Читать книгу The Enchanted Wood - Enid blyton - Страница 6

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Before very long the children were hidden in the branches as they climbed upwards. When Mr. Whiskers came back with five other brownies, not a child could be seen!

“Hie, come down!” yelled the brownies, dancing round the tree. “You’ll be captured or lost. This tree is dangerous!”

Jo laughed and peered down. The Faraway Tree seemed to be growing acorns just where he was, so he picked one and threw it down. It hit Mr. Whiskers on the hat and he rushed away, shouting, “Oh, some one’s shot me! Some one’s shot me!”

Then there was silence. “They’ve gone,” said Jo, laughing again. “I expect they’re afraid of being shot by acorn bullets, funny little things! Come on, girls!”

“This must be an oak tree if it grows acorns,” said Bessie, as she climbed. But just as she said that she stared in surprise at something nearby. It was a prickly chestnut case, with conkers inside!

“Good gracious!” she said. “It’s growing horse chestnuts just here! What a very peculiar tree!”

“Well, let’s hope it will grow apples and pears higher up,” said Fanny, with a giggle. “It’s a most extraordinary tree!”

Soon they were quite high up. When Jo parted the leaves and tried to see out of the tree he was amazed to find that he was far higher than the tallest trees in the wood. He and the girls looked down on the top of all the other trees, which looked like a broad green carpet below.

Jo was higher up than the girls. Suddenly he gave a shout. “I say, girls! Come up here by me, quickly! I’ve found something queer!”

Bessie and Fanny climbed quickly up.

“Why, it’s a window in the tree!” said Bessie, in astonishment. They all peered inside, and suddenly the window was flung open and an angry little face looked out, with a nightcap on.

“Rude creatures!” shouted the angry little man, who looked like a pixie. “Everybody that climbs the tree peeps in at me! It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, there’s always some one peeping!”

The children were too astonished to do anything but stare. The pixie disappeared and came back with a jug of water. He flung it at Bessie and wetted her. She gave a scream.

“Perhaps you won’t peep into people’s houses next time,” said the pixie with a grin, and he slammed his window shut again and drew the curtain.

“Well!” said Bessie, trying to wipe herself dry with her handkerchief; “what a rude little man!”

“We’d better not look in at any windows we pass,” said Jo. “But I was so surprised to see a window in the tree!”

Bessie soon got dry. They climbed up again, and soon had another surprise. They came to a broad branch that led to a yellow door set neatly in the big trunk of the Faraway Tree. It had a little knocker and a brightly polished bell. The children stared at the door.

“I wonder who lives there?” said Fanny.

“Shall we knock and see?” said Jo.

“Well, I don’t want water all over me again,” said Bessie.

“RUDE CREATURES!” SHOUTED THE ANGRY LITTLE MAN, WHO LOOKED LIKE A PIXIE.

“We’ll ring the bell and then hide behind this branch,” said Jo. “If any one thinks he is going to throw water at us he won’t find us.”

So Jo rang the bell and then they all hid carefully behind a big branch. A voice came from the inside of the door.

“I’m washing my hair! If that’s the butcher, please leave a pound of sausages!”

The children stared at one another and laughed. It was odd to hear of butchers coming up the Faraway Tree. The voice shouted again:

“If it’s the oil man, I don’t want anything. If it’s the red dragon, he must call again next week!”

“Good gracious!” said Bessie, looking rather frightened. “The red dragon! I don’t like the sound of that!”

At that moment the yellow door opened and a small elf looked out. Her hair was fluffed out round her shoulders, drying, and she was rubbing it with a towel. She stared at the peeping children.

“Did you ring my bell?” she asked. “What do you want?”

“We just wanted to see who lived in the funny little tree-house,” said Jo, peering in at the dark room inside the tree. The elf smiled. She had a very sweet face.

“Come in for a moment,” she said. “My name is Silky, because of my silky hair. Where are you off to?”

