James and the Giant Peach Read Online Free

was wet with dew and a million dewdrops were sparkling and twinkling like diamonds around his feet. And now suddenly, the whole place, the whole garden seemed to be
alive
with magic.
    Almost without knowing what he was doing, as though drawn by some powerful magnet, James Henry Trotter started walking slowly towards the giant peach. He climbed over the fence that surrounded it, and stood directly beneath it, staringup at its great bulging sides. He put out a hand and touched it gently with the tip of one finger. It felt soft and warm and slightly furry, like the skin of a baby mouse. He moved a step closer and rubbed his cheek lightly against the soft skin. And then suddenly, while he was doing this, he happened to notice that right beside him and below him, close to the ground, there was a hole in the side of the peach.

Ten
    It was quite a large hole, the sort of thing an animal about the size of a fox might have made.
    James knelt down in front of it, and poked his head and shoulders inside.
    He crawled in.
    He kept on crawling.
    This isn’t a hole
, he thought excitedly.
It’s a tunnel!
    The tunnel was damp and murky, and all around him there was the curious bittersweet smell of fresh peach. The floor was soggy under his knees, the walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.
    He was crawling uphill now, as though the tunnel were leading straight towards the very centre of the gigantic fruit. Every few seconds hepaused and took a bite out of the wall. The peach flesh was sweet and juicy, and marvellously refreshing.
    He crawled on for several more yards, and then suddenly –
bang
– the top of his head bumped into something extremely hard blocking his way. He glanced up. In front of him there was a solid wall that seemed at first as though it were made of wood. He touched it with his fingers. It certainly felt like wood, except that it was very jagged and full of deep grooves.
    ‘Good heavens!’ he said. ‘I know what this is! I‘ve come to the stone in the middle of the peach!’
    Then he noticed that there was a small door cut into the face of the peach stone. He gave a push. It swung open. He crawled through it, and before he had time to glance up and see where he was, heheard a voice saying, ‘
Look
who’s here!’ And another one said, ‘We‘ve been
waiting
for you!’

    James stopped and stared at the speakers, his face white with horror.
    He started to stand up, but his knees were shaking so much he had to sit down again on the floor. He glanced behind him, thinking he could bolt back into the tunnel the way he had come, but the doorway had disappeared. There was now only a solid brown wall behind him.

Eleven
    James’s large frightened eyes travelled slowly round the room.
    The creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.
    Creatures?
    Or were they insects?
    An insect is usually something rather small, is it not? A grasshopper, for example, is an insect.
    So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a
large
dog. You could hardly call
that
an insect, could you?
    There was an Old-Green-Grasshopper as large as a large dog sitting directly across the room from James now.
    And next to the Old-Green-Grasshopper, there was an enormous Spider.
    And next to the Spider, there was a giant Ladybird with nine black spots on her scarlet shell.
    Each of these three was squatting upon a magnificent chair.
    On a sofa near by, reclining comfortably in curled-up positions, there were a Centipede and an Earthworm.
    On the floor over in the far corner, there was something thick and white that looked as though it might be a Silkworm. But it was sleeping soundly and nobody was paying any attention to it.

    Every one of these ‘creatures’ was at least as big as James himself, and in the strange greenish light that shone down from