twelve

james decided 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 primly.

‘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-grasshopper 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.’

‘well, james, have you ever in your life seen such a marvellous colossal centipede as me?’

‘i certainly haven‘t,’ james answered. ‘how on earth did you get to be like that?’

‘very peculiar,’ the centipede said. ‘very, very peculiar indeed. let me tell you what happened. iwas messing about in the garden under the old peach tree and suddenly a funny little green thing camewriggling past my nose. bright green it was, and extraordinarily beautiful, and it looked like some kindof a tiny stone or crystal…’

‘oh, but i know what that was!’ cried james.

‘it happened to me, too!’ said the ladybird.

‘and me!’ miss spider said. ‘suddenly there were little green things everywhere! the soil was fullof them!’

‘i actually swallowed one!’ the earthworm declared proudly.

‘so did i!’ the ladybird said.

‘i swallowed three!’ the centipede cried. ‘but who’s telling this story anyway? don’t interrupt!’

‘it’s too late to tell stories now,’ the old-green-grasshopper announced. ‘it’s time to go to sleep.’

‘i refuse to sleep in my boots!’ the centipede cried. ‘how many more are there to come off, james?’

‘i think i‘ve done about twenty so far,’ james told him.

‘then that leaves eighty to go,’ the centipede said.

‘twenty-two, not eighty!’ shrieked the earthworm. ‘he’s lying again.’

the centipede roared with laughter.

‘stop pulling the earthworm’s leg,’ the ladybird said.

this sent the centipede into hysterics. ‘pulling his leg!’ he cried, wriggling with glee and pointing atthe earthworm. ‘which leg am i pulling? you tell me that!’

james decided that he rather liked the centipede. he was obviously a rascal, but what a change itwas to hear somebody laughing once in a while. he had never heard aunt sponge or aunt spikerlaughing aloud in all the time he had been with them.

‘we really must get some sleep,’ the old-green-grasshopper said. ‘we‘ve got a tough day ahead ofus tomorrow. so would you be kind enough, miss spider, to make the beds?’

十二

詹姆斯心里想，这会儿自然是最不能叫人讨厌的时候。于是，他便穿过屋子，来到蜈蚣坐着的地方，在他身边跪了下来。

“你真好，”蜈蚣说，“太谢谢你啦。”

“你有这么多靴子呀。”詹姆斯喃喃地说。

“我有好多条腿，”蜈蚣自豪地回答道，“就有好多只脚啊。说得准确一点儿，有一百只脚哪。”

“瞧，他又来这一套了。”蚯蚓第一次喊叫起来，“说到腿，他非撒谎不成！说什么一百条腿，他没有那么多！他好像只有四十二条腿。问题是，人们不耐烦去数它们，只是听信他说的话。不管怎么说，你蜈蚣也晓得，有好多条腿，根本没有什么了不起的。”

“可怜的家伙，”蜈蚣凑到詹姆斯耳边，嘁嘁嚓嚓地说，“他眼睛瞎，看不见我有多么奇妙。”

“依我看，”蚯蚓说，“奇妙的事儿，就是根本没有腿，还一样能走路。”

“你管那也叫走路！”蜈蚣大叫道，“你只不过是个会爬的东西，只能往前爬罢了！”

“我那是滑动。”蚯蚓神情肃然地说。

“你是个黏黏糊糊的玩意儿。”蜈蚣回答道。

“我才不是黏黏糊糊的玩意儿哪。”蚯蚓说，“我很有用，受到了人们的爱戴。你随便去问问哪个园丁都成。可说到你……”

“我是个害虫！”蜈蚣宣布道，一边咧开嘴笑着，一边朝周围望了望，想得到赞同。

“他为了这个非常骄傲。”瓢虫说着冲詹姆斯笑起来，“虽说我一辈子也明白不了。”

“屋子里就我一个害虫！”蜈蚣仍然笑个不停地嚷道，“除非你把那边的绿色老蚱蜢也算上。可他早就过时了，不能再当害虫啦。”绿色老蚱蜢那巨大的黑眼睛转向蜈蚣，恶狠狠地瞪了他一眼，慢条斯理地带着嘲讽的口吻说：“年轻人，我一生可从来没有当过害虫，我是音乐家。”

“听啊，你们听他说的！”瓢虫说。

“詹姆斯，”蜈蚣说，“你叫詹姆斯，是不是？”

“是啊。”

“喏，詹姆斯，你一生当中，可曾见过我这么大的蜈蚣？”

“自然是没有啦。”詹姆斯答道，“你到底是怎么成了这个样子的？”

“非常奇怪，”蜈蚣说，“非常非常地奇怪。我来告诉你是怎么一回事吧。当时，我正在园子里的老桃树底下，忽然，有一个滑稽的绿色小东西，爬过了我的鼻子。小东西绿油油的，特别漂亮，看起来像是那种小小的宝石或者水晶……”

“哦，可我知道那是什么东西！”詹姆斯叫了起来。

“我也碰上了那些东西！”瓢虫说。

“我也碰上过。”蜘蛛小姐说，“一转眼，到处都是绿色的小东西。泥土里面哪里都有。”

“实际上，我还吞下了一个呢！”蚯蚓自豪地宣布道。

“我也吞了一个！”瓢虫说。

“我吞下了三个！”蜈蚣大声说，“可这是听谁讲话呢？别打岔！”

“可这会儿再讲，已经晚了。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“该睡觉啦。”

“穿着靴子，我才不睡觉呢！”蜈蚣叫道，“还有多少只没有脱下来，詹姆斯？”

“我看，到这会儿脱了二十只啦。”詹姆斯对他说。

“那么说，还有八十只哩！”蜈蚣说。

“是二十四只，不是八十只！”蚯蚓尖叫着，“他又撒谎哪。”

蜈蚣轰然大笑起来。

“别再取笑蚯蚓啦。”瓢虫说。

这一下，蜈蚣歇斯底里起来。“取笑他？”他扭动着身子，指着蚯蚓喊道，“我怎么取笑他来着？说给我听听！”

詹姆斯觉得，自己宁可喜欢蜈蚣。显然，他是个无赖，可时不时地听到他的笑声，也可变换变换心情。跟海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈住在一起时，他就从来没有听到她们大笑过。

“咱们真该睡觉了。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“明天这一天，还不轻快哩。蜘蛛小姐，行行善，织几张床好吗？”