twenty-four

but up on the peach itself, everyone was still happy and excited.

‘i wonder where we’ll finish up this time,’ the earthworm said.

‘who cares?’ they answered. ‘seagulls always go back to the land sooner or later.’

up and up they went, high above the highest clouds, the peach swaying gently from side to side as itfloated along.

‘wouldn’t this be a perfect time for a little music?’ the ladybird asked. ‘how about it, oldgrasshopper?’

‘with pleasure, dear lady,’ the old-green-grasshopper answered, bowing from the waist.

‘oh, hooray! he’s going to play for us!’ they cried, and immediately the whole company satthemselves down in a circle around the old green musician – and the concert began.

from the moment that the first note was struck, the audience became completely spellbound. and asfor james, never had he heard such beautiful music as this! in the garden at home on summer evenings,he had listened many times to the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the grass, and he had always likedthe noise that they made. but this was a different kind of noise altogether. this was real music – chords,harmonies, tunes, and all the rest of it.

and what a wonderful instrument the old-green-grasshopper was playing upon. it was like a violin!

it was almost exactly as though he were playing upon a violin!

the bow of the violin, the part that moved, was his back leg. the strings of the violin, the part thatmade the sound, was the edge of his wing.

he was using only the top of his back leg (the thigh), and he was stroking this up and down againstthe edge of his wing with incredible skill, sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, but always with the sameeasy flowing action. it was precisely the way a clever violinist would have used his bow; and the musiccame pouring out and filled the whole blue sky around them with magic melodies.

when the first part was finished, everyone clapped madly, and miss spider stood up and shouted,‘bravo! encore! give us some more!’

‘did you like that, james?’ the old-green-grasshopper asked, smiling at the small boy.

‘oh, i loved it!’ james answered. ‘it was beautiful! it was as though you had a real violin in yourhands!’

‘a real violin!’ the old-green-grasshopper cried. ‘good heavens, i like that! my dear boy, i am areal violin! it is a part of my own body!’

‘but do all grasshoppers play their music on violins, the same way as you do?’ james asked him.

‘no,’ he answered, ‘not all. if you want to know, i happen to be a “short-horned” grasshopper. i havetwo short feelers coming out of my head. can you see them? there they are. they are quite short,aren’t they? that’s why they call me a “short-horn”. and we “short-horns” are the only ones who playour music in the violin style, using a bow. my “long-horned” relatives, the ones who have long curvyfeelers coming out of their heads, make their music simply by rubbing the edges of their two top wingstogether. they are not violinists, they are wing-rubbers. and a rather inferior noise these wing-rubbersproduce, too, if i may say so. it sounds more like a banjo than a fiddle.’

‘how fascinating this all is!’ cried james. ‘and to think that up until now i had never even wonderedhow a grasshopper made his sounds.’

‘my dear young fellow,’ the old-green-grasshopper said gently, ‘there are a whole lot of things inthis world of ours that you haven’t started wondering about yet. where, for example, do you think that ikeep my ears?’

‘your ears? why, in your head, of course.’

everyone burst out laughing.

‘you mean you don’t even know that?’ cried the centipede.

‘try again,’ said the old-green-grasshopper, smiling at james.

‘you can’t possibly keep them anywhere else?’

‘oh, can’t i?’

‘well – i give up. where do you keep them?’

‘right here,’ the old-green-grasshopper said. ‘one on each side of my tummy.’

‘it’s not true!’

‘of course it’s true. what’s so peculiar about that? you ought to see where my cousins the cricketsand the katydids keep theirs.’

‘where do they keep them?’

‘in their legs. one in each front leg, just below the knee.’

‘you mean you didn’t know that either?’ the centipede said scornfully.

‘you’re joking,’ james said. ‘nobody could possibly have his ears in his legs.’

‘why not?’

‘because… because it’s ridiculous, that’s why.’

‘you know what i think is ridiculous?’ the centipede said, grinning away as usual. ‘i don’t mean tobe rude, but i think it is ridiculous to have ears on the sides of one’s head. it certainly looks ridiculous.

you ought to take a peek in the mirror some day and see for yourself.’

‘pest!’ cried the earthworm. ‘why must you always be so rude and rambunctious to everyone? youought to apologize to james at once.’

