eleven

james’s large frightened eyes travelled slowly round the room.

the creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.

creatures?

or were they insects?

an insect is usually something rather small, is it not? a grasshopper, for example, is an insect.

so what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? as large as a large dog. youcould hardly call that an insect, could you?

there was an old-green-grasshopper as large as a large dog sitting directly across the room fromjames now.

and next to the old-green-grasshopper, there was an enormous spider.

and next to the spider, there was a giant ladybird with nine black spots on her scarlet shell.

each of these three was squatting upon a magnificent chair.

on a sofa near by, reclining comfortably in curled-up positions, there were a centipede and anearthworm.

on the floor over in the far corner, there was something thick and white that looked as though itmight be a silkworm. but it was sleeping soundly and nobody was paying any attention to it.

every one of these ‘creatures’ was at least as big as james himself, and in the strange greenish lightthat shone down from somewhere in the ceiling, they were absolutely terrifying to behold.

‘i‘m hungry!’ the spider announced suddenly, staring hard at james.

‘i‘m famished!’ the old-green-grasshopper said.

‘so am i!’ the ladybird cried.

the centipede sat up a little straighter on the sofa. ‘everyone’s famished!’ he said. ‘we need food!’

four pairs of round black glassy eyes were all fixed upon james.

the centipede made a wriggling movement with his body as though he were about to glide off thesofa – but he didn‘t.

there was a long pause – and a long silence.

the spider (who happened to be a female spider) opened her mouth and ran a long black tonguedelicately over her lips. ‘aren’t you hungry?’ she asked suddenly, leaning forward and addressingherself to james.

poor james was backed up against the far wall, shivering with fright and much too terrified toanswer.

‘what’s the matter with you?’ the old-green-grasshopper asked. ‘you look positively ill!’

‘he looks as though he’s going to faint any second,’ the centipede said.

‘oh, my goodness, the poor thing!’ the ladybird cried. ‘i do believe he thinks it’s him that we arewanting to eat!’

there was a roar of laughter from all sides.

‘oh dear, oh dear!’ they said. ‘what an awful thought!’

‘you mustn’t be frightened,’ the ladybird said kindly. ‘we wouldn’t dream of hurting you. you areone of us now, didn’t you know that? you are one of the crew. we’re all in the same boat.’

‘we‘ve been waiting for you all day long,’ the old-green-grasshopper said. ‘we thought you werenever going to turn up. i‘m glad you made it.’

‘so cheer up, my boy, cheer up!’ the centipede said. ‘and meanwhile i wish you’d come over hereand give me a hand with these boots. it takes me hours to get them all off by myself.’

十一

詹姆斯那双大眼睛，慢慢地端详着屋子的四周。

那些“生物”有的坐在椅子里，还有的靠在沙发上，都在聚精会神地瞧着他。

他们是精灵？

还是昆虫？

一般说来，昆虫是非常小的，不对吗？比方说，蚱蜢就是昆虫。

所以，你看见跟狗一般大的蚱蜢、跟大狗一般大的蚱蜢时，该管他叫什么呢？不能管他叫昆虫吧，对吗？现在，屋子里就有一只跟大狗一般大小的绿色老蚱蜢，坐在詹姆斯对面哪。

紧挨着绿色老蚱蜢，是一只大蜘蛛。

紧挨着大蜘蛛，是一只大瓢虫。她那红色的甲壳上，点缀着九颗黑色点子。

一条弓着身子的蜈蚣和一条蚯蚓，正舒舒服服地斜靠在附近的沙发上面。

对面屋角的地板上，躺着个像是条蚕的东西，看起来又粗又白。不过，她睡得正甜，谁也不理会她。

这些“东西”，随便哪一个，起码都有詹姆斯自己那样大小。屋顶上什么地方，一种绿油油的奇怪光线照下来，在光线的照射下，他们显得可怕极了，詹姆斯连看都不敢看。

“我肚子饿了！”蜘蛛盯着詹姆斯，突然宣布道。

“我快饿死了！”绿色老蚱蜢说。

“我也快饿死了！”瓢虫说。

蜈蚣在沙发上略微挺直了身子，说：“大家伙都快饿死了！需要吃的呀！”

四双圆得像玻璃球似的黑眼睛，都一动不动，盯着詹姆斯。

蚯蚓的身子扭动了一下，仿佛要从沙发上掉下来似的，可是他并没有掉下来。

他们停顿了好长时间，沉默了好长时间。

那蜘蛛碰巧是只母蜘蛛。这时，她张开嘴巴，用长长的舌头优雅地舔了舔嘴唇。“你难道不饿吗？”她突然向前俯着身子，冲詹姆斯说。

可怜的小詹姆斯，背靠着对面的墙壁，吓得索索发抖，不敢回答。

“你是怎么回事儿？”绿色老蚱蜢问道，“看来，你肯定生了病！”

“他好像随时都要昏过去似的。”蜈蚣说。

“哦，老天哪，可怜的小东西！”瓢虫叫道，“我敢说，他还当是咱们想把他吃了哩！”周围一片哄堂大笑。

“哎呀，哎呀！”他们说，“多么可怕的想法啊！”

“你不必害怕。”瓢虫和善地说，“我们做梦都不会想到伤害你。现在，你是自己人了，这你不明白吗？咱们是一条船上的人，同在一条船上啦。”

“我们等了你一整天啦！”绿色老蚱蜢说，“我们还以为，你压根儿不来了哩。你来了，我非常高兴。”

“所以，高兴一点儿，孩子，高兴一点儿吧！”蜈蚣说，“再说，我还想叫你帮帮我，帮我把靴子脱掉。叫我自个儿，得花好几个钟头才能脱掉哪。”