Читать книгу The Folk of the Faraway Tree - Enid blyton - Страница 8

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Jo, Bessie, Fanny and the others went on with their tea. They finished the Hot-Cold Goodies, then they started on some pink jelly that Moon-Face had made in the shape of animals. They were so nicely made that it seemed quite a pity to eat them.

“We’d better save some for Connie, hadn’t we?” said Bessie. “Let’s see if she’s outside the door. I expect she’s standing there, sulking.”

Moon-Face opened the door. There was no one there. He called loudly, “Connie! Connie!”

There was no answer. “She’s gone down the Tree, I should think,” he said. “I’ll just yell down to Dame Washalot and see if she saw her.”

So he shouted down to the old dame. But Dame Washalot shook her head. “No,” she shouted back, “no one has passed by here since you came up in the basket, Moon-Face. No one at all.”

“Funny!” said Moon-Face, going to tell the others. “Where’s she gone, then?”

“Up through the cloud?” said Silky.

“No—surely she wouldn’t have done that by herself,” said Jo, in alarm. “Look, Moon-Face! There’s the red squirrel who wants to speak to you.”

The red squirrel came in, trying to hide a hole in his old jersey. “I heard you calling Connie, Mister Moon-Face,” he said. “Well, she’s gone up the ladder through the cloud. I expect she’s in the Land of Marvels. I saw her go.”

“Good gracious!” cried Jo, jumping up in alarm. “Why, the Land is ready to leave here at any minute, didn’t you say, Silky? What a silly she is! We’d better go and get her back at once.”

“I thought I heard the humming noise that means any Land is moving on,” said Moon-Face, looking troubled. “I don’t believe we can save her. I’ll pop up the ladder and see.”

He climbed up the highest branch and went up the ladder. But there was nothing to be seen at all except swirling, misty cloud. He came down again.

“The Land of Marvels is gone,” he said. “And the next Land hasn’t even come yet. I don’t know what it will be, either. Well—Connie’s gone with the Land of Marvels. She would do a silly thing like that!”

Bessie went pale. “But what can we do about it?” she said. “Whatever can we do? We’re in charge of her, you know. We simply can’t let her go like this. We must find her somehow.”

“How can we?” said Silky. “You know that once a Land has moved on, it doesn’t come back for ages. Connie will have to stay there. I don’t see that it matters, anyway. She’s not a very nice person.”

“Oh Silky, you don’t understand!” said Jo. He looked very worried. “She’s our friend. And though she’s silly and annoying at times, we have to look after her and help her. How can we get to her?”

“You can’t,” said Moon-Face.

Saucepan had been trying to follow what had been said, his face looking very earnest. He didn’t like Connie, and he thought it was a very good thing she had gone off in the Land of Marvels. But he did know a way of getting there, and he badly wanted to tell the others.

But they all talked at once, and he couldn’t get a word in! So, in despair he clashed his saucepans and kettles together so violently that everyone jumped and stared round at him.

“He wants to say something,” said Jo. “Go on, out with it, Saucepan.”

Saucepan came out with it in a rush. “I know how to get to the Land of Marvels without waiting for it to arrive here again,” he said. “You can get to it from the Land of Giants, which joins on to it.”

“Well, I don’t see how that helps us,” said Moon-Face. “We don’t know how to get to the Land of Giants either, silly!”

“No, it’s not hilly,” said Saucepan, going all deaf again. “It’s quite flat. The giants have made it flat by walking about on it with their enormous feet.”

“What is he talking about?” said Bessie. “Saucepan, stop talking about the geography of Giantland and tell us how to get there.”

“How to get there, did you say?” asked Saucepan, putting his hand behind his left ear.

“YES!” yelled everyone.

“Well, that’s easy,” said Saucepan, beaming round. “Same way as Jack-and-the-Bean-Stalk did, of course. Up the Bean-Stalk!”

Everyone stared at Saucepan in silence. They had all heard of Jack-and-the-Bean-Stalk, of course, and how he climbed up the Bean-Stalk into Giantland.

“But where’s the Bean-Stalk?” asked Jo at last.

“Where Jack lives,” said Saucepan, suddenly hearing well again. “I know him quite well. Married a princess and lives in a castle.”

