All the Firemen started dancing,
And the crowds all started cheering to a man!)
'And now, the Silkworm,' James went on,
'Whose silk will bear comparison
With all the greatest silks there are
In Rome and Philadelphia.
If you would search the whole world through
From Paraguay to Timbuctoo
I don't think you would find one bit
Of silk that could compare with it.
Even the shops in Singapore
Don't have the stuff. And what is more,
This Silkworm had, I'll have you know,
The honour, not so long ago,
To spin and weave and sew and press
The Queen of England's wedding dress.
And she's already made and sent
A waistcoat for your President.'
('Well, good for her!' the Cops cried out, And all at once a mighty shout
Went up around the Empire State,
Let's get them down at once! Why WAIT?')
Thirty-eight
Five minutes later, they were all safely down, and James was excitedly telling his story to a group of flabbergasted officials.
And suddenly - everyone who had come over on the peach was a hero! They were all escorted to the steps of City Hall, where the Mayor of New York made a speech of welcome. And while he was doing this, one hundred steeplejacks, armed with ropes and ladders and pulleys, swarmed up to the top of the Empire State Building and lifted the giant peach off the spike and lowered it to the ground.
Then the Mayor shouted, 'We must now have a ticker-tape parade for our wonderful visitors!'
And so a procession was formed, and in the leading car (which was an enormous open limousine) sat James and all his friends.
Next came the giant peach itself. Men with cranes and hooks had quickly hoisted it on to a very large truck and there it now sat, looking just as huge and proud and brave as ever. There was, of course, a bit of a hole in the bottom of it where the spike of the Empire State Building had gone in, but who cared about that - or indeed about the peach juice that was dripping out of it on to the street?
Behind the peach, skidding about all over the place in the peach juice, came the Mayor's limousine, and behind the Mayor's limousine came about twenty other limousines carrying all the important people of the City.
And the crowds went wild with excitement. They lined the streets and they leaned out of the windows of the skyscrapers, cheering and yelling and screaming and clapping and throwing out bits of white paper and ticker-tape, and James and his friends stood up in their car and waved back at them as they went by.
Then a rather curious thing happened. The procession was moving slowly along Fifth Avenue when suddenly a little girl in a red dress ran out from the crowd and shouted, 'Oh, James, James! Could I please have just a tiny taste of your marvellous peach?'