James and the Giant Peach: Chapters 8–16

The news that a peach almost as big as a house had suddenly appeared in someone’s garden spread like wildfire across the countryside, and the next day a stream of people came scrambling up the steep hill to gaze upon this marvel.

Quickly, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker called in carpenters and had them build a strong fence around the peach to save it from the crowd; and at the same time, these two crafty women stationed themselves at the front gate with a large bunch of tickets and started charging everyone for coming in.

“Roll up! Roll up!” Aunt Spiker yelled. “Only one shilling to see the giant peach!”

By lunchtime, the whole place was a seething mass of men, women, and children all pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of this miraculous fruit.

The moonlight was shining and glinting on its great curving sides, turning them to crystal and silver.

The tunnel was damp and murky, and all around him there was the curious bittersweet smell of fresh peach.

The tunnel was damp and murky, and all around him there was the curious bittersweet smell of fresh peach.

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.

The creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.

“I’m hungry!” the Spider announced suddenly, staring hard at James.
“I’m famished!” the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.

“I glide,” said the Earthworm primly.

“Young fellow,” he said, speaking in a deep, slow, scornful voice, “I have never been a pest in my life. I am a musician.”

“Well, James, have you ever in your life seen such a marvelous colossal Centipede as me?”

“I do hope you’ll find it comfortable,” Miss Spider said to the Old-Green-Grasshopper. “I made it as soft and silky as I possibly could. I spun it with gossamer. That’s a much better quality thread than the one I use for my own web.”

Then he got down off the sofa and ambled across the room and crawled into his hammock.

Suddenly the floor gave a great heave, as though an earthquake were taking place.

“Never you mind,” said the Ladybug. “But nothing could be worse than this desolate hilltop and those two repulsive aunts of yours—”

“Watch it!” cried Miss Spider, as the room gave another violent lurch.

We may see a Creature with forty-nine heads
Who lives in the desolate snow,
And whenever he catches a cold (which he dreads)
He has forty-nine noses to blow.

We may see the venomous Pink-Spotted Scrunch
Who can chew up a man with one bite.

We may see a Dragon, and nobody knows
That we won’t see a Unicorn there.
We may see a terrible Monster with toes
Growing out of the tufts of his hair.

We may even get lost and be frozen by frost.
We may die in an earthquake or tremor.

One second later...slowly, insidiously, oh most gently, the great peach started to lean forward and steal into motion.

They gaped. They screamed. They started to run. They panicked. They both got in each other’s way.

Faster and faster and faster it went, and the crowds of people who were climbing up the hill suddenly caught sight of this terrible monster plunging down upon them and they screamed and scattered to right and left as it went hurtling by.

It went right through the middle of a herd of fine Jersey cows, and then through a flock of sheep, and then through a paddock full of horses, and then through a yard full of pigs, and soon the whole countryside was a seething mass of panic-stricken animals stampeding in all directions.

It went right through the middle of a herd of fine Jersey cows, and then through a flock of sheep, and then through a paddock full of horses, and then through a yard full of pigs, and soon the whole countryside was a seething mass of panic-stricken animals stampeding in all directions.

Cowsheds, stables, pigsties, barns, bungalows, hayricks, anything that got in its way went toppling over like a nine-pin.

An old man sitting quietly beside a stream had his fishing rod whisked out of his hands as it went dashing by, and a woman called Daisy Entwistle was standing so close to it as it passed that she had the skin taken off the tip of her long nose.

But a few seconds later, up it came again, and this time, up it stayed, floating serenely upon the surface of the water.