twenty-three

in a flash, everybody was up on top.

‘oh, isn’t it beautiful!’ they cried.

‘what a marvellous feeling!’

‘good-bye, sharks!’

‘oh, boy, this is the way to travel!’

miss spider, who was literally squealing with excitement, grabbed the centipede by the waist andthe two of them started dancing round and round the peach stem together. the earthworm stood up onhis tail and did a sort of wriggle of joy all by himself. the old-green-grasshopper kept hopping higherand higher in the air. the ladybird rushed over and shook james warmly by the hand. the glow-worm, who at the best of times was a very shy and silent creature, sat glowing with pleasure near thetunnel entrance. even the silkworm, looking white and thin and completely exhausted, came creepingout of the tunnel to watch this miraculous ascent.

up and up they went, and soon they were as high as the top of a church steeple above the ocean.

‘i‘m a bit worried about the peach,’ james said to the others as soon as all the dancing and theshouting had stopped. ‘i wonder how much damage those sharks have done to it underneath. it’s quiteimpossible to tell from up here.’

‘why don’t i go over the side and make an inspection?’ miss spider said. ‘it’ll be no trouble at all, iassure you.’ and without waiting for an answer, she quickly produced a length of silk thread andattached the end of it to the peach stem. ‘i’ll be back in a jiffy,’ she said, and then she walked calmlyover to the edge of the peach and jumped off, paying out the thread behind her as she fell.

the others crowded anxiously around the place where she had gone over.

‘wouldn’t it be dreadful if the thread broke,’ the ladybird said.

there was a rather long silence.

‘are you all right, miss spider?’ shouted the old-green-grasshopper.

‘yes, thank you!’ her voice answered from below. ‘i‘m coming up now!’ and up she came, climbingfoot over foot up the silk thread, and at the same time tucking the thread back cleverly into her body asshe climbed past it.

‘is it awful?’ they asked her. ‘is it all eaten away? are there great holes in it everywhere?’

miss spider clambered back on to the deck with a pleased but also a rather puzzled look on her face.

‘you won’t believe this,’ she said, ‘but actually there’s hardly any damage down there at all! the peachis almost untouched! there are just a few tiny pieces out of it here and there, but nothing more.’

‘you must be mistaken,’ james told her.

‘of course she’s mistaken!’ the centipede said.

‘i promise you i‘m not,’ miss spider answered.

‘but there were hundreds of sharks around us!’

‘they churned the water into a froth!’

‘we saw their great mouths opening and shutting!’

‘i don’t care what you saw,’ miss spider answered. ‘they certainly didn’t do much damage to thepeach.’

‘then why did we start sinking?’ the centipede asked.

‘perhaps we didn’t start sinking,’ the old-green-grasshopper suggested. ‘perhaps we were all sofrightened that we simply imagined it.’

this, in point of fact, was closer to the truth than any of them knew. a shark, you see, has anextremely long sharp nose, and its mouth is set very awkwardly underneath its face and a long wayback. this makes it more or less impossible for it to get its teeth into a vast smooth curving surfacesuch as the side of a peach. even if the creature turns on to its back it still can’t do it, because the nosealways gets in the way. if you have ever seen a small dog trying to get its teeth into an enormous ball,then you will be able to imagine roughly how it was with the sharks and the peach.

‘it must have been some kind of magic,’ the ladybird said. ‘the holes must have healed up bythemselves.’

‘oh, look! there’s a ship below us!’ shouted james.

everybody rushed to the side and peered over. none of them had ever seen a ship before.

‘it looks like a big one.’

‘it’s got three funnels.’

‘you can even see the people on the decks!’

‘let’s wave to them. do you think they can see us?’

neither james nor any of the others knew it, but the ship that was now passing beneath them wasactually the queen mary sailing out of the english channel on her way to america. and on the bridgeof the queen mary, the astonished captain was standing with a group of his officers, all of them gapingat the great round ball hovering overhead.

‘i don’t like it,’ the captain said.

‘nor do i,’ said the first officer.

‘do you think it’s following us?’ said the second officer.

‘i tell you i don’t like it,’ muttered the captain.

‘it could be dangerous,’ the first officer said.

‘that’s it!’ cried the captain. ‘it’s a secret weapon! holy cats! send a message to the queen at once!

the country must be warned! and give me ray telescope.’

the first officer handed the telescope to the captain. the captain put it to his eye.

‘there’s birds everywhere!’ he cried. ‘the whole sky is teeming with birds! what in the world arethey doing? and wait! wait a second! there are people on it! i can see them moving! there’s a – a –do i have this darned thing focused right? it looks like a little boy in short trousers! yes, i can distinctlysee a little boy in short trousers standing up there! and there’s a – there’s a – there’s a – a – a – a sort ofgiant ladybird!’

‘now just a minute, captain!’ the first officer said.

‘and a colossal green grasshopper!’

‘captain!’ the first officer said sharply. ‘captain, please!’

‘and a mammoth spider!’

‘oh dear, he’s been at the whisky again,’ whispered the second officer.

‘and an enormous – a simply enormous centipede!’ screamed the captain.

‘call the ship’s doctor,’ the first officer said. ‘our captain is not well.’

a moment later, the great round ball disappeared into a cloud, and the people on the ship never sawit again.

