Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea Read Free

What about Josie?
    “What are you doing here?” Harry asked, touching feelers with her very shyly. He’d never touched feelers with a centeena before, except Belinda of course. It felt very nice.
    “He was chasing me,” she said, meaning George. “So I just ducked in through one of those long holes to hide.”
    “Why didn’t you get out again before it started to move?”
    “I don’t know. I think I just liked it in here. I like yellow-curves,” she added, indicating the banana she was standing on.
    “You like standing on them?” asked Harry.
    “Eating them,” she said.
    “You eat tree-droppings?” asked George incredulously.
    “Yes.”
    “I notice you like tarantula heads, too,” remarked Harry bitterly.
    Josie looked puzzled. “What do you mean, tarantula heads?”
    “Well, didn’t you take one from just here?”
    “No,” she said. “I don’t like eating things that have been alive, it makes me feel a bit sick, so I eat lots of different tree-droppings.”
    “Wait a minute. You don’t mean you never eat ordinary things?”
    “No. Just tree-droppings,” she said demurely.
    There was a silence.
    “Hx, she’s a no-meat-feeder,” crackled George under his breath.
    A centipede that didn’t like meat and wouldn’t stop anything! They waved their feelers at Josie as if she were not completely centipede.
    “Please don’t feeler me like that,” she said. “It’s rather rude.”
    “Oh! Sorry,” said George at once. “It’s just – I’ve never met a no-meat-feeder before. What kind of – er – tree-droppings do you like best? I’ve never really bothered to try any.”
    “There are so many different kinds!” Josie said eagerly. “One never gets to the end of them!”
    “Weird,” crackled George. Harry nudged him with a bump of his middle section.
    “I don’t think it’s weird,” said Harry. “It’s interesting. At least you won’t be hungry in here with all these yellow-curves. I wish I liked them.”
    “Try one,” said Josie.
    To oblige her, Harry bent his head and took a bite.
    “Ugh!” he said. “It’s horrible!”
    Josie gave a centipedish laugh by shaking all her segments up and down. “No, no, not the outside! You have to get through to the soft, sweet stuff inside.” She caught a ridge of the yellow skin between her poison-claws and neatly stripped it back. “Now try again,” she said.
    George backed away. But Harry nibbled a little of the soft white stuff, and then a little more. “H’m. It’s not bad, I must say. Soft as worms. But not a bit like them to taste.”
    Josie shuddered daintily. “I couldn’t bear to eat a worm!” she said.
    Before any more could be crackled, the jiggling movement stopped. The three of them dashed along a bridge of bananasto the long opening again and stuck their heads out.
    “Smell that, Grndd! You know what that is, don’t you?” Harry said in shocked tones.
    “Yeah, I’m afraid I do,” said George. “It’s the no-end puddle.”
    “The no-end puddle? What’s that?” asked Josie.
    “It’s water,” said Harry. “Water and water and water, more than you’d ever think there could be. It goes on and on for ever – that’s why it’s called no-end. It’s not even water you can drink, either.”
    “Can you swim?” George asked Josie abruptly.
    “Swim? You mean, like marine centipedes do?”
    “Except they don’t,” said George. “But I can, and so can Harry, and if by any horrible chance we’re going to get dropped in the no-end puddle, like we once were, you’re going to have to learn to swim very fast indeed.”
    Poor Josie crouched down on her banana and put out signals of fear. “I can’t, I know I can’t!” she waickled (youknow – a wailing crackle.) “If I’m dropped in the no-end puddle, I’ll stop!”
    Both the centeens rushed to her side.
    “No, you won’t,” they both said. “You won’t, because we’re here, and we’ll look after you!” And then they looked at each other