Читать книгу The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid blyton - Страница 3

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Once upon a time there were three children, Jo, Bessie and Fanny. They lived with their mother and father in a little cottage deep in the country. The girls had to help their mother in the house, and Jo helped his father in the garden.

Now, one day their mother had a letter. She didn’t very often have letters, so the children wondered what it was about.

“Listen!” she said. “This is something quite exciting for you. Your cousin Dick is coming to stay with us!”

“Ooh!” said all the children, pleased. Dick was about the same age as Jo. He was a merry boy, rather naughty, and it would be such fun to have him.

“He can sleep with me in my little bedroom!” said Jo. “Oh, Mother, what fun! When is he coming?”

“To-morrow,” said Mother. “You girls can put up a little bed for him in Jo’s room, and, Jo, you must make room for Dick’s things in your cupboard. He is going to stay quite a long time, because his mother is ill and can’t look after him.”

The three children flew upstairs to get Jo’s room ready for Dick as well.

“I say! What will Dick say when we tell him about the Enchanted Wood and the Faraway Tree?” cried Jo.

“And what will he say when we show him our friends there—Silky, and old Moon-Face, and the dear old deaf Saucepan Man, and everyone!” said Bessie.

“He will get a surprise!” said Fanny.

They got everything ready for their cousin. They put up a little camp-bed for him, and found some blankets. They put a cushion for a pillow. They made room in Jo’s cupboard and chest of drawers for Dick’s things. Then they looked out of the window. It looked on to a dark, thick wood, whose trees waved in the wind, not far from the bottom of the garden.

“The Enchanted Wood!” said Bessie softly. “What marvellous adventures we have had there. Maybe Dick will have some, too.”

Dick arrived the next day. He came in the carrier’s cart, with a small bag of clothes. He jumped down and hugged the children’s mother.

“Hallo, Aunt Polly!” he said. “It’s good of you to have me. Hallo, Jo! I say, aren’t Bessie and Fanny big now? It’s lovely to be with you all again.” The children took him up to his room. The girls unpacked his bag and put his things neatly away in the cupboard and the chest. They showed him the bed he was to sleep on.

“I expect I shall find it rather dull here after living in London,” said Dick, putting his hair-brushes on the little dressing-table. “It seems so quiet. I shall miss the noise of buses and trams.”

“You won’t find it dull!” said Jo. “My word, Dick, we’ve had more adventures since we’ve been here than ever we had when we lived in a big town.”

“What sort of adventures?” asked Dick in surprise. “It seems such a quiet place that I shouldn’t have thought there was even a small adventure to be found!”

The children took Dick to the window. “Look, Dick,” said Jo. “Do you see that thick, dark wood over there, backing on to the lane at the bottom of our garden?”

“Yes,” said Dick. “It seems quite ordinary to me, except that the leaves of the trees seem a darker green than usual.”

“Well, listen, Dick—that’s the Enchanted Wood!” said Bessie.

Dick’s eyes opened wide. He stared at the wood. “You’re making fun of me!” he said at last.

“No, we’re not,” said Fanny. “We mean what we say. Its name is the Enchanted Wood—and it is enchanted. And oh, Jo, in the middle of it is the most wonderful tree in the world!”

“What sort of tree?” asked Dick, feeling quite excited.

“It’s a simply enormous tree,” said Jo. “Its top goes right up to the clouds—and oh, Dick, at the top of it is always some strange land. You can go there by climbing up the top branch of the Faraway Tree, going up a little ladder through a hole in the big cloud that always lies on the top of the tree—and there you are in some peculiar Land!”

“I don’t think I believe you,” said Dick. “You are making it all up.”

“Dick! We’ll take you there and show you what we mean,” said Bessie. “It’s all quite true. Oh, Dick, we’ve had such exciting adventures at the top of the Faraway Tree. We’ve been to the Rocking-Land, and the Birthday Land.”

