"Isn't it glorious!" Miss Spider said, coming over to join them. "Personally, I had always thought that a big, juicy, caught-in-the-web bluebottle was the finest dinner in the world -- until I tasted this."

"What a flavor!" the Centipede cried. "It's terrific! There's nothing like it! There never has been!

And I should know because I personally have tasted all the finest foods in the world!" Whereupon, the Centipede, with his mouth full of peach and with juice running down all over his chin, suddenly burst into song:

"I've eaten many strange and scrumptious dishes in my time,

Like jellied gnats and dandyprats and earwigs cooked in slime,

And mice with rice - - they're really nice

When roasted in their prime.

(But don't forget to sprinkle them with just a pinch of grime.)

"I've eaten fresh mudburgers by the greatest cooks there are,

And scrambled dregs and stinkbugs' eggs and hornets stewed in tar,

And pails of snails and lizards' tails,

And beetles by the jar.

(A beetle is improved by just a splash of vinegar.)

"I often eat boiled slobbages. They're grand when served beside

Minced doodlebugs and curried slugs. And have you ever tried

Mosquitoes' toes and wampfish roes

Most delicately fried?

(The only trouble is they disagree with my inside.)

"I'm mad for crispy wasp-stings on a piece of buttered toast,

And pickled spines of porcupines. And then a gorgeous roast

Of dragon's flesh, well hung, not fresh - -

It costs a buck at most,

(And comes to you in barrels if you order it by post.)

"I crave the tasty tentacles of octopi for tea

I like hot-dogs, I LOVE hot-frogs, and surely you'll agree

A plate of soil with engine oil's

A super recipe.

(I hardly need to mention that it's practically free.)

"For dinner on my birthday shall I tell you what I chose:

Hot noodles made from poodles on a slice of garden hose - -

And a rather smelly jelly

Made of armadillo's toes.

(The jelly is delicious, but you have to hold your nose.)

"Now comes," the Centipede declared, "the burden of my speech: These foods are rare beyond compare - - some are right out of reach; But there's no doubt

I'd go without

A million plates of

each

For one small mite,

One tiny bite

Of this FANTASTIC

PEACH! "

Everybody was feeling happy now. The sun was shining brightly out of a soft blue sky and the day was calm. The giant peach, with the sunlight glinting on its side, was like a massive golden ball sailing upon a silver sea.

"Look!" cried the Centipede just as they were finishing their meal. "Look at that funny thin black thing gliding through the water over there!"

They all swung around to look.

"There are two of them," said Miss Spider.

"There are lots of them!" said the Ladybug.

"What are they?" asked the Earthworm, getting worried.

"They must be some kind of fish," said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. "Perhaps they have come along to say hello."

"They are sharks!" cried the Earthworm. "I'll bet you anything you like that they are sharks and they have come along to eat us up!"

"What absolute rot!" the Centipede said, but his voice seemed suddenly to have become a little shaky, and he wasn't laughing.

"I am positive they are sharks!" said the Earthworm. "I just know they are sharks!"

And so, in actual fact, did everybody else, but they were too frightened to admit it.

There was a short silence. They all peered down anxiously at the sharks who were cruising slowly round and round the peach.

"Just assuming that they are sharks," the Centipede said, "there still can't possibly be any danger if we stay up here."

But even as he spoke, one of those thin black fins suddenly changed direction and came cutting swiftly through the water right up to the side of the peach itself. The shark paused and stared up at the company with small evil eyes.

"Go away!" they shouted. "Go away, you filthy beast!" Slowly, almost lazily, the shark opened his mouth (which was big enough to have swallowed a perambulator) and made a lunge at the peach.

They all watched, aghast.

And now, as though at a signal from the leader, all the other sharks came swimming in toward the peach, and they clustered around it and began to attack it furiously. There must have been twenty or thirty of them at least, all pushing and fighting and lashing their tails and churning the water into a froth.

Panic and pandemonium broke out immediately on top of the peach.

"Oh, we are finished now!" cried Miss Spider, wringing her feet. "They will eat up the whole peach and then there'll be nothing left for us to stand on and they'll start on us!"

"She is right!" shouted the Ladybug. "We are lost forever!"

"Oh, I don't want to be eaten!" wailed the Earthworm. "But they will take me first of all because I am so fat and juicy and I have no bones!"

"Is there nothing we can do?" asked the Ladybug, appealing to James. "Surely you can think of a way out of this."

Suddenly they were all looking at James.

"Think!" begged Miss Spider. "Think, James, think!"

"Come on," said the Centipede. "Come on, James. There must be something we can do."

Their eyes waited upon him, tense, anxious, pathetically hopeful.

"There is something that I believe we might try," James Henry Trotter said slowly. "I'm not saying it'll work. . ."

"Tell us!" cried the Earthworm. "Tell us quick!"

"We'll try anything you say!" said the Centipede. "But hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Be quiet and let the boy speak!" said the Ladybug. "Go on, James."

They all moved a little closer to him. There was a longish pause.

"Go on !" they cried frantically. "Go on!"

And all the time while they were waiting they could hear the sharks threshing around in the water below them. It was enough to make anyone frantic.

"Come on, James," the Ladybug said, coaxing him.

"I. . . I. . . I'm afraid it's no good after all," James murmured, shaking his head. "I'm terribly sorry.

I forgot. We don't have any string. We'd need hundreds of yards of string to make this work."

"What sort of string?" asked the Old-Green-Grasshopper sharply.

"Any sort, just so long as it's strong."

"But my dear boy, that's exactly what we do have! We've got all you want!"

"How? Where?"

"The Silkworm!" cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper. "Didn't you ever notice the Silkworm? He's still downstairs! He never moves! He just lies there sleeping all day long, but we can easily wake him up and make him spin!"