Jasper and the Green Marvel Read Online Free PDF Page B

saw that there was a third thing there they hadn’t been able to see from the floor. It was a cardboard box with a pink ribbon on the lid and some gold writing that the rats, being rats, couldn’t read. But they pushed the lid off anyway to have a peek at what was inside.
    The box was full of small brown objects. Although they were all more or less the same size, they were a range of different shapes. Some were square and some heart-shaped. Some looked like leaves and some like little barrels. One was a smooth dome and another was a ridged whorl. And all of them had the most marvellous, delicious mouth-watering smell. What could they possibly be?
    I would like to ask you now to do somethingdifficult. I’d like you to imagine that you’re a rat. You’ve never in all your life heard the word ‘chocolate’. Even if you saw it written down, it wouldn’t mean anything to you because, being a rat, you can’t read. ‘Chocolate’ could mean anything. It could mean ‘tadpole’ or ‘sausage’ or ‘handbag’.
    Nor have you ever come across chocolate the thing, rather than chocolate the word before. You don’t know anything about it. You don’t even know that you can eat it. You don’t know that it can come as a bar that can be broken into squares. You don’t know that it can be a yummy hot drink. And above all you don’t know that it can be made into actual chocolates: small, bite-sized pieces, each with a different filling – toffee or strawberry cream or hazelnut or orange, each one more delicious than the one before.
    So imagine what it’s like to be a rat and to stumble across your first ever box of chocolates, there for the taking!
    ‘I don’t know what these are, Bags, but they smell great. I’ll give one a lick just to try it out.’
    Cautiously Rags licked one of the little brown things … and a look of total bliss crossed his snout. ‘Oh, Bags!’ he said. ‘OH, BAGS!’ and he scoffed the chocolate down in one gulp.
    It was a total free-for-all after that. Lemon Surprises and Caramel Hearts, Turkish Delights and Coconut Clusters: the rats set to and gobbled them all up until they were so full they could hardly stand, and the box with the pink ribbon was empty.
    ‘Never could I have imagined that something could be so scrumptious!’ Bags sighed as he polished off the last Marzipan Dream.
    ‘Even if we never again get to eat whatever these things are, I will remember this night for the rest of my life, yes, until I am an old grey rat with faded fur and trembling paws,’ Rags declared.
    But they were to remember the night foranother reason too, and it wouldn’t be such a pleasant memory.
    When they crept out of the drawing room, they found that they were once more in the hallway of the big house, where a small lamp burned as before.
    ‘I don’t really feel like looking for the Green Marvel now,’ Bags said.
    ‘Neither do I. Not after all the excitement we’ve already had. I think we should go back to bed now and start looking for the necklace tomorrow night.’ Bags agreed with Rags.
    ‘Now, which way is Jasper’s bedroom?’
    And that was when IT happened. Suddenly they felt a tremendous cold wind, coming from something flapping above their heads. The light of the small lamp was blotted out and an icy darkness enveloped them. Just with that, something grabbed them both by the scruff of their necks and whipped them clean off their paws, up into the air. What on earth was happening?
    They had been grabbed by an enormous bat! Its immense black wings had caused darkness to fall as it swooped down to snatch them, and now it flew madly around the hallway in jagged and juddering flight, with its two captives dangling beneath it. As you may imagine, rats don’t scare easily, but Bags and Rags were terrified. It was like being on some horrible fairground ride, where you’re swung around a thousand times in different ways and your tummy turns over and there’s nothing you can do to stop all of