“We are climbing up the Faraway Tree to see what is at the top,” said Jo.

“Be careful you don’t find something horrid,” said Silky, giving them each a chair in her dark little tree-room. “Sometimes there are delightful places at the top of the tree—but sometimes there are queer lands too. Last week there was the land of Hippetty-Hop, which was dreadful. As soon as you got there, you had to hop on one leg, and everything went hippetty-hop, even the trees. Nothing ever kept still. It was most tiring.”

“It does sound exciting,” said Bessie. “Where’s our food, Jo? Let’s ask Silky to share some with us.”

Silky was pleased. She sat there brushing her beautiful golden hair and ate sandwiches with them. She brought out a tin of Pop Biscuits, which were lovely. As soon as you bit them they went pop! and you suddenly found your mouth filled with new honey from the middle of the biscuits. Fanny took seven, one after another, for she was rather greedy. Bessie stopped her.

“You’ll go pop if you eat any more!” she said.

“Do a lot of people live in this tree?” asked Jo.

“Yes, heaps,” said Silky. “They move in and out, you know. But I’m always here, and so is the Angry Pixie, down below.”

“Yes, we’ve seen him!” said Bessie. “Who else is there?”

“There’s Mister Watzisname above me,” said Silky. “Nobody knows his name, and he doesn’t know it himself, so he’s called Mister Watzisname. Don’t wake him if he’s asleep. He might chase you. Then there’s Dame Washalot. She’s always washing, and as she pours her water away down the tree you’ve got to look out for waterfalls!”

A FUNNY OLD GNOME SAT IN A DECK-CHAIR ON A BROAD BRANCH, HIS MOUTH WIDE OPEN.

“This is a most interesting and exciting tree,” said Bessie, finishing her cake. “Jo, I think we ought to go now, or we’ll never get to the top. Good-bye, Silky. We’ll come and see you again one day.”

“Do,” said Silky. “I’d like to be friends.”

They all left the dear little round room in the tree and began to climb once more. Not long after they heard a peculiar noise somewhere. It sounded like an aeroplane throbbing and roaring.

“But there can’t be an aeroplane in this tree!” said Jo. He peered all round—and then he saw what was making the noise. A funny old gnome sat in a deck-chair on a broad branch, his mouth wide open, his eyes fast shut—snoring hard!

“It’s Mister Watzisname!” said Bessie. “Gracious, what a noise he makes! Mind we don’t waken him!”

“Shall I put a cherry in his mouth and see what happens?” asked Jo, who was always ready for a bit of mischief. The Faraway Tree was growing cherries all around for a change, and there were plenty to pick.

“No, Jo, no!” said Bessie. “You know what Silky said—he might chase us. I don’t want to fall out of the Faraway Tree and bump down from bough to bough, if you do!”

So they all crept past old Mister Watzisname, and went on climbing up and up. For a long time nothing happened except that the wind blew in the tree. The children did not pass any more houses or windows in the tree—and then they heard another noise—rather a peculiar one.

They listened. It sounded like a waterfall—and suddenly Jo guessed what it was.

“It’s Dame Washalot throwing out her dirty water!” he yelled. “Look out, Bessie! Look out, Fanny!”

Down the trunk of the tree poured a lot of blue, soapy water. Jo dodged it. Fanny slipped under a broad branch. But poor old Bessie got well splashed from head to foot. How she shouted!

JO AND FANNY HAD TO LEND HER THEIR HANKIES.

Jo and Fanny had to lend her their hankies. “I am most unlucky!” sighed Bessie. “That’s twice I’ve been wetted to-day.”

Up they went again, passing more little doors and windows, but seeing no one else—and at last they saw above them a vast white cloud.

“Look!” said Jo, in amazement. “This cloud has a hole in it—and the branches go up—and I believe we’re at the very top of the tree! Shall we creep through the cloud-hole and see what land is above?”

“Let’s!” cried Bessie and Fanny—so up they went.