From high on the lonely hill where James lived with his two unpleasant,
parsimonous Aunts, he could see miles of English meadow and verdant
woodland. And on a particularly clear day, he could espy a seaside home,
once his own, where
friends and fun, and two loving parents warmed his
days.
Then tragedy struck while at the London Zoo. A calamity that changed
laughter to woe - as a humongous rhino broke free of his constraints,
and devoured James' kind parents.
Now James Henry Trotter lives a solitary and solemn life, with Aunt
Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who are heartless and harsh, and given to
disparage and dictates of endless chores.
One stifling morning something strange occured. Amid hard work
and the heat, a secret was revealed in the garden, well concealed
within the laurel bushes.
A be-whiskered ,diminutive, wizened fellow gave James a bag of glowing
pebbles and admonished him to use care in planting the magic rocks.
James in his excitement, fled and tripped, and flung the contents of
the bag upon the ground beneath the barren
peach tree.
The miraculous happened - a peach appeared and begun to
grow,
and grow, and GROW, until it topped the highest branches.
Inside the peach, six jumbo-sized crawlers; Grasshopper, Ladybug,
Centipede, Earthworm, Silkworm, and Spider waited to befriend James
as he entered the peachy domain.
And with a loud SNAP of the stem, the adventure begins...
The peach rolls down the hill, smashing the vile Aunts, and plummets
into the sea.
Soon sharks swarm and attack, forcing James to create an imaginative
escape plan. Spider and Silkworm provide strands of string that James
uses to lasso
seagulls, five-hundred-and-two seagulls, to be exact, and
they set sail across the Atlantic.
As night falls, and clouds close in, another foe is discovered.
cloud-men are constructing hailstones, and Centipede angers them,
inciting an icy bombardment. Luckily, the seagulls fly the friends through
the cloudbank, but not before the peach is damaged.
Up ahead James spots another cluster of clouds, and Cloud-men who
are painting a lovely rainbow. The peach collides with the rainbow, nearly
ending in disaster. James untangles the peach lasso ropes by having
Centipede bite loose the strands, freeing some seagulls and causing the
peach to descend, and once again evade the Cloud-men's wrath.
A sprawling, skyscrapered
city eventually appears, and James realizes
they have traveled to America. The friends embark upon a landing and
the peach swiftly spirals downward to doom, and the center of New York
City!
They are spared when the Empire State Building spire spears the
peach, and spares their life.
The citizens come out to meet James and his unusual crew, and they
become celebrities. The Mayor welcomes them, and honors them with
a parade.
The city's children become over-jubilant and swarm the peach, and
and eat every tasty morsel - except for the gigantic pit.
And that pit became a monument, and the home of James Henry
Trotter, sitting safe and secure in Central Park.
And Henry never again lacked friends.
THE END
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