nineteen

‘look!’ cried the centipede just as they were finishing their meal. ‘look at that funny thin black thinggliding through the water over there!’

they all swung round to look.

‘there are two of them,’ said miss spider.

‘there are lots of them!’ said the ladybird.

‘what are they?’ asked the earthworm, getting worried.

‘they must be some kind of fish,’ said the old-green-grasshopper. ‘perhaps they have come alongto say hello.’

‘they are sharks!’ cried the earthworm. ‘i’ll bet you anything you like that they are sharks and theyhave come along to eat us up!’

‘what absolute rot!’ the centipede said, but his voice seemed suddenly to have become a little shaky,and he wasn’t laughing.

‘i am positive they are sharks!’ said the earthworm. t just know they are sharks!’

and so, in actual fact, did everybody else, but they were too frightened to admit it.

there was a short silence. they all peered down anxiously at the sharks who were cruising slowlyround and round the peach.

‘just assuming that they are sharks,’ the centipede said, ‘there still can’t possibly be any danger ifwe stay up here.’

but even as he spoke, one of those thin black fins suddenly changed direction and came cuttingswiftly through the water right up to the side of the peach itself. the shark paused and stared up at thecompany with small evil eyes.

‘go away!’ they shouted. ‘go away, you filthy beast!’

slowly, almost lazily, the shark opened his mouth (which was big enough to have swallowed aperambulator) and made a lunge at the peach.

they all watched, aghast.

and now, as though at a signal from the leader, all the other sharks came swimming in towards thepeach, and they clustered around it and began to attack it furiously. there must have been twenty orthirty of them at least, all pushing and fighting and lashing their tails and churning the water into afroth.

panic and pandemonium broke out immediately on top of the peach.

‘oh, we are finished now!’ cried miss spider, wringing her feet. ‘they will eat up the whole peachand then there’ll be nothing left for us to stand on and they’ll start on us!’

‘she is right!’ shouted the ladybird. ‘we are lost for ever!’

‘oh, i don’t want to be eaten!’ wailed the earthworm. ‘but they will take me first of all because i amso fat and juicy and i have no bones!’

‘is there nothing we can do?’ asked the ladybird, appealing to james. ‘surely you can think of a wayout of this.’

suddenly they were all looking at james.

‘think!’ begged miss spider. ‘think, james, think!’

‘come on,’ said the centipede. ‘come on, james. there must be something we can do.’

their eyes waited upon him, tense, anxious, pathetically hopeful.

十九

“瞧呀，”他们快吃完饭的时候，蜈蚣叫道，“瞧瞧那个黑瘦黑瘦的东西，正在那边的水上游动哩！”

于是，他们都扭身望过去。

“有两个哪。”蜘蛛小姐说。

“有好多个哪！”瓢虫说。

“到底是什么呢？”蚯蚓心里不安地说。“想必是什么样的鱼吧。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“也许是来问好的。”

“是鲨鱼。”蚯蚓说，“是鲨鱼，你们愿意打什么赌都成，那是来吃掉我们的！”

“这不纯粹是胡说嘛。”蜈蚣虽然这样说着，声音却突然有点发抖，脸上也没有了笑容。

“我敢说是鲨鱼！”蚯蚓说，“我就知道是鲨鱼。”

实际上，别人也全知道，不过，他们怕得不敢承认。

接着，便是一阵短暂的沉默。人人都焦急不安地朝下望着，只见鲨鱼正在慢慢地绕着仙桃游来游去。

“就算是鲨鱼，”蜈蚣说，“只要咱们待在这儿别动弹，就不可能有什么危险的。”

然而，就在他说话的当儿，一只又黑又瘦的鲨鱼突然改变了方向，划过海浪，飞速朝仙桃这边游了过来。鲨鱼停顿了一下，用小眼睛恶狠狠地盯着他们这一伙。

“滚开！”他们大叫着，“滚开，你这个脏东西！”

鲨鱼慢条斯理地，又十分懒惰地张开了能够吞下摇篮车的大嘴，朝仙桃冲过来。

人人目瞪口呆，个个紧盯着鲨鱼。

这会儿，别的鲨鱼仿佛从领头的那里得到了信号，都朝仙桃游过来，聚集在周围，疯狂地向仙桃发起了攻击。想必得有二十到二十三条鲨鱼，一个个你推我拥，甩动着尾巴，把海水搅得泛起了泡沫。

仙桃顶上，顿时出现了一阵混乱。

“哦，咱们现在完蛋了！”蜘蛛小姐扭动着脚丫，叫道，“他们要吃掉整个仙桃，那时咱们就没有立足之地，他们也就会冲咱们下手啦！”

“蜘蛛小姐说得没错儿。”瓢虫说，“咱们算是永远完蛋了！”

“哼，我可不愿意完蛋！”蚯蚓说，“不过，他们第一个吃的是我，我又胖又有油水，还没有骨头！”

“就什么办法都没有了吗？”瓢虫恳求地问詹姆斯，“你当然能想出出路来的。”

于是，他们突然都望着詹姆斯。

“动动脑筋，”蜘蛛小姐乞求道，“动动脑筋，詹姆斯，动动脑筋吧！”

“来呀，”蜈蚣说，“来呀，詹姆斯。咱们肯定有什么办法的。”

他们焦躁紧张，带着一丝可怜的希望，眼巴巴地望着詹姆斯。