'By golly, he's right!' cried the Centipede. 'For once, Earthworm is right!'
'Of course I'm right,' the Earthworm said. 'And we're not likely to find anything around here either. We shall get thinner and thinner and thirstier and thirstier, and we shall all die a slow and grisly death from starvation. I am dying already. I am slowly shrivelling up for want of food. Personally, I would rather drown.'
'But good heavens, you must be blind!' said James.
'You know very well I'm blind,' snapped the Earthworm. 'There's no need to rub it in.'
'I didn't mean that,' said James quickly. 'I'm sorry. But can't you see that - '
'See?' shouted the poor Earthworm. 'How can I see if I am blind?'
James took a deep, slow breath. 'Can't you real ize,' he said patiently, 'that we have enough food here to last us for weeks and weeks?'
'Where?' they said. 'Where?'
'Why, the peach of course! Our whole ship is made of food!'
'Jumping Jehoshophat!' they cried. 'We never thought of that!'
'My dear James,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper, laying a front leg affectionately on James's shoulder, 'I don't know what we'd do without you.
You are so clever. Ladies and gentlemen - we are saved again!'
'We are most certainly not!' said the Earthworm. 'You must be crazy! You can't eat the ship! It's the only thing that is keeping us up!'
'We shall starve if we don't!' said the Centipede.
'And we shall drown if we do!' cried the Earthworm.
'Oh dear, oh dear,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. 'Now we're worse off than before!'
'Couldn't we just eat a little bit of it?' asked Miss Spider. 'I am so dreadfully hungry.'
'You can eat all you want,' James answered. 'It would take us weeks and weeks to make any sort of a dent in this enormous peach. Surely you can see that?'
'Good heavens, he's right again!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper, clapping his hands. 'It would take weeks and weeks! Of course it would! But let's not go making a lot of holes all over the deck. I think we'd better simply scoop it out of that tunnel over there - the one that we've just come up by.'
'An excellent idea,' said the Ladybird.
'What are you looking so worried about, Earthworm?' the Centipede asked. 'What's the problem?'
'The problem is...' the Earthworm said, 'the problem is...well, the problem is that there is no problem!'
Everyone burst out laughing. 'Cheer up, Earthworm!' they said. 'Come and eat!' And they all went over to the tunnel entrance and began scooping out great chunks of juicy, golden-coloured peach flesh.
'Oh, marvellous!' said the Centipede, stuffing it into his mouth.
'Dee-licious!' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
'Just fabulous!' said the Glow-worm.
'Oh my!' said the Ladybird primly. 'What a heavenly taste!' She looked up at James, and she smiled, and James smiled back at her. They sat down on the deck together, both of them chewing away happily. 'You know, James,' the Ladybird said, 'up until this moment, I have never in my life tasted anything except those tiny little green flies that live on rosebushes. They have a perfectly delightful flavour. But this peach is even better.'
'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 flavour!' 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,