Читать книгу Adventures of the Wishing Chair - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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Each day Mollie and Peter ran down to their playroom in the garden, and looked at their wishing-chair to see it if had grown wings again. But each time they were disappointed. It hadn’t.

“It may grow them in the night,” said Peter. “But we can’t possibly keep coming here in the dark to see. We must just be patient.”

Sometimes the children sat in the chair and wished themselves away, but nothing happened at all. It was really very disappointing.

And then one day the chair grew its wings again. It was a Saturday afternoon, too, which was very jolly, as the children were not at school. They ran down to the playroom and opened the door, and the very first thing they saw was that the chair had grown wings! They couldn’t help seeing this, because the chair was flapping its wings about as if it was going to fly off!

“Quick! Quick!” shouted Peter, dragging Mollie to the chair. “Jump in. It’s going to fly!”

They were just in time! The chair rose up in the air, flapping its wings strongly, and made for the door. Out it went and rose high into the air at once. The children clung on tightly in the greatest delight.

“Where do you suppose it is going?” asked Peter.

“Goodness knows!” said Mollie. “Let it take us wherever it wants to! It will be exciting, anyhow. If it goes back to that funny shop, we can easily jump off and run away when it goes in at the door.”

But the chair didn’t go to the old shop. Instead it kept on steadily towards the west, where the sun was beginning to sink. By and by a high mountain rose up below, and the children looked down at it in astonishment. On the top was an enormous castle.

“Where’s this, I wonder?” said Peter. “Oh, I say, Mollie, the chair is going down to the castle!”

Down it went, flapping its rose-red wings. Soon it came to the castle roof, and instead of going lower and finding a door or a window, the chair found a nice flat piece of roof and settled down there with a sigh, as if it were quite tired out!

“Come on, Mollie! Let’s explore!” said Peter excitedly. He jumped off the chair and ran to a flight of enormous steps that led down to the inside of the castle. He peeped down. No one was about.

“This is the biggest castle I ever saw,” said Peter. “I wonder who lives here. Let’s go and see!”

They went down the steps, and came to a big staircase leading from a landing. On every side were massive doors, bolted on the outside.

“I hope there are no prisoners inside!” said Mollie, half afraid.

The stairs suddenly ended in a great hall. The children stood and looked in astonishment. Sitting at an enormous table was a giant as big as six men. His eyes were on a book, and he was trying to add up figures.

“Three times seven, three times seven, three times seven!” he muttered to himself. “I never can remember. Where’s that miserable little pixie? If he doesn’t know, I’ll turn him into a black beetle!”

The giant lifted up his head and shouted so loudly that both children put their hands over their ears. “Chinky! Chinky!”

A pixie, not quite so big as the children, came running out of what looked like a scullery. He held an enormous boot in one hand, and a very small boot-brush in the other.

“Stop cleaning my boots and listen to me!” ordered the giant. “I can’t do my sums again. I’m adding up all I spent last week and it won’t come right. What are three times seven?”

“Three times seven?” said the pixie, with a frightened look on his little pointed face.

“That’s what I said,” thundered the bad-tempered giant.

“I know they are the same as seven times three,” said the pixie.

“Well, I don’t know what seven times three are either!” roared the giant. “You tell me! What’s the good of having a servant who doesn’t know his tables? Quick—what are three times seven?”

“I d—d—d—don’t know!” stammered the poor pixie.

“Then I’ll lock you into the top room of the castle till you do know!” cried the giant, in a rage. He picked up the pixie and went to the stairs. Then he saw the children standing there, and he stopped in astonishment.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” he asked.

“We’ve just come on a flying visit,” said Peter boldly. “We know what three times seven are—and seven times three too. So, if you let that pixie go, we’ll tell you.”

“You tell me, then, you clever children!” cried the giant, delighted.

“They are twenty-one,” said Peter.

The giant, still holding the pixie tightly in his hand, went across to the table and added up some figures.

“Yes—twenty-one,” he said. “Now why didn’t I think of that? Good!”

“Let the pixie go,” begged Mollie.

“Oh no!” said the giant, with a wicked grin. “He shall be shut up in the top room of my castle, and you shall be my servants instead, and help me to add up my sums! Come along with me whilst I shut up Chinky.”

He pushed the two angry children in front of him and made them go all the way up the stairs until they came to the topmost door. The giant unbolted it and pushed the weeping pixie inside. Then he bolted it again and locked it.

“Quick!” whispered Peter to Mollie. “Let’s race up these steps to the roof and get on to our magic chair.”

So, whilst the giant was locking the door, the two of them shot up the steps to the roof. The giant didn’t try to stop them. He stood and roared with laughter.

“Well, I don’t know how you expect to escape that way!” he said. “You’ll have to come down the steps again, and I shall be waiting here to catch you. Then what a spanking you’ll get!”

The children climbed out on to the flat piece of castle roof. There was their chair, standing just where they had left it, its red wings gleaming in the sun. They threw themselves into it, and Peter cried, “Go to the room where that little pixie Chinky is!”

The chair rose into the air, flew over the castle roof, and then down to a big window. It was open, and the chair squeezed itself inside. Chinky the pixie was there, sitting on the floor, weeping. When he saw the chair coming in, with the two children sitting in it, he was so astonished that he couldn’t even get up off the floor!

“Quick!” cried Mollie. “Come into this chair, Chinky. We’ll help you to escape!”

“Who’s talking in there?” boomed the giant’s enormous voice, and the children heard the bolts being undone and the key turned to unlock the door!

“Quick, quick, Chinky!” shouted Peter, and he dragged the amazed pixie to the magic chair. They all three sat in it, huddled together, and Peter shouted “Take us home!”

The door flew open and the giant rushed in just as the chair sailed out of the window. He ran to the window and made a grab at the chair. His big hand knocked against a leg, and the chair shook violently. Chinky nearly fell off, but Peter grabbed him and pulled him back safely. Then they sailed high up into the air, far out of reach of the angry giant!

“We’ve escaped!” shouted Peter. “What an adventure! Cheer up, Chinky! We’ll take you home with us! You shall live with us, if you like. We have a fine playroom at the end of our garden. You can live there and no one will know. What fun we’ll have with you and the wishing-chair!”

“You are very kind to me,” said Chinky gratefully. “I shall love to live with you. I can take you on many, many adventures!”

“Hurrah!” shouted the two children. “Look, Chinky, we’re going down to our garden.”

Soon they were safely in the garden, and the chair flew in at the open door of the playroom. Its wings disappeared, and it settled itself down with a long sigh, as if to say, “Home again!”

“You can make a nice bed of the cushions from the sofa,” said Mollie to the pixie. “And I’ll give you a rug from the hall-chest to cover yourself with. We must go now, because it is past our tea-time. We’ll come and see you again to-morrow. Good luck!”