Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (11 page)

The children and Chinky got out of their chair. “Good morning,” said Chinky. “I’m so sorry to come in like this—but our chair didn’t wait to knock.”

The goblin bowed politely. “It doesn’t matter at all!” he said. “What a marvellous chair you have, and how pleased I am to see you! Pray sit down and let me give you some lemonade!”

They all sat down on stools. The goblin rushed to a cupboard and brought out a big jug of lemonade.

“It is so nice to see such pleasant visitors,” said the goblin, putting a glass of lemonade before each of them. “And now, will you have biscuits?”

“Thank you,” said Mollie and Peter and Chinky. They felt that it was kind of the goblin to welcome them —but they didn’t like him at all. He seemed
much
too polite!

“Another glass of lemonade?” asked the goblin, taking Chinky’s empty glass. “Oh do! It is a pleasure, I assure you, to have you here! Another biscuit, little girl? I make them myself, and only save them for
special
visitors.”

“But we aren’t very special,” said Peter, thinking that the goblin was really silly to say such things.

“Oh yes, you are
very
special,” said the goblin, smiling politely at them all. “
So
good of you to come and see an ugly little goblin like me!”

“But we didn’t
mean
to come and see you,” said Mollie truthfully. Chinky frowned at her. He didn’t want her to offend the goblin. He did not trust him at all. He wanted to get away as soon as he could.

“Well,” said Chinky, finishing his biscuit, “it is kind of you to have welcomed us like this. But now we must go.”

“Goodbye and thank you,” said the polite goblin. He shook hands with each of them and bowed very low. They turned to go to the wishing-chair.

And then they had a most
terrible
shock! The wishing-chair was not there! It was gone.

“I say! Where’s the wishing-chair?” shouted Chinky. “Goblin, where’s our chair?”

“Oh, pixie, how should
I
know?” said the goblin. “Haven’t I been looking after you every minute? It must have flown away when you were not looking.”

“Well, it’s funny if it has,” said Chinky. “We should have seen it, or at least felt the wind of its wings flapping. I don’t believe you, goblin. You have done something with our chair—your servants have taken it away! Tell me quickly, or I will punish you!”

“
Punish
me!” said the goblin. “And how would you do that, pray? You had better be careful, pixie— how are you going to get away from my castle without a wishing-chair? I live here by myself in the clouds!”

“Be careful, Chinky,” said Peter. “Don’t make him angry. Goodness knows how we’d escape from here if he didn’t help us!”

Mollie looked frightened. The little goblin smiled at her politely, and said, “Don’t be afraid, pretty little girl. I will treat you as an honoured guest for as long as you like to stay with me in my castle.”

“We don’t want to stay with you at all,” said Chinky. “We want our wishing-chair! What have you DONE with it?”

But he could get no answer from the polite goblin. It was most tiresome. What in the world were they to do?

Chinky suddenly lost his temper. He rushed at the goblin to catch him and shake him. The goblin looked scared. He turned to run and sped out of the big kitchen into the hall. Chinky ran after him. Mollie and Peter looked at one another.

“Chinky will get us all into trouble,” said Mollie. “He really is a silly-billy. If he makes the goblin angry, he certainly won’t help us to get away. I suppose that naughty wishing-chair flew away home.”

“I’m quite sure it didn’t,” said Peter. “I know I would have seen it moving.”

The goblin came running into the room followed by Chinky. “Catch him, catch him!” yelled Chinky. Peter tried to—but the goblin was like an eel. He dodged this way, he dodged that way—and then a funny thing happened. Peter fell over something that wasn’t there!

He crashed right into something and fell over, bang! And yet, when he looked, there was nothing at all to fall over! He felt very much astonished. He sat up and stared round. “What did I fall over?” he said. Chinky stopped chasing the goblin and ran to him. He put out his arms and felt round about in the air by Peter— and his hands closed on something hard—that couldn’t be seen!

“Oh!” he yelled joyfully, “it’s the wishing-chair! That deceitful goblin made it invisible, so that we couldn’t see it, even though it was really here! And he meant to help us home all right—and as soon as we had gone he meant to use our wishing-chair for himself, and we’d never know!”

“Then it hasn’t flown away!” cried Mollie, running over and feeling it too. “Oh goody, goody! We can get into it and go home even if we can’t see what we’re sitting on! Get up, Peter, and let’s fly off before that nasty little polite goblin does any more spells!”

They all sat in the chair they couldn’t see. “Home, wishing-chair, home!” cried Chinky. The invisible chair rose in the air and flew out of the door. The goblin ran to the door and bowed. “So pleased to have seen you!” he called politely.

