thirteen

a few-minutes later, miss spider had made the first bed. it was hanging from the ceiling, suspended bya rope of threads at either end so that actually it looked more like a hammock than a bed. but it was amagnificent affair, and the stuff that it was made of shimmered like silk in the pale light.

‘i do hope you’ll find it comfortable,’ miss spider said to the old-green-grasshopper. ‘i made it assoft and silky as i possibly could. i spun it with gossamer. that’s a much better quality thread than theone i use for my own web.’

‘thank you so much, my dear lady,’ the old-green-grasshopper said, climbing into the hammock.

‘ah, this is just what i needed. good night, everybody. good night.’

then miss spider spun the next hammock, and the ladybird got in.

after that, she spun a long one for the centipede, and an even longer one for the earthworm.

‘and how do you like your bed?’ she said to james when it came to his turn. ‘hard or soft?’

‘i like it soft, thank you very much,’ james answered.

‘for goodness’ sake stop staring round the room and get on with my boots!’ the centipede said.

‘you and i are never going to get any sleep at this rate! and kindly line them up neatly in pairs as youtake them off. don’t just throw them over your shoulder.’

james worked away frantically on the centipede’s boots. each one had laces that had to be untiedand loosened before it could be pulled off, and to make matters worse, all the laces were tied up in themost terrible complicated knots that had to be unpicked with fingernails. it was just awful. it took abouttwo hours. and by the time james had pulled off the last boot of all and had lined them up in a row onthe floor – twenty-one pairs altogether – the centipede was fast asleep.

‘wake up, centipede,’ whispered james, giving him a gentle dig in the stomach. ‘it’s time for bed.’

‘thank you, my dear child,’ the centipede said, opening his eyes. then he got down off the sofa andambled across the room and crawled into his hammock. james got into his own hammock – and oh,how soft and comfortable it was compared with the hard bare boards that his aunts had always madehim sleep upon at home.

‘lights out,’ said the centipede drowsily.

nothing happened.

‘turn out the light!’ he called, raising his voice.

james glanced round the room, wondering which of the others he might be talking to, but they wereall asleep. the old-green-grasshopper was snoring loudly through his nose. the ladybird was makingwhistling noises as she breathed, and the earthworm was coiled up like a spring at one end of hishammock, wheezing and blowing through his open mouth. as for miss spider, she had made a lovelyweb for herself across one corner of the room, and james could see her crouching right in the verycentre of it, mumbling softly in her dreams.

‘i said turn out the light!’ shouted the centipede angrily.

‘are you talking to me?’ james asked him.

‘of course i‘m not talking to you, you ass!’ the centipede answered. ‘that crazy glow-worm hasgone to sleep with her light on!’

for the first time since entering the room, james glanced up at the ceiling – and there he saw a mostextraordinary sight. something that looked like a gigantic fly without wings (it was at least three feetlong) was standing upside down upon its six legs in the middle of the ceiling, and the tail end of thiscreature seemed to be literally on fire. a brilliant greenish light as bright as the brightest electric bulbwas shining out of its tail and lighting up the whole room.

‘is that a glow-worm?’ asked james, staring at the light. ‘it doesn’t look like a worm of any sort tome.’

‘of course it’s a glow- worm,’ the centipede answered. ‘at least that’s what she calls herself.

although actually you are quite right. she isn’t really a worm at all. glow-worms are never worms.

they are simply lady fireflies without wings. wake up, you lazy beast!’

but the glow-worm didn’t stir, so the centipede reached out of his hammock and picked up one ofhis boots from the floor. ‘put out that wretched light!’ he shouted, hurling the boot up at the ceiling.

the glow-worm slowly opened one eye and stared at the centipede. ‘there is no need to be rude,’

she said coldly. ‘all in good time.’

‘come on, come on, come on!’ shouted the centipede. ‘or i’ll put it out for you!’

‘oh, hello, james!’ the glow-worm said, looking down and giving james a little wave and a smile. ‘ididn’t see you come in. welcome, my dear boy, welcome – and good night!’

then click – and out went the light.

james henry trotter lay there in the darkness with his eyes wide open, listening to the strangesleeping noises that the ‘creatures’ were making all around him, and wondering what on earth wasgoing to happen to him in the morning. already, he was beginning to like his new friends very much.

they were not nearly as terrible as they looked. in fact they weren’t really terrible at all. they seemedextremely kind and helpful in spite of all the shouting and arguing that went on between them.

‘good night, old-green-grasshopper,’ he whispered. ‘good night, ladybird – good night, missspider –’ but before he could go through them all, he had fallen fast asleep.

