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‘Light! Give us some light!’
    ‘I‘m
trying
,’ answered the poor Glow-worm. ‘I‘m doing my best. Please be patient.’
    They all waited in silence.
    Then a faint greenish light began to glimmer out of the Glow-worm’s tail, and this gradually became stronger and stronger until it was anyway enough to see by.
    ‘
Some great journey!
’ the Centipede said, limping across the room.
    ‘I shall
never
be the same again,’ murmured the Earthworm.
    ‘Nor I,’ the Ladybird said. ‘It’s taken
years
off my life.’
    ‘But my dear friends!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper, trying to be cheerful. ‘We are
there!
’
    ‘Where?’ they asked. ‘Where? Where is
there?
’
    ‘I don’t know,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘But I’ll bet it’s somewhere good.’
    ‘We are probably at the bottom of a coal mine,’ the Earthworm said gloomily. ‘We certainly went down and down and down very suddenly at the last moment. I felt it in my stomach. I still feel it.’
    ‘Perhaps we are in the middle of a beautiful country full of songs and music,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
    ‘Or near the seashore,’ said James eagerly, ‘with lots of other children down on the sand for me to play with!’
    ‘Pardon me,’ murmured the Ladybird, turning a trifle pale, ‘but am I wrong in thinking that we seem to be bobbing up and down?’
    ‘
Bobbing
up and down!’ they cried. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
    ‘You’re still giddy from the journey,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper told her. ‘You’ll get over it in a minute. Is everybody ready to go upstairs now and take a look round?’
    ‘Yes, yes!’ they chorused. ‘Come on! Let’s go!’
    ‘I
refuse
to show myself out of doors in my bare feet,’ the Centipede said. ‘I
have
to get my boots on again first.’
    ‘For heaven’s sake, let’s not go through all that nonsense again,’ the Earthworm said.
    ‘Let’s
all
lend the Centipede a hand and get it over with,’ the Ladybird said. ‘Come on.’
    So they did, all except Miss Spider, who set about weaving a long rope-ladder that would reach from the floor up to a hole in the ceiling. The Old-Green-Grasshopper had wisely said that they must not risk going out of the side entrance when they didn’t know where they were, but must first of all go up on to the top of the peach and have a look round.
    So half an hour later, when the rope-ladder had been finished and hung, and the forty-second boot had been laced neatly on to the Centipede’s forty-second foot, they were all ready to go out. Amidst mounting excitement and shouts of ‘Here we go, boys! The Promised Land! I can’t wait to see it!’ the whole company climbed up the ladder one by one and disappeared into a dark soggy tunnel in the ceiling that went steeply, almost vertically, upward.

Eighteen
    A minute later, they were out in the open, standing on the very top of the peach, near the stem, blinking their eyes in the strong sunlight and peering nervously around.
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘Where are we?’
    ‘But this is
impossible!
’
    ‘Unbelievable!’
    ‘Terrible!’
    ‘I
told
you we were bobbing up and down,’ the Ladybird said.
    ‘We’re in the middle of the sea!’ cried James.
    And indeed they were. A strong current and a high wind had carried the peach so quickly away from the shore that already the land was out of sight. All around them lay the vast black ocean, deep and hungry. Little waves were bibbling against the sides of the peach.
    ‘But how did it happen?’ they cried. ‘Where are the fields? Where are the woods? Where is England?’ Nobody, not even James, could understand how in the world a thing like this could have come about.
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, trying very hard to keep the fear and disappointment out of his voice, ‘I am afraid that we find ourselves in a rather awkward situation.’
    ‘Awkward!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘My dear Old Grasshopper, we are finished!