chief of Police asked him. 'I'll stand at the bottom and hold it steady for you while you go up and see what's happening.'

  'Thanks very much!' snapped the Head of the Fire Department.

  Soon there were no less than seven large fantastic faces peering down over the side of the peach - the Centipede's, the Old-Green-Grasshopper's, Miss Spider's, the Earthworm's, the Ladybird's, the Silkworm's, and the Glow-worm's. And a sort of panic was beginning to break out among the firemen and the policemen on the rooftop.

  Then, all at once, the panic stopped and a great gasp of astonishment went up all round. For now, a small boy was seen to be standing up there beside the other creatures. His hair was blowing in the wind, and he was laughing and waving and calling out, 'Hello, everybody! Hello!'

  For a few moments, the men below just stood and stared and gaped. They simply couldn't believe their eyes.

  'Bless my soul!' cried the Head of the Fire Department, going red in the face. 'It really is a little boy, isn't it?'

  'Don't be frightened of us, please!' James called out. 'We are so glad to be here!'

  'What about those others beside you?' shouted the Chief of Police. 'Are any of them dangerous?'

  'Of course they're not dangerous!' James answered. 'They're the nicest creatures in the world! Allow me to introduce them to you one by one and then I'm sure you will believe me.'

  'My friends, this is the Centipede, and let me make it known

  He is so sweet and gentle that (although he's overgrown) The Queen of Spain, again and again, has summoned him by phone

  To baby-sit and sing and knit and be a chaperone

  When nurse is off and all the royal children are alone.'

  ('Small wonder,' said a Fireman, 'they're no longer on the throne.')

  'The Earthworm, on the other hand,'

  Said James, beginning to expand,

  'Is great for digging up the land

  And making old soils newer.

  Moreover, you should understand

  He would be absolutely grand

  For digging subway tunnels and

  For making you a sewer.'

  (The Earthworm blushed and beamed with pride.

  Miss Spider clapped and cheered and cried, 'Could any words be truer?')

  'And the Grasshopper, ladies and gents, is a boon

  In millions and millions of ways.

  You have only to ask him to give you a tune

  And he plays and he plays and he plays.

  As a toy for your children he's perfectly sweet;

  There's nothing so good in the shops -

  You've only to tickle the soles of his feet

  And he hops and he hops and he hops.'

  ('He can't be very fierce!' exclaimed

  The Head of all the Cops.)

  'And now without excuse

  I'd like to introducer />
  This charming Glow-worm, lover of simplicity.

  She is easy to install

  On jour ceiling or your wall,

  And although this smacks a bit of eccentricity, It's really rather clever

  For there after you will never

  You will NEVER NEVER NEVER

  Have the slightest need for using electricity.'

  (At which, no less than fifty-two

  Policemen cried, 'If this is true

  That creature'll get some fabulous publicity!')

  'And here we have Miss Spider

  With a mile of thread inside her

  Who has personally requested me to say

  That she's NEVER met Miss Muffet

  On her charming little tuffet -

  If she had she'd NOT have frightened her away.

  Should her looks sometimes alarm you

  Then I don't think it would harm you

  To repeat at least a hundred times a day:

  "I must NEVER kill a spider

  I must only help and guide her

  And invite her in the nursery to play." '

  (The Police all nodded slightly,

  And the Firemen smiled politely,

  And about a dozen people cried, 'Hooray!')

  'And here's my darling Ladybird, so beautjul, so kind, My greatest comfort since this trip began.

  She has four hundred children and she's left them all behind, But they're coming on the next peach of the can.'

  (The Cops cried, 'She's entrancing!'

  All the Firemen started dancing,

  And the crowds all started cheering to a man!)

  'And now, the Silkworm,' James went on,

  'Whose silk will bear comparison

  With all the greatest silks there are

  In Rome and Philadelphia.

  If you would search the whole world through

  From Paraguay to Timbuctoo

  I don't think you would find one bit

  Of silk that could compare with it.

  Even the shops in Singapore

  Don't have the stuff. And what is more,

  This Silkworm had, I'll have you know,

  The honour, not so long ago,

  To spin and weave and sew and press

  The Queen of England's wedding dress.

  And she's already made and sent

  A waistcoat for your President.'

  ('Well, good for her!' the Cops cried out, And all at once a mighty shout