three

it was at this point that the first thing of all, the rather peculiar thing that led to so many other muchmore peculiar things, happened to him.

for suddenly, just behind him, james heard a rustling 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 spoke, 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 mildewed, like air inan old cellar.

‘take a look, my dear,’ he said, opening the bag and tilting 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 extraordinarily beautiful, and there was a strange brightness about them, a sortof luminous 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.

‘there’s more power and magic in those things in there than in all the rest of the world put together,’

the old man said softly.

‘but – but – what are they?’ james murmured, finding his voice at last. ‘where do they come from?’

‘ah-ha,’ the old man whispered. ‘you’d never guess that!’ he was crouching a little now andpushing his face still closer and closer to james until the tip of his long nose was actually touching theskin on james’s forehead. then suddenly he jumped back and began waving his stick madly in the air.

‘crocodile tongues!’ he cried. ‘one thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of adead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! add the fingers of a young monkey,the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar.

stew for another week, and then let the moon do the rest!’

all at once, he pushed the white paper bag into james’s hands, and said, ‘here! you take it! it’syours!’

三

也就是在这个节骨眼儿上，发生了那第一件“十分”古怪的事儿。从这件事上，又引出了不少古怪得多的事情。

这当儿，突然之间，詹姆斯听得背后树叶哗哗直响。他回过头来，只见一个小老头儿，身穿古里古怪的墨绿色衣服，从树丛里走了出来。老头儿虽然个子十分矮小，谢了顶的脑袋却非常硕大，脸上布满了鬃毛般的黑络腮胡子。他走到离小詹姆斯有三码远的地方，停下脚步，倚着手杖，站在那里盯着小詹姆斯。

开口说话的时候，只听他声音咕咕哝哝，说得慢条斯理，“走近点儿，孩子，”他说着，用一根指头朝詹姆斯挥了挥，“到我这儿来，给你看一样美妙的东西。”

詹姆斯吓得一动也不敢动。

老头儿踉踉跄跄，朝前走了一两步，把手伸进上衣口袋里，掏出了一个白色的小纸袋。

“看见这个了吗？”老头儿轻轻地在詹姆斯面前来回晃动着纸袋，细声细语地说，“知道是什么吗，亲爱的？知道小袋子里都放着什么东西吗？”

说着，他又走近了一点儿，朝前探出身子。他的脸凑得那么近，詹姆斯脸蛋儿上都感觉到了他的呼吸。那呼吸透着酸腐，还有点霉烂的味道，就像是陈年地窖里的气味。

“瞧瞧吧，亲爱的。”他说着把袋子打开，斜过来让詹姆斯看。只见里面有一团发绿的小东西，看起来像是小石子或者水晶球，每个都跟大米粒一般大小。它们特别漂亮，浑身散发着奇异的光芒，一明一灭，流光溢彩，非常奇妙。

“快听！”老头儿嘁嘁嚓嚓地说，“听听它们移动的声音！”

詹姆斯于是朝袋子里望去。千真万确，里面传来了一阵窸窸窣窣的声音。接着，只见那所有成百上千的绿色小东西活动了起来。它们移动得非常慢，非常非常缓慢，你拥我挤，仿佛有了生命。

“里面这些小东西的法力，比世上一切别的东西放在一起还要大。”老头儿轻轻地说。“可是—可是—到底是什么东西呢？”詹姆斯嗫嚅着，终于说出了话，“是从哪儿来的呢？”

“啊哈，”老头儿耳语道，“你多久也猜不出来的！”这会儿，他又弯了弯腰，脸也离詹姆斯越来越近。后来，他那长长的鼻子尖干脆碰到了詹姆斯的脑门儿。突然，他又朝后一跳，拼命在空中挥舞起手杖来。“鳄鱼的舌头！”老头儿大声说，“用一千条鳄鱼舌头，配上壁虎眼睛，在死巫师的头骨里，熬上二十个白天，二十个黑夜，再配上猪肚子、绿鹦鹉嘴、箭猪体内的水、小猴子的手指头，外加三勺砂糖，再熬上一个礼拜，放在月亮底下就得！”

猛的一下，他把那白纸袋塞到了詹姆斯手里，说：“喏，拿着吧！给你啦！”