James and the Giant Peach Read Online Free Page A

somewhere in the ceiling, they were absolutely terrifying to behold.
    ‘I‘m hungry!’ the Spider announced suddenly, staring hard at James.
    ‘
I‘m
famished!’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
    ‘So am
I
!’ the Ladybird cried.
    The Centipede sat up a little straighter on the sofa. ‘
Everyone’s
famished!’ he said. ‘We need food!’

    Four pairs of round black glassy eyes were all fixed upon James.
    The Centipede made a wriggling movement with his body as though he were about to glide off the sofa – but he didn‘t.
    There was a long pause – and a long silence.
    The Spider (who happened to be a female spider) opened her mouth and ran a long black tongue delicately over her lips. ‘Aren’t
you
hungry?’ she asked suddenly, leaning forward and addressing herself to James.
    Poor James was backed up against the far wall, shivering with fright and much too terrified to answer.
    ‘What’s the matter with you?’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked. ‘You look positively ill!’
    ‘He looks as though he’s going to faint any second,’ the Centipede said.
    ‘Oh, my goodness, the poor thing!’ the Ladybird cried. ‘I do believe he thinks it’s
him
that we are wanting to eat!’
    There was a roar of laughter from all sides.
    ‘Oh dear, oh dear!’ they said. ‘What an awful thought!’
    ‘You mustn’t be frightened,’ the Ladybird said kindly. ‘We wouldn’t
dream
of hurting you. You are one of
us
now, didn’t you know that? You are one of the crew. We’re all in the same boat.’
    ‘We‘ve been waiting for you all day long,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘We thought you were never going to turn up. I‘m glad you made it.’
    ‘So cheer up, my boy, cheer up!’ the Centipede said. ‘And meanwhile I wish you’d come over here and give me a hand with these boots. It takes me
hours
to get them all off by myself.’

Twelve
    James decided that this was most certainly not a time to be disagreeable, so he crossed the room to where the Centipede was sitting and knelt down beside him.
    ‘Thank you so much,’ the Centipede said. ‘You are very kind.’
    ‘You have a lot of boots,’ James murmured.
    ‘I have a lot of legs,’ the Centipede answered proudly. ‘And a lot of feet. One hundred, to be exact.’
    ‘
There
he goes again!’ the Earthworm cried, speaking for the first time. ‘He simply cannot stop telling lies about his legs! He doesn’t have anything
like
a hundred of them! He’s only got forty-two! The trouble is that most people don’t bother to count them. They just take his word. And anyway, there is nothing
marvellous
, you know, Centipede, about having a lot of legs.’
    ‘Poor fellow,’ the Centipede said, whispering in James’s ear. ‘He’s blind. He can’t see how splendid I look.’
    ‘In my opinion,’ the Earthworm said, ‘the
really
marvellous thing is to have no legs at all and to be able to walk just the same.’

    ‘You call that
walking!
’ cried the Centipede. ‘You’re a
slitherer
, that’s all you are! You just
slither
along!’
    ‘I glide,’ said the Earthworm primly.
    ‘You are a slimy beast,’ answered the Centipede.
    ‘I am
not
a slimy beast,’ the Earthworm said. ‘I am a useful and much loved creature. Ask any gardener you like. And as for you…’
    ‘I am a pest!’ the Centipede announced, grinning broadly and looking round the room for approval.
    ‘He is
so
proud of that,’ the Ladybird said, smiling at James. ‘Though for the life of me I cannot understand why.’
    ‘I am the only pest in this room!’ cried the Centipede, still grinning away. ‘Unless you count Old-Green-Grasshopper over there. But he is long past it now. He is too old to be a pest any more.’
    The Old-Green-Grasshopper turned his huge black eyes upon the Centipede and gave him a withering look. ‘Young fellow,’ he said, speaking in a deep, slow, scornful voice, ‘I have never been a pest in my life. I am a musician.’
    ‘Hear, hear!’ said the