Читать книгу The Enchanted Wood - Enid blyton - Страница 7

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One big broad branch slanted upwards at the top of the Faraway Tree. Jo climbed on to it and looked down—but he could see nothing, for a white mist swirled around and about. Above him the enormous thick white cloud stretched, with a purple hole in it through which the topmost branch of the Faraway Tree disappeared.

The children felt tremendously excited. At last they were at the very top. Jo carefully pulled himself up the last branch. He disappeared into the purple hole. Bessie and Fanny followed him.

The branch came to an end and a little ladder ran through the cloud. Up the children went—and before they knew what had happened, there they were out in the sunshine, in a new and very strange land.

They stood on green grass. Above them was a blue sky. A tune was playing somewhere, going on and on and on.

“It’s the sort of tune a roundabout plays, Jo,” said Bessie. “Isn’t it?”

It was—and then, suddenly, without any warning at all, the whole land began to swing round! The children almost fell over, so suddenly did the swing-round begin.

“Good gracious!” said Bessie, frightened. “What’s happening?”

The children felt terribly giddy, for trees, distant houses, hills, and bushes began to move round. They too felt themselves moving, for the grass was going round as well. They looked for the hole in the cloud—but it had disappeared.

“The whole land is going round and round like a roundabout!” cried Jo, shutting his eyes with giddiness. “We’ve passed over the hole in the clouds—we don’t know where the topmost branch of the Faraway Tree is now—it’s somewhere beneath this land, but goodness knows where!”

“Jo! But how can we get back home again?” cried Fanny, in a fright.

“We’ll have to ask some one for help,” said Jo.

“NOW YOU’VE MADE ME LOSE MY TIME,” SAID THE TALL MAN CROSSLY.

The three began to walk away from the patch of green field in which they were standing. Bessie noticed that they had been standing on a ring of grass that seemed darker than the grass around. She wondered why it was. But she had no time to say anything, for really it was dreadfully difficult to walk properly in a land that was going round and round like a proper roundabout all the time!

The music went on and on too, hurdy-gurdy, hurdy-gurdy. Jo wondered where it came from, and where the machinery was that worked the strange Roundabout Land.

Soon they met a tall man singing loudly from a book. Jo stopped him, but he went on singing. It was annoying.

“Hie-diddle-ho-diddle, derry-derry-down!” shouted the man, whilst Jo tried to make himself heard.

“How can we get away from this land?” Jo shouted.

“Don’t interrupt me, hie-diddle, ho-diddle!” sang the man, and he beat time with his finger. Jo caught hold of the bony finger and shouted again.

“Which is the way out of this land, and what land is it?”

“Now you’ve made me lose my time,” said the tall man crossly. “I shall have to begin my song again.”

“What is this land, please?” asked Fanny.

“It’s Roundabout Land,” said the tall man. “I should have thought any one would have guessed that. You can’t get away from it. It goes round and round always, and only stops once in a blue moon.”

“There must have been a blue moon when we climbed into it!” groaned Jo. “It had certainly stopped then.”

The man went off, singing loudly. “Hie-diddle, ho-diddle, derry-derry-down!”

“Silly old diddle-derry!” said Fanny. “Really, we do seem to meet the most peculiar people!”

“What I’m worried about is getting home,” said Bessie. “Mother will be anxious if we are not back when she is. What shall we do, Jo?”

“Let’s sit down under this tree and have a bit more to eat,” said Jo. So they sat down, and munched solemnly, hearing the roundabout music going on all the time, and watching the distant hills and trees swinging round against the sky. It was all very strange.

Presently a pair of rabbits lollopped up and looked at the children. Fanny loved animals and she threw a bit of cake to them. To her surprise one of the rabbits picked up the cake in its paw and nibbled it like a monkey!

“Thanks!” said the rabbit. “It’s a change from grass! Where do you come from? We haven’t seen you before, and we thought we knew every one here. Nobody new ever comes to Roundabout Land.”

“And nobody ever gets away,” said the other rabbit, smiling at Fanny, and holding out its paw for a bit of cake too.

“Really?” said Bessie, in alarm. “Well, we are new to it, for we only came about an hour ago. We came up the Faraway Tree.”

“What!” cried both rabbits at once, flipping up their long ears in amazement. “Up the Faraway Tree, did you say? Goodness, you don’t mean to say that’s touching this land?”

“Yes, it is,” said Bessie. “But I expect, as this land is swinging round and round, that the topmost branch might be almost anywhere underneath it—there’s no way of finding out.”

“Oh yes, there is!” said the first rabbit excitedly. “If we burrow down a little way, and make a hole, we can see whereabouts the Faraway Tree is underneath, and we can wait for it to come round again, when the Land swings above it.”

“Well, we came up from the tree just where the grass was rather darker than the rest,” said Bessie. “I noticed that. Do you suppose that as the Roundabout Land swings round, it will come back to the same place again, and we could slip down the topmost branch?”

“THANKS!” SAID THE RABBIT. “IT’S A CHANGE FROM GRASS!”

“Of course!” said the rabbits. “We can easily burrow down that green patch of grass, and wait for the land to turn round just over the tree again. Come on, quickly, there’s no time to lose!”

All of them jumped up and sped off. Bessie knew the way and so did the rabbits. Soon they were back in the field where the ring of dark grass stood. There was no opening now, leading through a cloud down to the tree. It had gone.

The rabbits began to dig quickly. Soon they found the ladder that led upwards. Then they made such a big hole that the children could see down it to the large white cloud that swirled below the Roundabout Land.

“Nothing there yet,” said the first rabbit, getting out a handkerchief and wiping his dirty front paws. “We must wait a bit. I only hope the Land hasn’t swung on and passed the Faraway Tree altogether!”

The roundabout music went on and on, and then suddenly it began to slow down. One of the rabbits peeped out of the hole below and gave a shout.

“The Land has stopped going round—and the Faraway Tree is just near by—but we can’t reach it!”

The children peered through the cloud below the ladder and saw quite clearly that the Faraway Tree was very near—but not near enough to jump on. Whatever were they to do?

“Now don’t try to jump,” warned the rabbits, “or you’ll fall right through the cloud.”

“But what shall we do?” asked Bessie, in despair. “We must get on the tree before we swing away again!”

“I’ve got a rope,” said one of the rabbits suddenly, and he put his hand into a big pocket and pulled out a yellow rope. He made a loop in one end and then threw it carefully at the topmost branch of the nearby tree. It caught and held! Good!

“Fanny, slip down the rope first,” said Jo. “I’ll hold this end.”

So Fanny, rather afraid, slid down the yellow rope to the tree—and then, just as she got there, the Roundabout music began to play very loudly and quickly, and the Roundabout Land began to move!

“Quick! Quick!” shouted Fanny, as the land swung nearer to the Faraway Tree. “Jump! Jump!”

They jumped—and the rabbits jumped after them. The Roundabout Land swung off. The big white cloud covered everything. The children and the rabbits clung to the topmost branch and looked at one another.

“We look like monkeys on a stick,” said Jo, and they all began to giggle. “My goodness, what an adventure! I vote we don’t come up here again.”

But, as you may guess, they did!