“Nasty little polite creature!” said Chinky. “My goodness—we nearly lost the chair, children! Now we’ve got to find a way of making it visible again. It’s no fun having a chair and not knowing if it’s really there or not! I don’t like feeling I’m sitting on nothing! I like to
see
what I’m sitting on!”

They flew home. They got out of the chair and looked at one another.

“Well, we do have adventures!” said Peter, grinning.

IT was most annoying not being able to see the wishing-chair. The children kept forgetting where it was and falling over it.

“Oh dear!” groaned Peter, picking himself up for the fourth time, “I really can’t bear this chair being invisible. I keep walking into it and bumping myself.”

“I’ll tie a ribbon on it!” said Mollie. “Then we shall see the ribbon in the air, and we’ll know the chair is there!”

“That’s a good idea,” said Chinky. “Girls always think of good ideas.”

“So do boys,” said Peter. “I say! How queer that ribbon looks all by itself in the air! We can see it, but we can’t see the chair it’s tied on! People
would
stare if they came in here and saw it!”

It certainly did look funny. It stuck there in mid-air— and it did act as a warning to the children and Chinky that they must be careful not to walk into the invisible chair. It saved them many a bump.

“I’ve been asking the fairies how we can get the chair made visible again,” said Chinky the next day. “They say there is a funny old witch who lives in a little spinning house in Jiffy Wood, who is very, very clever at making things invisible
or
visible! So if we fly there next time the chair grows wings, we may be able to have it put right.”

“But how shall we know when it grows its wings if we can’t see them?” said Mollie.

“I never thought of that!” said Chinky.

“I know!” said Peter. “Let’s tear up little bits of paper and put them round the legs of the chair on the floor! Then, when its wings grow, the bits will all fly about in the draught the wings make with their flapping —and we shall see them and know the chair is ready to go off adventuring again!”

The children tore up the bits of paper and put them on the floor near the legs of the chair.

“Really, it does look funny!” said Mollie. “A ribbon balanced in mid-air—and bits of paper below, on the floor! Mother would think us very untidy if she came in.
”

“Let’s play tiddly-winks now,” said Peter. “I’ll get out the cup and the counters.”

Soon the three of them were playing tiddly-winks on the floor. Mollie flipped her counters into the cup very cleverly, and had just won, when Chinky gave a shout:

“Look! Those bits of paper are fluttering into the air! The chair must have grown its wings!”

Mollie and Peter turned to look. Sure enough, the scraps of paper they had put on the floor were all dancing up and down as if a wind was blowing them. The children could feel a draught too, and knew that the wishing-chair had once again grown its red wings.

“That was a good idea of yours. Peter,” said Chinky. “Boys have good ideas as well as girls, I can see! Come on, let’s get into the chair and see if it will fly to Jiffy Wood to the old witch’s.”

They climbed on to the chair. It was really very strange climbing on to something they couldn’t see, but could only feel. Chinky sat on the back, as usual, and the children squeezed into the seat.

“Go to Jiffy Wood, to the little Spinning House,” Chinky said to the chair. It rose up into the air, flew out of the door, and was up high before the children could say another word! They must have looked very queer, sitting in a chair that couldn’t be seen!

It was raining. Mollie wished they had brought an umbrella. “Tell the chair to fly above the clouds, Chinky,” she said. “It’s the clouds that drop the rain on to us. If we fly beyond them, we shan’t get wet because there won’t be any rain.”

“Fly higher than the clouds, chair,” said Chinky. The chair rose higher and higher. It flew right through the misty grey clouds and came out above them. The sun was shining brightly! It made the other side of the clouds quite dazzling to look at!

“This is better,” said Mollie. “The sun will dry our clothes.”

They flew on and on in the sunshine, above the great white clouds. Then they suddenly flew downwards again, and the children saw that they were over a thick wood.

“Jiffy Wood!” said Chinky, peering down. “We shall soon be there!”

Down they flew and down, and at last came to a little clearing. The chair flew down to it, and came to rest on some grass. A little way off was a most peculiar house. It had one leg, like a short pole, and it spun round and round and round on this leg! It did not go very fast, and the children could see that it had a door on one side and a window on each of the other three sides. It had one chimney which was smoking away merrily—but the smoke was green, a sign that a witch lived in the house.

“Well, here we are,” said Chinky, getting out of the chair. “I’d better carry the chair, I think. I don’t like leaving it about here when we can’t see it. We shouldn’t know where it was if anyone came along and untied the ribbon.”