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 scrambling up the steep hillto gaze upon this marvel.
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 crafty 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 seething mass of men, women, and children all pushing andshoving to get a glimpse of this miraculous fruit. helicopters were landing like wasps all over the hill,and out of them poured swarms 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 brute 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.’
‘shut up!’ aunt sponge had snapped. ‘your aunt spiker and i are about to become millionaires, andthe last thing we want is the likes of you messing things up and getting in the way.’
later, when the evening of the first day came and the people had all gone home, the aunts unlockedjames’s door and ordered him to go outside and pick up all the banana skins and orange peel and bits ofpaper that the crowd had left behind.
‘could i please have something to eat first?’ he asked. ‘i haven’t had a thing all day.’
‘no!’ they shouted, kicking him out of the door. ‘we’re too busy to make food! we are counting ourmoney!’
‘but it’s dark!’ cried james.
‘get out!’ they yelled. ‘and stay out until you‘ve cleaned up all the mess!’ the door slammed. thekey turned in the lock.
八
什么人家的园子里，突然长出了房子大小的仙桃的消息，仿佛野火一样传遍了乡下一带。第二天，人们便潮水一般，争先恐后地爬上陡峭的山顶，来看稀罕。
海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，很快把木匠请来，叫他们在桃子周围筑上了一道结实的篱笆，不让人们碰着桃子。同时呢，这两个颇有心计的女人，手里还拿着一大把门票把守在前门，向每个进来的人卖票收费。
“来呀，进来吧！”大头钉姨妈喊叫着，“看看大桃子只收一先令！”
“六个礼拜以下的儿童半价！”海绵团姨妈也大声说。
“请一个一个地进来！别挤！别挤！你们都进得来的！”
“喂，说你哪！回来！你还没有交钱！”
吃午饭以前，整个园子里便火暴起来：成群的男人、女人和孩子，你拥我挤，都想一睹这个稀罕的桃子为快。山上，处处降落着直升飞机，仿佛马蜂似的，从里面涌出了一群一群的新闻记者、摄影记者，还有电视公司来的人。
“带相机的，门票加倍！”大头钉姨妈嚷道。
“好吧！好吧！”人们一口答应着，“这有什么关系！”于是，钱源源不断地流进了两个贪婪的姨妈的口袋。
不过，正当外面热闹非凡的时候，可怜的詹姆斯却被锁进卧室，不得不待在里面，透过窗棂望着下面的人群。
“那个可恶的小畜生，要是叫他出来到处乱走，对每个人来说，都会碍手碍脚的。”那天一大早，海绵团姨妈就说过这话。
“哦，求您啦，”当时詹姆斯恳求道，“有好多好多年，我都没有见过别的小朋友了。下头会来不少小朋友跟我一块儿玩的。再说，我也许能够帮您卖卖票呀什么的。”
“闭嘴！”海绵团姨妈打断了他的话，“你大头钉姨妈跟我，快成百万富婆了。我们最不愿见的，就是让你这样的孽祸碍手碍脚，把事情搞乱。”
后来，第一天傍晚来临，人们都回了家的时候，两个姨妈才打开詹姆斯的门锁，命令他出来，去捡人们丢下的香蕉皮、橘子皮和纸屑。
“我能先吃点儿东西吗？”詹姆斯问，“我一天没吃东西了。”
“不行！”她们叫嚷着，把他踢出了门外，“我们太忙了，来不及做什么吃的！我们正在数钱哪！”
“可天黑了呀！”小詹姆斯哭叫起来。
“滚开！”她们吼叫着，“东西收拾不干净，就甭想进来！”门“砰”的一声关上，接着钥匙在锁里转动了一下。