James and the Giant Peach Read online

  But what was it that the old man had said? Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!

  Good heavens, thought James. What is going to happen in that case if they do meet an earthworm? Or a centipede? Or a spider? And what if they do go into the roots of the peach tree?

  'Get up at once, you lazy little beast!' a voice was suddenly shouting in James's ear. James glanced up and saw Aunt Spiker standing over him, grim and tall and bony, glaring at him through her steel-rimmed spectacles. 'Get back over there immediately and finish chopping up those logs!' she ordered.

  Aunt Sponge, fat and pulpy as a jellyfish, came waddling up behind her sister to see what was going on. 'Why don't we just lower the boy down the well in a bucket and leave him there for the night?' she suggested. 'That ought to teach him not to laze around like this the whole day long.'

  'That's a very good wheeze, my dear Sponge. But let's make him finish chopping up the wood first. Be off with you at once, you hideous brat, and do some work!'

  Slowly, sadly, poor James got up off the ground and went back to the woodpile. Oh, if only he hadn't slipped and fallen and dropped that precious bag. All hope of a happier life had gone completely now. Today and tomorrow and the next day and all the other days as well would be nothing but punishment and pain, unhappiness and despair.

  He picked up the chopper and was just about to start chopping away again when he heard a shout behind him that made him stop and turn.

  Six

  'Sponge! Sponge! Come here at once and look at this!'

  'At what?'

  'It's a peach!' Aunt Spiker was shouting.

  'A what?'

  'A peach! Right up there on the highest branch! Can't you see it?'

  'I think you must be mistaken, my dear Spiker. That miserable tree never has any peaches on it.'

  'There's one on it now, Sponge! You look for yourself!'

  'You're teasing me, Spiker. You're making my mouth water on purpose when there's nothing to put into it. Why, that tree's never even had a blossom on it, let alone a peach. Right up on the highest branch, you say? I can't see a thing. Very funny... Ha, ha... Good gracious me! Well, I'll be blowed! There really is a peach up there!'

  'A nice big one, too!' Aunt Spiker said.

  'A beauty, a beauty!' Aunt Sponge cried out.

  At this point, James slowly put down his chopper and turned and looked across at the two women who were standing underneath the peach tree.

  Something is about to happen, he told himself. Some thing peculiar is about to happen any moment. He hadn't the faintest idea what it might be, but he could feel it in his bones that something was going to happen soon. He could feel it in the air around him... in the sudden stillness that had fallen upon the garden...

  James tiptoed a little closer to the tree. The aunts were not talking now. They were just standing there, staring at the peach. There was not a sound anywhere, not even a breath of wind, and overhead the sun blazed down upon them out of a deep blue sky.

  'It looks ripe to me,' Aunt Spiker said, breaking the silence.

  'Then why don't we eat it?' Aunt Sponge suggested, licking her thick lips. 'We can have half each. Hey, you! James! Come over here at once and climb this tree!'

  James came running over.

  'I want you to pick that peach up there on the highest branch,' Aunt Sponge went on. 'Can you see it?'

  'Yes, Auntie Sponge, I can see it!'

  'And don't you dare eat any of it yourself. Your Aunt Spiker and I are going to have it between us right here and now, half each. Get on with you! Up you go!'

  James crossed over to the tree trunk.

  'Stop!' Aunt Spiker said quickly. 'Hold everything!' She was staring up into the branches with her mouth wide open and her eyes bulging as though she had seen a ghost. 'Look!' she said. 'Look, Sponge, look!'

  'What's the matter with you?' Aunt Sponge demanded.

  'It's growing!' Aunt Spiker cried. 'It's getting bigger and bigger!'

  'What is?'

  'The peach, of course!'

  'You're joking!'

  'Well, look for yourself!'

  'But my dear Spiker, that's perfectly ridiculous. That's impossible. That's - that's - that's - Now, wait just a minute - No - No that can't be right - No - Yes - Great Scott! The thing really is growing!'

  'It's nearly twice as big already!' Aunt Spiker shouted.

  'It can't be true!'

  'It is true!'

  'It must be a miracle!'

  'Watch it! Watch it!'

  'I am watching it!'

  'Great heavens alive!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'I can actually see the thing bulging and swelling before my very eyes!'

  Seven

  The two women and the small boy stood absolutely still on the grass underneath the tree, gazing up at this extraordinary fruit. James's little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and bright as two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon being blown up.

  In half a minute, it was the size of a melon!

  In another half-minute, it was twice as big again!

  'Just look at it growing!' Aunt Spiker cried.

  'Will it ever stop!' Aunt Sponge shouted, waving her fat arms and starting to dance around in circles.

  And now it was so big it looked like an enormous butter-coloured pumpkin dangling from the top of the tree.

  'Get away from that tree trunk, you stupid boy!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'The slightest shake and I'm sure it'll fall off! It must weigh twenty or thirty pounds at least!'

  The branch that the peach was growing upon was beginning to bend over further and further because of the weight.

  'Stand back!' Aunt Sponge shouted. 'It's coming down! The branch is going to break!'

  But the branch didn't break. It simply bent over more and more as the peach got heavier and heavier.

  And still it went on growing.

  In another minute, this mammoth fruit was as large and round and fat as Aunt Sponge herself, and probably just as heavy.

  'It has to stop now!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'It can't go on for ever!'

  But it didn't stop.

  Soon it was the size of a small car, and reached halfway to the ground.

  Both aunts were now hopping round and round the tree, clapping their hands and shouting all sorts of silly things in their excitement.

  'Hallelujah!' Aunt Spiker shouted. 'What a peach! What a peach!'

  'Terrifico!' Aunt Sponge cried out, 'Magnifico! Splendifico! And what a meal!'

  'It's still growing.'

  'I know! I know!'

  As for James, he was so spellbound by the whole thing that he could only stand and stare and murmur quietly to himself, 'Oh, isn't it beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'

  'Shut up, you little twerp!' Aunt Spiker snapped, happening to overhear him. 'It's none of your business!'

  'That's right,' Aunt Sponge declared. 'It's got nothing to do with you whatsoever! Keep out of it.'

  'Look!' Aunt Spiker shouted. 'It's growing faster than ever now! It's speeding up!'

  'I see it, Spiker! I do! I do!'

  Bigger and bigger grew the peach, bigger and bigger and bigger.

  Then at last, when it had become nearly as tall as the tree that it was growing on, as tall and wide, in fact, as a small house, the bottom part of it gently touched the ground - and there it rested.

  'It can't fall off now!' Aunt Sponge shouted.

  'It's stopped growing!' Aunt Spiker cried.

  'No, it hasn't!'

  'Yes, it has!'

  'It's slowing down, Spiker, it's slowing down! But it hasn't stopped yet! You watch it!'

  There was a pause.

  'It has now!'

  'I believe you're right.'

  'Do you think it's safe to touch it?'

  'I don't know. We'd better be careful.'

  Aunt Sponge and A