Читать книгу Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story To Make You Squirm - Lynne Banks Reid, Tony Ross - Страница 11
Оглавление“Hxzltl! Where HAVE you been? I’ve been really worried about you!”
“Oh… I’ve just been – er – you know—”
“Hunting?”
“Er – yes.”
“Any luck?”
Now she mentioned it, Harry realised that he hadn’t eaten since those twenty-five ants’ eggs he’d had for breakfast and that he was absolutely starving. He shook his head.
Belinda gave a centipedic smile (which she did by waving her front feelers in a particular way). “I’m glad because look what I’ve brought you! Your favourite!”
And she stepped aside and showed him a large, crunchy, juicy treat – his favourite indeed! It was a locust, which is like a very big grasshopper.
“Mama! Wow! Thanks! Can I eat it now?”
“Of course you can, best-in-my-nest!” she said proudly.
He ate the locust greedily, head first, although the head was the best bit and he usually saved it till last. By the time he’d crunched the last leg, he realised he wasn’t feeling very happy.
You can guess why, of course. He felt bad because he’d lied to his mother. But he didn’t see how he could have told her he’d been so stupid and nearly got drowned.
Still. It wasn’t as if she’d absolutely forbidden him to play near the water. She’d only forbidden him to go Up the Up-Pipe, to the Place of the Hoo-Mins. And he hadn’t done that.
He wasn’t going to do it, either. Not him. No, never. He didn’t want to mess with those awful Hoo-Mins.
And he probably wouldn’t have done, if it hadn’t been for Grnddjl.
Don’t even try it. Let’s call him George.