“And the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of the Snowman,” said Fanny. “You just can’t think how exciting it all is.”

“And, Dick, all kinds of queer folk live in the trunk of the Faraway Tree,” said Jo. “We’ve lots of good friends there. We’ll take you to them one day. There’s a dear little fairy called Silky, because she has such a mass of silky gold hair.”

“And there’s Moon-Face, with a big round face like the moon! He’s a darling!” said Bessie.

“And there’s funny old Mister Watzisname,” said Fanny.

“What’s his real name?” asked Dick in surprise.

“Nobody knows, not even himself,” said Jo. “So everyone calls him Mister Watzisname. Oh, and there is the old Saucepan Man. He’s always hung round with kettles and saucepans and things, and he’s so deaf that he always hears everything wrong.”

Dick’s eyes began to shine. “Take me there,” he begged. “Quick, take me! I can’t wait to see all these exciting people.”

“We can’t go till Mother says she doesn’t need us in the house,” said Bessie. “But we will take you—of course we will.”

“And Dick, there’s a slippery slip, a slide that goes right down the inside of the tree from the top to the bottom,” said Fanny. “It belongs to Moon-Face. He lends people cushions to slide down on.”

“I do want to go down that slide,” said Dick, getting terribly impatient. “Why do you tell me all these things if you can’t take me to see them now? I’ll never be able to sleep to-night! Good gracious! My head feels in a whirl already to think of the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face and Silky and the slippery-slip.”

“Dick, we’ll take you as soon as ever we can,” promised Jo. “There’s no hurry. The Faraway Tree is always there. We never, never know what land is going to be at the top. We have to be very careful sometimes because there might be a dangerous land—one that we couldn’t get away from!”

A voice came from downstairs. “Children! Are you going to stay up all the day? I suppose you don’t want any tea? What a pity—because I have made some scones for you and put out some strawberry jam!”

Four children raced down the stairs. Scones and strawberry jam! Gracious, they weren’t going to miss those. Good old Mother—she was always thinking of some nice little treat for them.

“Jo, Father wants you to dig up some potatoes for him after tea,” said Mother. “Dick can help you. And, Bessie and Fanny, I want you to finish my ironing for me, because I have to take some mended clothes to Mrs. Harris, and she lives such a long way away.”

The children had been rather hoping to go out and take Dick to the Enchanted Wood. They looked disappointed. But they said nothing, because they knew that in a family everyone had to help when they could.

Mother saw their disappointed faces and smiled. “I suppose you want to take Dick to see those peculiar friends of yours,” she said. “Well now, listen—if you are good children to-day, and do the jobs you have to do, I’ll give you a whole day’s holiday to-morrow! Then you may take your dinner and your tea and go to visit any friends you like. How would you like that?”

“well listen, dick—that’s the enchanted wood!” said bessie.

“Oh, Mother, thank you!” cried the children in delight.

“A whole day!” said Bessie. “Why, Dick, we can show you everything!”

“And maybe let you peep into whatever land is at the top of the Faraway Tree,” whispered Fanny, “Oh, what fun!”

So they did their work well after tea and looked forward to the next day. Dick dug hard, and Jo was pleased with him. It was going to be fun to have a cousin with them, able to work and play and enjoy everything, too!

When they went to bed that night they left the doors of their rooms open so that they might call to one another.

“Sleep well, Dick!” called Bessie. “I hope it’s fine to-morrow! What fun we shall have!”

“Good night, Bessie!” called back Dick. “I can’t tell you how I’m longing for to-morrow. I know I shan’t be able to sleep to-night!”

But he did—and so did all the others. When Mother came up at ten o’clock she peeped in at the children, and not one was awake.

Jo woke first next day. He sat up and looked out of the window. The sun streamed in, warm and bright. Jo’s heart jumped for joy. He leaned over to Dick’s bed and shook him.

“Wake up!” he said. “It’s to-morrow now—and we’re going to the Enchanted Wood!”