thirty-eight

five minutes later, they were all safely down, and james was excitedly telling his story to a group offlabbergasted officials.

and suddenly – everyone who had come over on the peach was a hero! they were all escorted to thesteps of city hall, where the mayor of new york made a speech of welcome. and while he was doingthis, one hundred steeplejacks, armed with ropes and ladders and pulleys, swarmed up to the top of theempire state building and lifted the giant peach off the spike and lowered it to the ground.

then the mayor shouted, ‘we must now have a ticker-tape parade for our wonderful visitors!’

and so a procession was formed, and in the leading car (which was an enormous open limousine) satjames and all his friends.

next came the giant peach itself. men with cranes and hooks had quickly hoisted it on to a very largetruck and there it now sat, looking just as huge and proud and brave as ever. there was, of course, a bitof a hole in the bottom of it where the spike of the empire state building had gone in, but who caredabout that – or indeed about the peach juice that was dripping out of it on to the street?

behind the peach, skidding about all over the place in the peach juice, came the mayor’s limousine,and behind the mayor’s limousine came about twenty other limousines carrying all the importantpeople of the city.

and the crowds went wild with excitement. they lined the streets and they leaned out of thewindows of the skyscrapers, cheering and yelling and screaming and clapping and throwing out bits ofwhite paper and ticker-tape, and james and his friends stood up in their car and waved back at them asthey went by.

then a rather curious thing happened. the procession was moving slowly along fifth avenue whensuddenly a little girl in a red dress ran out from the crowd and shouted, ‘oh, james, james! could iplease have just a tiny taste of your marvellous peach?’

‘help yourself!’ james shouted back. ‘eat all you want! it won’t keep for ever, anyway!’

no sooner had he said this than about fifty other children exploded out of the crowd and camerunning on to the street.

‘can we have some, too?’ they cried.

‘of course you can!’ james answered. ‘everyone can have some!’

the children jumped up on to the truck and swarmed like ants all over the giant peach, eating andeating to their hearts’ content. and as the news of what was happening spread quickly from street tostreet, more and more boys and girls came running from all directions to join the feast. soon, there wasa trail of children a mile long chasing after the peach as it proceeded slowly up fifth avenue. really, itwas a fantastic sight. to some people it looked as though the pied piper of hamelin had suddenlydescended upon new york. and to james, who had never dreamed that there could be so manychildren as this in the world, it was the most marvellous thing that had ever happened.

by the time the procession was over, the whole gigantic fruit had been completely eaten up, and onlythe big brown stone in the middle, licked clean and shiny by ten thousand eager little tongues, was leftstanding on the truck.

三十八

五分钟后，他们全都安全返回了地面。面对一群目瞪口呆的官员，詹姆斯激动地叙述着自己的经历。

转瞬之间，仙桃上的人，个个都成了英雄好汉！他们都给护送到市政厅的台阶上，纽约市长在那里致了欢迎辞。就在这当儿，一百名高空作业人员，手拿绳梯和滑轮，蜂拥来到帝国大厦顶上，把大桃从尖顶上吊起来，放到了地面上。

接着，市长高声说：“现在，我们必须为我们了不起的来访者，举行盛大隆重的游行！”于是，便排好了游行队列。前头开路的汽车，是辆高级敞篷大轿车，里面坐着詹姆斯和他所有的朋友们。

后面就是大仙桃本身。这时，人们已经用吊车和钩子，很快把它吊上了一辆特大卡车。

现在，它坐在车上，依然像以往似的，那么硕大，那么骄傲，那么神气。当然啦，它底下被帝国大厦穿透的地方，还有个小窟窿，可谁又在乎呢，谁又在乎仙桃滴在大街上的桃汁呢？

仙桃后面，是市长的高级轿车。在满是桃汁的路面上，轿车一副迤逦歪斜的样子。而在市长高级轿车的再后面，又紧跟着二十辆满载纽约市要人的高级轿车。

人山人海，如痴如狂。他们站在街道两旁，从摩天大楼的窗户里探出脑袋，欢呼、叫嚷、吵闹、鼓掌，撒出彩带和白色纸条。詹姆斯和他的朋友们，站在轿车里，一边前进，一边朝人们挥手致谢。

接着，发生了一件十分离奇的事儿。游行队伍正沿着第五大街缓缓前进，人群里突然跑出了一个身穿一袭红衣的小姑娘。只听她喊道：“哦，詹姆斯，詹姆斯！求求你，我能尝尝你那神奇的仙桃吗？”

“那就请便吧！”詹姆斯朝后喊着，“愿吃多少就吃多少！再说，仙桃也不能总是留着呀！”

詹姆斯刚一说完，就有不下五十个孩子，从人群里蹦了出来，奔到大街上去。

“我们也能吃点吗？”他们高声说。

“当然能啦！”詹姆斯回答，“谁都可以吃一点儿！”

孩子们于是跳上卡车，蚂蚁似的爬满了仙桃，吃呀，吃呀，吃了个心满意足。消息不胫而走，从一条大街传到了另一条大街，又有不少男孩和女孩从四面八方跑过来，参加这次桃宴。不久，就有一英里长的孩子们，跟在第五大街上缓缓行进的仙桃后面。说真格的，那可是一副不可思议的景象。对一些人来说，就像罕姆林的笛仙 [1] 突然降临到了纽约。而对詹姆斯来说呢，这个世界上，竟然会有那么多孩子，这在以前他连做梦都没有想到过，因此，也是一件最最奇妙的事情。

游行结束的时候，整个仙桃也给吃了个精光，只剩下中间那个棕色的大桃核，立在卡车上。不过，桃核也给成千上万条贪吃的小舌头舔得一干二净，闪闪发光。

[1]德国传说中的怪仙。从前，罕姆林这个地方老鼠成灾，多亏笛仙用笛声把老鼠引到池塘里淹死。然而，罕姆林的人却没有给他报酬，于是笛仙便引着这个地方的孩子们跑到山里失踪了。