二十四

然而，仙桃上的人们，却依然个个兴高采烈的样子。

“真不知道，咱们这一回到哪里是一站啊。”蚯蚓说。

“这又有谁在乎？”他们回答，“早早晚晚，海鸥会回到陆地上去的。”

他们越升越高，升到了最高的云层上面。桃子一边飘荡，还一边轻轻地朝两边摇动着。

“这时刻，听一小段音乐，真是再好不过了。”瓢虫说，“怎么样，老蚱蜢？”

“很高兴，亲爱的姑娘。”绿色老蚱蜢点头如仪，答道。

“哦，噢哈！他想给咱们演奏了！”整个人群一边嚷着，一边立刻坐在了音乐家老蚱蜢的周围。音乐会于是宣告开始。

从第一个音符演奏出来的那一刹那起，听众便听入了迷。就詹姆斯来说呢，他可从来没有听到过这么动听美妙的音乐！从前，夏天在家里的园子里，有好多次他听过草丛里蚱蜢那嘟嘟的声音，也一向喜欢蚱蜢发出的这种叫声。可是，这次是一种截然不同的音响，是真真正正的音乐，什么和弦呀，和声呀，旋律呀，等等等等，应有尽有。

而且，绿色老蚱蜢所弹奏的乐器，又是多么美妙呀！就像一把小提琴似的！而实际上，他几乎就像是在弹奏小提琴哩！

琴弓，也就是来回移动的那部分，是他的后腿。琴弦，也就是发出声音来的那部分，就是他翅膀的边沿。

他用后腿的上半部分，也就是大腿，正在摩擦着翅膀的边沿，时快时慢，但动作又总是那样的舒缓自如，娴熟得简直不可思议。运起弓来，简直跟聪明的小提琴手一模一样。乐声袅袅流泻出来，以富有魔力的旋律，萦绕在他们周围那湛蓝的天空上面。

第一部分结束了，人人都狠劲地鼓起掌来。蜘蛛小姐站起来，叫道：“好啊！再来一个！

给周围的人们多演奏演奏吧！”

“你喜欢刚才的音乐吗，詹姆斯？”绿色老蚱蜢冲孩子微笑着问。

“哦，我喜欢。”詹姆斯答道，“太美了！看起来，你手里好像有一把真正的小提琴似的！”

“真正的小提琴！”绿色老蚱蜢叫道，“老天哪！我喜欢这样说！我亲爱的孩子，我自个儿就是一把真正的小提琴呀！它是我身上的一部分哩！”

“可是，蚱蜢们是不是跟你一样，都用小提琴演奏音乐呢？”詹姆斯问道。

“不是，”绿色老蚱蜢答道，“根本不是。你要是想知道的话，我凑巧是个‘短触须’蚱蜢。

在我脑袋上，长着两根短短的触须。看得见吗？这就是！很短，是不是？这也就是人们管我叫‘短须’的原因。而只有我们‘短须’才用琴弓，像拉小提琴似的演奏音乐。我的‘长须’亲戚们，也就是那些脑袋上长着长长的弯触须的蚱蜢们，只是用上面的两只翅膀在一起摩擦来演奏音乐。他们不是小提琴手，而是摩翅膀的音乐家。这些摩翅膀的音乐家演奏的声音要差多了，不像小提琴，倒像五弦琴似的。”

“这多么有趣呀！”詹姆斯朗声说道，“好生奇怪，蚱蜢是怎么样发出声音的，我以前从来就没有想过。”

“我亲爱的年轻人，”绿色老蚱蜢轻声说，“在咱们这个世界上，有好多事儿，你还没有开始想过哪。比方说，你看我的耳朵长在什么地方？”

“你的耳朵？”

个个都禁不住哄笑起来。

“你的意思是，你连这个都不知道？”蜈蚣高声说。

“再想想吧。”绿色老蚱蜢冲詹姆斯微笑起来。

“你的耳朵不可能长到别的什么地方吧？”

“哦，不能吗？”

“嗯，我猜不着。它们长在什么地方？”

“就长在这儿，”绿色老蚱蜢说，“长在肚子上，一边一个。”

“你哄我！”

“当然不是哄你啦。可这又有什么奇怪的呢？你应该观察一下，蟋蟀和螽斯，也就是我那些堂兄弟们，他们的耳朵又长在什么地方呢？”

“他们的耳朵长在什么地方？”

“长在腿上。两条前腿上各有一个，就在膝盖下面。”

“你是说，连这个你也不知道？”蜈蚣奚落道。

“你说笑话吧？”詹姆斯说，“谁的耳朵也不可能长在腿上呀。”

“干吗不可能呢？”

“因为……因为太荒唐了，就是为了这个。”

“在我看来什么是荒唐的，你知道吗？”蜈蚣同往常那样，龇着牙说，“我倒不是无礼，不过只是觉得，耳朵长在脑袋两边才荒唐哪。那样的话，看起来自然荒唐啦。赶明儿，你该对着镜子照照才是。”

“害人精！”蚯蚓大声说，“你干吗总是对人这么蛮不讲理？你该马上向詹姆斯赔礼道歉才对。”