Читать книгу Adventures of the Wishing Chair - Enid blyton - Страница 9

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Once a dreadful thing happened when the children were adventuring on the wishing-chair. It had grown its wings most conveniently when all three were in the playroom, so they jumped on, and were soon flying high in the air.

As they were flying they heard a loud droning noise, and looked round.

“It’s an aeroplane!” shouted Peter.

“I say! It’s very near us!” cried Mollie.

So it was. It didn’t seem to see them at all. It flew straight at them, and the edge of one widespread wing just touched their flying chair, giving it a tremendous jerk. Mollie and Peter were sitting tightly in the seat—but Chinky was on the back, and he was jolted right off the chair.

Mollie clutched at him as he fell—but she only just touched him. The two children watched in the greatest dismay as he fell down—and down—and down.

“Oh, Peter!” cried Mollie in despair, “poor, poor Chinky! Whatever will happen to him!”

The aeroplane flew on steadily, never guessing that it had touched a wishing-chair. Peter turned pale and looked at Mollie.

“We must make the chair go down and see if Chinky is hurt,” he said. “Oh dear! What a dreadful thing to happen! Chair, fly down to earth!”

The chair flapped its red wings and flew slowly down to the ground. It stood there, and the children jumped off. They were in open country with wide fields all around them. There was no sign of Chinky at all.

They heard the sound of some one chanting a song, and saw coming towards them, a round, fat little man carrying a bundle on his head.

“Hi!” called Peter. “Have you seen a little pixie falling out of the sky?”

“Is that a riddle?” said the round little man, grinning stupidly. “I can ask you one too! Have you seen a horse that quacks like a duck?”

“Don’t be silly,” said Mollie. “This is serious. Our friend has fallen out of the sky.”

“Well, tell him not to do it again,” said the little round man. “All that fell out of the sky to-day was a large snowflake! Good-morning!”

He went on his way, his bundle bobbing on his head. The children were very angry.

“Making a joke about a serious thing like poor Chinky falling out of the sky!” said Mollie, with tears in her eyes. “Horrid fellow.”

“Here’s some one else,” said Peter. “Hi! Stop a minute!”

The some one was another round, fat person, also carrying a bundle on her head and singing a little song. She stopped when she saw the children.

“Have you seen a pixie falling out of the sky?” asked Peter.

“No. Have you?” said the round little woman, grinning.

“Of course!” said Mollie impatiently.

“Fibber!” said the round woman. “A big snowflake fell out of the sky, but nothing else.”

“They’ve got snowflakes on the brain!” said Peter, as the woman went on her way, singing. “Come on, Mollie. We’d better go and look for Chinky ourselves. We know that it was somewhere near here that he fell. We’ll carry the chair between us so that we may have it safely. I don’t trust these stupid people.”

They carried the chair along and came to a market-place. It was full of the same round, fat people, all humming and singing. A town-crier was going round the market, ringing a bell, and crying “Oyez! Oyez! Dame Apple-pie has lost her spectacles! Oyez! Oyez!”

Then Peter had a splendid idea. “I say, Mollie! Let’s tell the town-crier to shout out about Chinky. We’ll offer a reward to any one that can tell us about him. Some one must have seen him fall.”

So, before very long the town-crier was ringing his bell and crying loudly, “Oyez! Oyez! A reward is offered to any one having news of a pixie who fell from the sky! Oyez!”

Mollie and Peter stood on a platform so that people might know to whom to go if they had news. To their delight there came quite a crowd of people to them.

“We’ve news, we’ve news!” they cried, struggling to get to Peter first.

“Well, where did you see the pixie fall?” asked Peter of the first little man.

“Sir, I saw a big snowflake fall in the Buttercup Field,” said he.

“Don’t be foolish,” said Peter. “I said a pixie, not a snowflake. Don’t you know the difference between pixies and snowflakes? We all know that snowflakes fall from the sky. That is not news. Next, please!”

But the next person said the same thing—and the next—and the next! It was most annoying and very disappointing.

“We want our reward!” suddenly shouted some one. “We have given you news, but you have given us no reward.”

“You haven’t given us the right news!” shouted back Peter angrily.

“That doesn’t matter!” shouted the little folk, looking angry. They looked rather funny too, because for some reason or other they all carried their bundles and baskets balanced on their heads. “Give us our reward!”

They swarmed towards the platform on which the two children were standing, and Mollie and Peter suddenly felt frightened.

“I don’t like this, Mollie,” said Peter. “Let’s go! These stupid creatures think that pixies and snowflakes are exactly the same—and we certainly can’t give them all a reward. Climb into the chair!”

Mollie jumped into the chair, which was just near them on the platform. Peter sat on the arm and cried out loudly, “Home, chair, quickly!”

The chair flapped its wings and rose up—but it didn’t rise very high, only just above the heads of the angry people. Its legs began to jerk in and out, and to Peter’s enormous astonishment, the chair kicked off bundles, pots, and baskets from the heads of the furious marketers! Peter began to laugh, for, really, it was most comical to see the chair playing such a trick—but Mollie was in tears.

“What’s the matter?” asked Peter, drying her tears with his handkerchief.

“It’s Chinky,” sobbed Mollie. “I did love him so. Now I feel we shall never see him again.”

Peter’s eyes filled with tears too. “He was such a good friend,” he said. “Oh, Mollie! It would be so dreadful if we never saw him again.”

They flew home in silence. The chair flew in at the playroom door and the children jumped off.

“It will never be so nice going adventures again,” said Mollie.

“Why ever not?” said a merry little voice—and the children turned round in joy—for there was Chinky, the pixie, sitting on the floor, reading a book!

“Chinky! We thought you were lost for ever when you fell from the chair!” cried Mollie, hugging him hard.

“Don’t break me in half!” said Chinky. “I wasn’t hurt at all! I just changed myself into a big snowflake and fell into the Buttercup Field. Then I caught the next bus back to the bottom of the garden, and here I am. I’ve been waiting simply ages for you!”

“A snowflake!” cried Peter. “So that’s why everyone talked about snowflakes! Now I understand!”

He told Chinky all about their adventures—and how the pixie laughed when he heard about the chair kicking the bundles off the heads of the angry people!

“I wish I’d been there!” he said. “Come on, now—what about a game of ludo?”