twenty

‘there is something that i believe we might try,’ james henry trotter said slowly. ‘i‘m not saying it’llwork…’

‘tell us!’ cried the earthworm. ‘tell us quick!’

‘we’ll try anything you say!’ said the centipede. ‘but hurry, hurry, hurry!’

‘be quiet and let the boy speak!’ said the ladybird. ‘go on, james.’

they all moved a little closer to him. there was a longish pause.

‘go on!’ they cried frantically. ‘go on!’

and all the time while they were waiting they could hear the sharks threshing around in the waterbelow them. it was enough to make anyone frantic.

‘come on, james,’ the ladybird said, coaxing him.

i… i… i‘m afraid it’s no good after all,’ james murmured, shaking his head. ‘i‘m terribly sorry. iforgot. we don’t have any string. we’d need hundreds of yards of string to make this work.’

‘what sort of string?’ asked the old-green-grasshopper sharply.

‘any sort, just so long as it’s strong.’

‘but my dear boy, that’s exactly what we do have! we‘ve got all you want!’

‘how? where?’

‘the silkworm!’ cried the old-green-grasshopper. ‘didn’t you ever notice the silkworm? she’s stilldownstairs! she never moves! she just lies there sleeping all day long, but we can easily wake her upand make her spin!’

‘and what about me, may i ask?’ said miss spider. ‘i can spin just as well as any silkworm. what’smore, i can spin patterns.’

‘can you make enough between you?’ asked james.

‘as much as you want.’

‘and quickly?’

‘of course! of course!’

‘and would it be strong?’

‘the strongest there is! it’s as thick as your finger! but why? what are you going to do?’

‘i‘m going to lift this peach clear out of the water!’ james announced firmly.

‘you’re mad!’ cried the earthworm.

‘it’s our only chance.’

‘the boy’s crazy.’

‘he’s joking.’

‘go on, james,’ the ladybird said gently. ‘how are you going to do it?’

‘skyhooks, i suppose,’ jeered the centipede.

‘seagulls,’ james answered calmly. ‘the place is full of them. look up there!’

they all looked up and saw a great mass of seagulls wheeling round and round in the sky.

‘i‘m going to take a long silk string,’ james went on, ‘and i‘m going to loop one end of it round aseagull’s neck. and then i‘m going to tie the other end to the stem of the peach.’ he pointed to thepeach stem, which was standing up like a short thick mast in the middle of the deck.

‘then i‘m going to get another seagull and do the same thing again, then another and another –’

‘ridiculous!’ they shouted.

‘absurd!’

‘poppycock!’

‘balderdash!’

‘madness!’

and the old-green-grasshopper said, ‘how can a few seagulls lift an enormous thing like this upinto the air, and all of us as well? it would take hundreds… thousands…’

‘there is no shortage of seagulls,’ james answered. ‘look for yourself. we’ll probably need fourhundred, five hundred, six hundred… maybe even a thousand… i don’t know… i shall simply go onhooking them up to the stem until we have enough to lift us. they’ll be bound to lift us in the end. it’slike balloons. you give someone enough balloons to hold, i mean really enough, then up he goes. anda seagull has far more lifting power than a balloon. if only we have the time to do it. if only we are notsunk first by those awful sharks…’

‘you’re absolutely off your head!’ said the earthworm.

‘how on earth do you propose to get a loop of string round a seagull’s neck? i suppose you’re goingto fly up there yourself and catch it!’

‘the boy’s dotty!’ said the centipede.

‘let him finish,’ said the ladybird. ‘go on, james. how would you do it?’

‘with bait.’

‘bait! what sort of bait?’

‘with a worm, of course. seagulls love worms, didn’t you know that? and luckily for us, we havehere the biggest, fattest, pinkest, juiciest earthworm in the world.’

‘you can stop right there!’ the earthworm said sharply. ‘that’s quite enough!’

‘go on,’ the others said, beginning to grow interested. ‘go on!’

‘the seagulls have already spotted him,’ james continued. ‘that’s why there are so many of themcircling round. but they daren’t come down to get him while all the rest of us are standing here. so thisis what –’

‘stop!’ cried the earthworm. ‘stop, stop, stop! i won’t have it! i refuse! i – i – i – i –’

‘be quiet!’ said the centipede. ‘mind your own business!’

‘i like that!’

‘my dear earthworm, you’re going to be eaten anyway, so what difference does it make whether it’ssharks or seagulls?’

‘i won’t do it!’

‘why don’t we hear what the plan is first?’ said the old-green-grasshopper.

‘i don’t give a hoot what the plan is!’ cried the earthworm. ‘i am not going to be pecked to death bya bunch of seagulls!’

‘you will be a martyr,’ said the centipede. ‘i shall respect you for the rest of my life.’

