'bring on the vita-wonk!' said mr wonka. 'we'll soon fix thesetwo babies.'

an oompa-loompa ran forward with a small bottle and acouple of silver teaspoons.

'wait just one minute!' snapped grandma georgina. 'what sortof devilish dumpery are you up to now?'

'it's all right, grandma,' said charlie. 'i promise you it's allright. vita-wonk does the opposite to wonka-vite. it makesyou older. it's what we gave you when you were a minus. itsaved you!'

'you gave me too much!' snapped the old woman. 'we had to,grandma.'

'and now you want to do the same to grandpa george!' 'ofcourse we don't,' said charlie.

'i finished up three hundred and fifty-eight years old!' she wenton. 'what's to stop you making another little mistake andgiving him fifty times more than you gave me? then i'dsuddenly have a twenty-thousand-year-old caveman in bedbeside me! imagine that, and him with a big knobby club inone hand and dragging me around by my hair with the other!

no, thank you!'

'grandma,' charlie said patiently. 'with you we had to use aspray because you were a minus. you were a ghost. but heremr wonka can …'

'don't talk to me about that man!' she cried. 'he's batty as abullfrog!'

'no, grandma, he is not. and here he can measure it outexactly right, drop by drop, and feed it into their mouths.

that's true, isn't it, mr wonka?'

'charlie,' said mr wonka. 'i can see that the factory is going tobe in good hands when i retire. you learn very fast. i am sopleased i chose you, my dear boy, so very pleased. now then,what's the verdict? do we leave them as babies or do wegrow them up with vita-wonk?'

'you go ahead, mr wonka,' said grandpa joe. 'i'd like you togrow my josie up so she's just the same as before — eightyyears old.'

'thank you, sir,' said mr wonka. 'i appreciate the confidenceyou place in me. but what about the other one, grandpageorge?'

'oh, all right, then,' said grandma georgina. 'but if he ends upa caveman i don't want him in this bed any more!'

'that's settled then!' said mr wonka. 'come along, charlie!

we'll do them both together. you hold one spoon and i'll holdthe other. i shall measure out four drops and four drops onlyinto each spoon and we'll wake them up and pop it into theirmouths.'

'which one shall i do, mr wonka?'

'you do grandma josephine, the tiny one. i'll do grandpageorge, the one-year-old. here's your spoon.'

charlie took the spoon and held it out. mr wonka opened thebottle and dripped four drops of oily black liquid into charlie'sspoon. then he did the same to his own. he handed thebottle back to the oompa-loompa.

'shouldn't someone hold the babies while you give it?' saidgrandpa joe. 'i'll hold grandma josephine.'

'are you mad!' said mr wonka. 'don't you realize thatvita-wonk acts instantly? it's not one year a second likewonka-vite. vita-wonk is as quick as lightning! the momentthe medicine is swallowed — ping! — and it all happens! thegetting bigger and the growing older and everything else allhappens in one second! so don't you see, my dear sir,' hesaid to grandpa joe, 'that one moment you'd be holding atiny baby in your arms and just one second later you'd findyourself staggering about with an eighty-year-old woman andyou'd drop her like a ton of bricks on the floor!'

'i see what you mean,' said grandpa joe. 'all set, charlie?'

'all set, mr wonka.' charlie moved around the bed to wherethe tiny sleeping baby lay. he placed one hand behind herhead and lifted it. the baby awoke and started yelling. mrwonka was on the other side of the bed doing the same tothe one-year-old george. 'both together now, charlie!' said mrwonka. 'ready, steady, go! pop it in!' charlie pushed his spooninto the open mouth of the baby and tipped the drops downher throat.

'make sure she swallows it!' cried mr wonka. 'it won't workuntil it gets into their tummies!'

it is difficult to explain what happened next, and whatever itwas, it only lasted for one second. a second is about as longas it takes you to say aloud and quickly,

'one-two-three-four-five'. and that is how long it took, withcharlie watching closely, for the tiny baby to grow and swelland wrinkle into the eighty-year-old grandma josephine. it wasa frightening thing to see. it was like an explosion. a smallbaby suddenly exploded into an old woman, and charlie all atonce found himself staring straight into the well-known andmuch-loved wrinkly old face of his grandma josephine. 'hello,my darling,' she said. 'where have you come from?'

'josie!' cried grandpa joe, rushing forward. 'how marvellous!

you're back!' 'i didn't know i'd been away,' she said.

grandpa george had also made a successful comeback. 'youwere better-looking as a baby,' grandma georgina said to him.

'but i'm glad you've grown up again, george … for onereason.'

'what's that?' asked grandpa george. 'you won't wet the bedany more.'