Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: Chapters 16–20

Through the window, Charlie caught a glimpse of what seemed like an enormous quarry with a steep craggy-brown rock-face, and all over the rock-face there were hundreds of Oompa-Loompas working with picks and pneumatic drills.

Through the window, Charlie caught a glimpse of what seemed like an enormous quarry with a steep craggy-brown rock-face, and all over the rock-face there were hundreds of Oompa-Loompas working with picks and pneumatic drills.

Another time, as they were passing some sort of a vast red plain dotted with things that looked like oil derricks, he saw a great spout of brown liquid spurting out of the ground high into the air.

The mist came into the Elevator. It had the fusty reeky smell of an old underground dungeon.

There was no sound at all, no whisper of wind, no voice of creature or insect, and it gave Charlie a queer frightening feeling to be standing there in the middle of this gray inhuman nothingness—as though he were in another world altogether, in some place where man should never be.

The mist was condensing now on the glass walls of the Elevator, making it difficult to see out except through the open doors.

There was something unholy about it all, something unbelievably diabolical.

It was all so deathly quiet, so desolate and empty.

At the same time, the constant movement, the twisting and swirling of the misty vapors, gave one the feeling that some very powerful force, evil and malignant, was at work all around.

They could see her face and the faintest outline of her body swathed in a sort of gown.

“It’s such a pity one has to use a clumsy old thing like this,” he said.

“But my dear old muddleheaded mugwump,” said Mr. Wonka, turning to Mrs. Bucket. “What does it matter that the old girl has become a trifle too old? We can put that right in a jiffy!"

“Fear not,” said Mr. Wonka. “This time I myself will supervise the giving of the medicine. I shall personally see to it that you get the correct dosage. But listen very carefully now! I cannot work out how many pills to give you until I know exactly how old you are! That’s obvious isn’t it?”

The Oompa-Loompas, enthralled by the sight of this ancient object, were all edging closer and closer to the bed.

The tiny sunken black eyes glimmered faintly and a sort of smile touched the corners of the almost invisible little slit of a mouth.

“Of course she does,” said Mr. Wonka. “What’s a mere sixty years when you’re over three hundred to start with!”

And now definite changes were beginning to show in the old woman’s face. The skin was quivering all over and some of the deepest wrinkles were becoming less and less deep, the mouth less sunken, the nose more prominent.

“I feel tolerable,” she said. “Just tolerable. But that’s no thanks to you, you meddling old mackerel!”

“I feel tolerable,” she said. “Just tolerable. But that’s no thanks to you, you meddling old mackerel!”

There she was again, the same cantankerous grumbling old Grandma Georgina that Charlie had known so well before it all started.

“Charlie,” said Mr. Wonka. “I can see that the factory is going to be in good hands when I retire. You learn very fast. I am so pleased I chose you, my dear boy, so very pleased. Now then, what’s the verdict? Do we leave them as babies or do we grow them up with Vita-Wonk?”

At that moment, there was a sudden commotion among the Oompa-Loompas at the far end of the Chocolate Room.

There was a buzz of excited chatter and a lot of running about and waiving of arms, and out of all this a single Oompa-Loompa emerged and came rushing toward Mr. Wonka, carrying a huge envelope in his hands.

I WISH NOW TO SHOW THE GRATITUDE OF THE NATION BY INVITING ALL EIGHT OF THOSE INCREDIBLY BRAVE ASTRONAUTS TO COME AND STAY IN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR A FEW DAYS AS MY HONORED GUESTS.

I AM ARRANGING A SPECIAL CELEBRATION PARTY IN THE BLUE ROOM THIS EVENING AT WHICH I MYSELF WILL PIN MEDALS FOR BRAVERY UPON ALL EIGHT OF THESE GALLANT FLIERS.