二十三

转眼之间，他们个个来到了仙桃顶上。

“哦，多美呀！”他们喊叫着。

“感觉多妙呀！”

“再见了，鲨鱼！”

“哎呀，伙计，这才叫旅行哪！”

实际上，激动得哭起了鼻子的蜘蛛小姐，一下搂住了蜈蚣的腰，两人一块儿围着桃把跳起舞来。蚯蚓用尾巴站起身，自个儿欢快地扭动起身躯来。绿色老蚱蜢呢，在空中不断地越跳越高。瓢虫急忙过来，热情地摇动着詹姆斯的手。通道入口，最快活的时候也羞怯安详的萤火虫，兴高采烈地闪闪发光。就连那看起来苍白瘦弱、精疲力尽的蚕儿，也爬出通道，来欣赏那奇迹般的攀升。

他们越升越高，不一会儿就离开了大海，跟教堂的塔顶一样高了。

“我对仙桃有点担心。”大伙的手舞足蹈和喊叫声刚一停止，詹姆斯就说，“不知道鲨鱼在桃下面咬坏了多少，从这里是不可能看出来的。”

“我到那一边去看个究竟不成吗？”蜘蛛小姐说，“这根本费不了什么事儿，你们放心好了。”还没有等人们回答，她就很快吐出了一段丝，把一头拴在了桃把上。“我去去就来。”她说着，镇静自若地走到桃子边缘，跳了下去，一边往下落着，一边吐着丝。

别的人都围绕在她跳下去的地方。

“要是丝断了，那不是很可怕吗？”瓢虫说。

接下来是一阵长长的沉默。

“你没事儿吧，蜘蛛小姐？”绿色老蚱蜢喊道。

“没事儿，谢谢你！”她的声音从底下传了上来，“这会儿我要上去啦！”于是，她上来了。只见她一只脚一只脚地来回倒着，同时又把爬过的丝线巧妙地吸回肚子里去。

“底下情况挺糟糕吧？”他们问她，“是不是都吃掉了？是不是到处都是大窟窿？”

蜘蛛小姐面带快活而又叫人迷惑不解的神情，爬回到甲板上。“说来你们也可能不相信，”她说，“可事实上，差不多什么也没有咬坏！仙桃几乎没给动过！只是这里或者那里给咬了一小块去，不过，也就是这样罢了。”

“你一定弄错了。”詹姆斯说。

“自然是她弄错了！”蜈蚣说。

“我向你们保证，我没有弄错。”蜘蛛小姐回答。

“可咱们周围有好几百条鲨鱼的呀！”

“他们把大海都搅出了泡沫的呀！”

“咱们是看见他们一会儿张开嘴巴，一会儿闭上嘴巴的呀！”

“我才不管你们看见什么了哪。”蜘蛛小姐回答，“他们确实没有把桃子咬得多么糟糕。”

“那么，咱们刚才为什么下沉呢？”蜈蚣问。

“也许咱们刚才没有下沉过。”绿色老蚱蜢猜测说，“也许是咱们太害怕了，只是想象出来的哩。”

从事实上说，这一点倒更接近实际情况，虽然他们并不知道。人们明白，鲨鱼有特别长的鼻子，嘴笨拙地长在脸下面，十分靠后。这样，要想叫牙齿咬住像桃子一般的光滑弯曲的巨大平面，就多少有些不可能了。即使鲨鱼仰过身来，也做不到这一点，因为，鼻子总是碍手碍脚的。要是你见过小狗想用牙咬个大球的话，那么，你就能粗略地想象到鲨鱼咬桃子的情况了。

“想必是施了什么魔法吧。”瓢虫说，“咬出来的窟窿，一定是不治而愈啦。”

“哦，瞧呀，咱们下面有条船！”詹姆斯叫喊起来。

于是，个个都跑到了那一侧，去看个究竟。

“看起来很大。”

“有三个烟囱哩。”

“连甲板上的人都看得很清楚！”

“咱们朝他们挥挥手吧。你们觉得他们能看见咱们吗？”

不论是詹姆斯，还是别的人，都说不清楚。不过，正在他们底下过去的船，实际上正是“玛丽女王”号。它正驶出英吉利海峡，前往美国。目瞪口呆的船长正跟船上别的官员站在“玛丽女王”号船楼上。他们都张着大嘴，望着这个在头顶上盘旋的大球。

“我可不喜欢这个东西。”船长说。

“我也不喜欢。”大副说。

“你们看，它是不是在跟踪咱们呢？”二副说。

“我告诉你，我不喜欢它。”船长喃喃地说。

“可能有危险的。”大副说。

“这就是了！”船长喊道，“是一种秘密武器！老天哪！马上给女王发电！向全国发出警报！把望远镜递给我。”

大副把望远镜递给了船长。船长把它凑到眼睛上。

“到处都是鸟儿。”他说，“整个天空都飞满了鸟儿！它们到底在干什么呢？可是，等一等！咱们再等一会儿！什么？还有人哪！我看得见他们还在走动哩！有一个—我到底把这个该死的东西对准了焦距没有呢？是啊，我能看清有个孩子，穿着短裤在上面站着哪！还有一个—一个 —一个—一个巨大的瓢虫！”

“喏，请等一下，船长！”大副说。

“还有个硕大无比的绿色蚱蜢哩！”

“船长！”大副厉声说，“船长，请等一下！”

“还有个大蜘蛛哪！”

“哦，老天哪，他威士忌又喝多了。”二副小声说。

“还有个大大的—简直是个没法再大的蜈蚣哩！”船长尖叫起来。

“请船上的大夫来！”大副说，“我们船长身体不好。”

一会儿，巨大的圆球消失在云彩里面，船上的人们再也没有看到它。