‘so will i,’ said miss spider. ‘and your name will be in all the newspapers. earthworm gives life tosave friends…’

‘but he won’t have to give his life,’ james told them. ‘now listen to me. this is what we’ll do…’

二十

“我看，咱们还是有办法试一试的。”詹姆斯·亨利·特洛特慢条斯理地说，“可也并不是说准能成功……”

“那就跟我们说说吧！”蚯蚓喊道，“快说呀！”

“你说什么我们都愿意去试的！”蜈蚣说，“可要快一点，快一点，快一点呀！”

“安静一下，叫这个孩子说！”瓢虫说，“接着说吧，詹姆斯。”

这时，个个都朝詹姆斯靠近了一点，有好长工夫谁也没有说话。

“说呀！”他们疯狂地叫喊起来，“说吧！”他们等着詹姆斯说话的当儿，一直都能听到下面的鲨鱼在周围翻滚的声音。这就足以叫他们惊慌失措了。

“来，詹姆斯。”瓢虫哄着那孩子，说。

“我……我……我怕到头来这个办法也没有什么用处。”詹姆斯摇着脑袋，喃喃地说，“可真是对不起，我忘了咱们没有绳子。要叫这个办法成功，得要好几百码、好几百码的绳子哩。”

“什么样的绳子？”绿色老蚱蜢厉声问。

“什么样的绳子都成，只要结实就行。”

“可我的孩子，咱们正好有这个东西！你要的咱们都有！”

“那怎么会呢？在哪儿？”

“蚕儿就有哇！”绿色老蚱蜢叫道，“你没有留意咱们的蚕儿吗？她还在楼下哪！一动不动的，整天睡大觉！不过，咱们弄醒她，叫她吐丝也不费事儿！”

“可不可以问一问，我成吗？”蜘蛛小姐说，“我吐的丝，跟什么蚕吐的丝都一样好，而且还能织上图案哩。”

“那你俩吐的丝够不够用？”詹姆斯问。

“你要多少，就能吐多少。”

“还能吐得很快吗？”

“当然，当然啦！”

“结实不结实呢？”

“最最结实啦！有你手指头那么粗！可干吗问这个？你想干什么？”

“我想把仙桃吊起来，叫它离开海面！”詹姆斯斩钉截铁地宣布道。

“你疯啦！”蚯蚓喊道。

“可这是咱们惟一的机会啦。”

“这孩子脑子有毛病啦。”

“他这是逗着玩哪。”

“接着说，詹姆斯，”瓢虫温和地说，“你打算怎样做呢？”

“我看，是用天上的钩子吧。”蜈蚣语带讥刺地说。

“是用海鸥，”詹姆斯不动声色，“这地方海鸥多得很，瞧瞧那儿！”

他们个个抬起头来，只见一大群海鸥，正在天空一圈一圈地盘旋。

“我想用一根长丝绳，”詹姆斯接下来说，“把一头套在海鸥的脖子上，再把另一头拴在桃把上。”他说着指了指桃把。只见桃把就仿佛矗立在甲板上的一根又短又粗的桅杆。

“然后，再用同样的办法套住另一只海鸥，接着再套住另一只，然后再套住一只……”

“多么可笑！”他们喊道。

“多么荒唐！”

“简直是胡说八道！”

“是废话连篇！”

“是疯了！”

不过，绿色老蚱蜢却说：“拉这么大的东西，几只海鸥又怎么能吊到天上去呢？再说还有咱们大伙哪。那得要几百只……几千只……”

“这里有的是海鸥，”詹姆斯答道，“你们自己瞧瞧吧。也许得要四百只、五百只……甚至一千只……我也说不好……只要不断地把他们套住，到时就能够把咱们吊起来。说到底，他们是能把咱们吊起来的。就像气球一样，只要人们抓的气球足够了，我是说真正的气球，他们就会飞起来的。而海鸥的拉力，比气球大多了，只要咱们的时间够用，只要可怕的鲨鱼还没有把咱们弄沉下去的话……”

“你绝对是疯啦。”蚯蚓说。

“你究竟怎么样用绳套套住海鸥的脖子呢？我看，你自己想飞上去，逮住海鸥吧？”

“这孩子脑子出了问题。”蜈蚣说。

“叫他说完，”瓢虫说，“接着说吧，詹姆斯。你打算怎么套呢？”

“用饵食套呀。”

“饵食！什么样的饵食？”

“当然是虫子啦。海鸥喜欢啄虫子吃，这你们以前不知道吗？也真幸运，咱们这里有世上最大、最肥、最红，肉汁也最多的蚯蚓呀。”

“你给我马上住嘴，”蚯蚓严厉地说，“你说得不少啦。”

“接着说，”别的人开始感兴趣，“说下去吧！”

“海鸥已经看见了蚯蚓，”詹姆斯接着说，“所以才有那么多海鸥在天空盘旋。可咱们其余的人都站在这儿，他们不敢下来啄蚯蚓吃呀，所以这才……”

“住嘴！”蚯蚓喊道，“住嘴，住嘴，住嘴！我不愿意！我不干！我—我—我—”

“安静一点儿，”蜈蚣说，“别管闲事儿！”

“就不！”

“我亲爱的蚯蚓，你反正是要给吃掉的，那么，给鲨鱼吃掉，或者给海鸥吃掉，又有什么不一样呢？”

“这我绝对不干！”

“咱们干吗不先听听詹姆斯的计划呢？”绿色老蚱蜢说。

“什么计划不计划的，我才不管哪。”蚯蚓喊道，“我可不想叫一群海鸥给吃掉！”

“你会成为殉难烈士，”蜈蚣说，“我一生都要尊敬你。”

“我也尊敬你。”蜘蛛小姐说，“而且，你的大名也会刊登在各种报纸上面：蚯蚓为拯救朋友而献身……”

“可是，他不必献出自己的生命啊。”詹姆斯说，“喏，听我说，咱们得这样干……”