thirty-one
‘how fast we are going all of a sudden,’ the ladybird said. ‘i wonder why?’
‘i don’t think the seagulls like this place any better than we do,’ james answered. ‘i imagine theywant to get out of it as soon as they can. they got a bad fright in that storm we‘ve just been through.’
faster and faster flew the seagulls, skimming across the sky at a tremendous pace, with the peachtrailing out behind them. cloud after cloud went by on either side, all of them ghostly white in themoonlight, and several more times during the night the travellers caught glimpses of cloud- menmoving around on the tops of these clouds, working their sinister magic upon the world below.
once they passed a snow machine in operation, with the cloud- men turning the handle and ablizzard of snowflakes blowing out of the great funnel above. they saw the huge drums that were usedfor making thunder, and the cloud-men beating them furiously with long hammers. they saw the frostfactories and the wind producers and the places where cyclones and tornadoes were manufactured andsent spinning down towards the earth, and once, deep in the hollow of a large billowy cloud, theyspotted something that could only have been a cloud- men’s city. there were caves everywhererunning into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the cloud-men’s wives were crouching overlittle stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husbands’ suppers. and hundredsof cloud-men’s children were frisking about all over the place and shrieking with laughter and slidingdown the billows of the cloud on toboggans.
an hour later, just before dawn, the travellers heard a soft whooshing noise above their heads andthey glanced up and saw an immense grey batlike creature swooping down towards them out of thedark. it circled round and round the peach, flapping its great wings slowly in the moonlight and staringat the travellers. then it uttered a series of long deep melancholy cries and flew off again into the night.
‘oh, i do wish the morning would come!’ miss spider said, shivering all over.
‘it won’t be long now,’ james answered. ‘look, it’s getting lighter over there already.’
they all sat in silence watching the sun as it came up slowly over the rim of the horizon for a newday.
三十一
“咱们突然飘得好快呀！”瓢虫说，“不知道是怎么回事儿？”
“依我看，海鸥跟咱们一样，根本不喜欢这个地方。”詹姆斯回答，“我猜，他们也想尽快离开这里。咱们刚刚经过的这场暴风雨，把他们也吓坏了。”
海鸥飞得越来越快，后面拖着大桃，风驰电掣似的掠过天空。片片云彩从两边飞过，月光照射下，全都苍白得叫人害怕。那一夜，游客们又瞥见了云彩人在云顶移动着，冲下面的世界施展魔法。
有一次，他们看到了一架运转起来的造雪机，只见云彩人转动着手柄，暴风雨般的雪花，从上面的烟囱里飘出来。看到了云彩人用来制造雷电的大鼓，他们正用长锤疯狂地击打着鼓面。还看到了冰霜工厂和大风工厂，以及制造飓风和龙卷风的地方。飓风和龙卷风就是从那里朝大地上吹去。还有一次，他们在汹涌的云团的深凹处，看到了只能说是云彩人的城市一样的地方。云团上，处处都是洞穴。洞穴入口，云彩人的妻子正弯腰塌背，站在火炉旁边，手里拿着炒勺，给丈夫炒雪球当晚饭吃。有好几百个云彩人的孩子，到处蹦蹦跳跳的，又笑又叫，坐着平底雪橇在云团凹处来回滑着。
再过一个钟头，天就要明了。游客们听到头上有一种轻飘飘的声音。于是抬起脑袋，只见一种蝙蝠似的又灰又大的生物，黑暗之中冲他们扑了过来。它们绕着大桃盘旋着，缓慢地拍打着巨大的翅膀，在月光下盯着游客们。接着，它们发出了一连串低沉而又凄凉的叫声，然后又飞到黑夜里去。
“哦，我多么盼着天快亮啊！”蜘蛛小姐浑身颤抖着说。
“用不了多长时间啦！”詹姆斯回答，“瞧！那边已经放亮啦！”
于是，他们都一声不响地坐了下来，眺望着太阳在地平线上冉冉升起来，盼望着新的一天的来临。