十三

几分钟以后，蜘蛛小姐织好了头一张床。床两头用细绳从顶上吊着，说实在的，不像是床，倒像张吊铺。不过，还是非常漂亮，织成床的材料，映衬着淡淡的光线，发出了真丝一般的光泽。

“真希望你在里边觉得舒服。”蜘蛛小姐对绿色老蚱蜢说，“我尽了全力，想把床弄得软和一些，柔滑一些。床是用高级丝线编织起来的，比起我织网的丝线来，质量好多了。”

“多谢你了，我亲爱的小姐。”绿色老蚱蜢说着，爬进了吊铺，“哦，这正是我所需要的。

晚安，各位，晚安。”

接着，蜘蛛小姐又织了第二张吊铺，瓢虫爬了进去。

那以后，她替蜈蚣织了一张长长的吊铺，又替蚯蚓织了一张更长的吊铺。

“你喜欢什么样的床？”轮到詹姆斯的时候，她问道，“软和的，还是硬点的？”

“多谢，我喜欢软和的。”詹姆斯答道。

“老天哪，别在屋里东张西望，继续给我脱靴子吧！”蜈蚣说，“照这样，你我多会儿也别想睡觉了！脱下来后，请一双一双排列整齐喽，千万别朝身后一扔了事儿。”

詹姆斯拼命地脱着蜈蚣的靴子。每一只都有鞋带，不先解开弄松，就甭想脱下来。更糟糕的是，鞋带打的结子都你缠我绕的，非得用指甲挑开不成，可真要命。用了两个钟头的工夫，等詹姆斯把最后一只靴子脱下来排列整齐的时候，蜈蚣早已沉沉睡去。

“醒醒，蜈蚣，”詹姆斯轻轻捅了捅他的肚子，小声说，“该睡觉了。”

“谢谢你，我亲爱的孩子。”蜈蚣睁开眼睛接着嘟囔着，踉踉跄跄地走过屋子，爬进了吊铺。詹姆斯也爬进了自己的吊铺。哦，跟两个姨妈一向在家里叫他睡的光光的硬板床相比，这儿多么软和，多么舒服啊。

“熄灯吧。”蜈蚣睡眼惺忪地说。

谁也没有动弹。

“把灯关上！”他提高了声音说。

詹姆斯朝屋四周瞥了一眼，不知道他在跟谁说话，因为大伙儿都进入了梦乡。绿色老蚱蜢鼻子里传出了呼噜呼噜的鼾声；瓢虫喘气的声音，仿佛是在吹口哨；蚯蚓弹簧般地蜷缩在吊铺一头，张开嘴嘘嘘地吹气；蜘蛛小姐呢，她在屋子一角，给自己织了一张可爱的网。詹姆斯看得见，她佝偻在网儿中间，睡梦里喃喃自语着什么。

“我说，把灯关上！”蜈蚣气呼呼地叫道。“你在跟我说话吗？”詹姆斯冲他问道。“当然不是跟你说话，你这个蠢货！”蜈蚣回答道，“是跟那个不懂事的萤火虫说话。她又开着灯睡着了！”

从进屋以后，詹姆斯第一次抬头望了望天花板，他看到了一个很不寻常的景象：天花板中央，一个足足有三英尺长的东西，仿佛没有翅膀的大苍蝇，正用六条腿倒立在天花板上。

看起来，那东西的尾巴像真的着了火一样，一道明亮的绿色光线，像是最亮的电灯似的，从里面散射出来，照亮了整个房间。

“是萤火虫吗？”詹姆斯盯着那道光线问，“叫我看，不像是昆虫呀。”

“当然是昆虫啊。”蜈蚣答道，“起码来说，她自个儿是这么叫的。虽然你说得一点不错，可说真的，她压根儿就不是什么昆虫。萤火虫从来不是昆虫。她们是没有长翅膀的火苍蝇罢了。醒醒，你这个懒东西！”

然而，萤火虫连动都没有动。于是，蜈蚣从吊铺上探出身来，从地板上捡起了一只靴子。“把那盏倒霉的灯关上！”他叫喊着，把靴子朝天花板上丢去。

萤火虫慢慢睁开一只眼睛，瞪了蜈蚣一下。“没有必要撒野嘛。”她冷冷地说，“到了时候就关。”

“快一点，快一点，快一点嘛！”蜈蚣喊道，“要不，我就替你关上啦！”

“嗬，你好，詹姆斯！”萤火虫朝下望着詹姆斯说，一边又挥了挥手，微笑起来，“我没有看见你进来。欢迎，我亲爱的孩子。欢迎你，晚安！”

接着“啪嗒”一声，灯关上了。

詹姆斯·亨利·特洛特，眼睁睁地躺在黑暗之中，倾听着那些睡梦中的“生物”在身旁发出的奇怪声响，心里纳闷：明天早上，自己会遇上什么事儿呢？对这些新朋友，他已经非常喜欢了。他们并没有像外表上看起来那么可怕。实际上，他们真是一点儿也不可怕。他们之间，尽管一直喊喊叫叫，吵吵嚷嚷的，可看起来却非常友善，非常愿意帮忙。

“晚安，绿色老蚱蜢；”他低声说，“晚安，瓢虫；晚安，蜘蛛小姐……”可是，还没有一一道完晚安，他就进入了梦乡。