“I never knew that he was an old friend of yours,” said Moon-Face. “How did you come to know him?”

“I sold him a lot of saucepans and kettles,” said the Saucepan Man. “He was giving an enormous dinner-party, and they hadn’t enough things to cook everything in. So I came along just at the right moment and sold him everything I’d got. Very lucky for him.”

“And for you too,” grinned Moon-Face. “Well, you’d better take us to your Jack, Saucepan. We’ll go up the Bean-Stalk, and try and rescue that silly little Connie.”

“We’d better not all go,” said Jo, looking round at the little company.

“I must go to show you the way,” said Saucepan, who loved making a journey.

“And I must go, of course,” said Moon-Face.

“And I shall come with you to look after you,” said Silky, firmly. “You always get into such silly scrapes if I’m not there to see to you.”

“And I shall certainly come, because I was really in charge of Connie,” said Jo.

“And we’re not going to be left out of an adventure like this!” said Bessie at once. “Are we, Fanny?”

“Well—it looks as if we’re all going then,” said Moon-Face. “All right, let’s go. But don’t let’s get caught by any giants, for goodness’ sake. Must we go through Giantland to get to the Land of Marvels, Saucepan?”

“Bound to,” said Saucepan, cheerfully. “The giants won’t hurt you. They’re quite harmless nowadays. Well, come on! Down the tree we go, and then to the other end of the Wood.”

So down the Tree they went, and the red squirrel bounded with them to the bottom. They wished they could skip down as he did—it didn’t take him more than half a minute to get up or down!

They reached the bottom, and then thought how silly they were not to have gone down the Slippery-Slip!

“It shows how worried we are, not to have thought of that!” said Bessie. “Which way now, Saucepan?”

Saucepan set off down a narrow, winding path. “This way, look—under this hedge, and across this field. We’ve got to get to the station,” he said.

“Station? What station?” said Jo, in astonishment.

“To get the train for Jack-and-the-Bean-Stalk’s castle,” said Saucepan. “How stupid you are, all of a sudden, Jo!”

They came suddenly to a small station set under a row of poplar trees. A train came puffing in, looking very like an old wooden one with carriages that the children had at home. They got in, and it went off, puffing hard as if it was out of breath.

They passed through many queer little stations, but didn’t stop. “I said ‘Bean-Stalk Castle’ to the engine, so it will go straight there,” said Saucepan.

The other passengers didn’t seem to mind going to Bean-Stalk Castle at all. They sat and talked or read, and took no notice of the others.

The train suddenly stopped and hooted. “Here we are,” said Saucepan. “Come on, everyone.”

They got out on to a tiny platform. The engine gave another hoot and went rattling off.

“There’s Jack! Hi there, Jack!” suddenly yelled Saucepan, and rushed towards a sturdy young man in the distance. They shook hands, all Saucepan’s kettles and pans rattling excitedly.

“What a pleasure! Have you come to stay with me?” said Jack

“What a pleasure, what a pleasure!” cried Jack. “Who are all these people? Have they come to stay with me? I’ll go and tell the Princess to make up extra beds at once.”

“No, don’t do that,” said Moon-Face. “We haven’t come to stay. We just want to know—may we please use your Bean-Stalk, Jack?”

“It hasn’t grown this year yet,” said Jack. “I forgot to plant any beans, you see. Also, the giants were a bit of a nuisance last year, always shouting rude things down the Bean-Stalk to me.”

“Oh!” said Jo, staring at Jack in dismay. “What a pity! We particularly wanted to go up your Bean-Stalk.”

“Well—I can plant the beans now, and they’ll grow,” said Jack. “They’re magic ones, you know. They grow as you watch them.”

“Oh, good!” said Moon-Face. “Could you plant some, do you think? We’d be most awfully obliged.”

“Certainly,” said Jack, and he felt about in his pocket. “I’d do anything to help old Saucepan. His kettles and saucepans are still going strong in my kitchen—never wear out at all. Now—wherever did I put those beans?”

The others watched anxiously as he turned a queer collection of things out of his pockets. At last came three or four mouldy-looking beans.

“Here we are,” said Jack. “I’ll just press them into the earth—so—and now we’ll watch them grow. Stand back, please, because they sometimes shoot up at a great pace!”