Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (12 page)

“Is the old witch a fierce sort of person?” asked Mollie.

“No, she’s a good sort,” said Chinky. “She will do all she can to help us, I know. You needn’t be afraid. She won’t harm us. My grandmother knew her very well.”

“How are we going to get into the house?” asked Peter, looking at the strange house going round and round and round. “It’s like getting on a roundabout that’s going! Our mother always says that’s a dangerous thing to do.”

“Well, we’ll try and get the witch to stop the house spinning round for a minute, so that we can hop in with the chair,” said Chinky. “Come on. I’ve got the chair.”

Off they went towards the queer little house. As it went round the smoke went round too, and made green rings. It was very peculiar.

“Witch Snippit, Witch Snippit!” called Chinky. “Stop your house and let us in!”

Someone opened a window and looked out. It was an old woman with a red shawl on and a pretty white cap. She had a hooky nose and a pair of large spectacles over her eyes. She seemed surprised to see them.

“Wait a minute!” she. called. “I’ll stop the house. But you’ll have to be very quick getting in at the door because it won’t stop for long!”

The house slowed down—it went round more and more slowly—and at last it stopped. The door was facing the children, and the witch opened it and beckoned to them. Mollie shot inside, and so did Peter. Chinky was trying to get in, with the chair too, when suddenly the house began to spin round fast again! Poor Chinky fell out of the doorway with the chair!

Mollie and Peter really couldn’t help laughing, he looked so funny! The witch stopped the house again, and then Peter helped Chinky in quickly. They put the wishing-chair down and then turned to greet the witch.

“Good-morning,” she said, with a nice smile. “And what can I do for you?”

THE children and Chinky looked at the smiling witch. They liked her very much. She had kind blue eyes, as bright as forget-me-nots. At first they felt rather giddy, for the house they were in spun round and round all the time—but they soon got used to it.

“We’ve brought our wishing-chair to you,” said Chinky. “We went to the cloud-goblin’s castle the other day, and he made our chair invisible. It’s such a nuisance to have a chair we can’t see—so, as we knew you were clever at all kinds of visible and invisible spells, we thought we would bring it to you. Could you make our chair seeable, please?”

“Certainly,” said Witch Snippit. “I have some very strong magic paint. If you use it, you will make your chair easily seen.”

She went to a cupboard. The children stared round the room. It was a very strange room indeed. The clock on the mantelpiece had legs, and for every tick it gave, it walked a step along the mantelpiece. When it got to the end it turned and walked back again. Then it suddenly disappeared!

“Ooh!” said Mollie, surprised. “Your clock’s gone, Witch Snippit!”

“Oh, don’t take any notice of that,” said the witch. “It’s just showing off!”

The clock said “Urrrrnrrr!” and came back again. Up and down it walked, and the children thought it was the strangest one they had ever seen.

Other things in the cottage were most peculiar too. There was a chair that had four legs and a back, but no seat. Mollie wondered if it really
    
 that couldn’t be seen. She went to sit down on it and found that it
had
got a seat, but it was quite invisible. There was a table, too, that had a top but no legs.

On the dresser there were cups with no handles, and lids balanced in the air but no dishes below. Mollie put out her hand and felt the dishes, but she couldn’t see them. She turned round to Witch Snippit.

“You
have
got a funny home,” she began—and then she stopped in surprise. Witch Snippit was all there except her middle! Oh dear, she did look so funny!

“Don’t be worried,” she said to Mollie. “I’m quite all right. My middle is really there, but it’s vanished for a few minutes. You can’t meddle about with visible and invisible magic without having things like this happen to you at times.”

As she spoke, her middle came back again, and, oh dear, her hands and feet went! Mollie began to laugh. “Whatever will go next!” she said,

All
of the witch disappeared then—and the children and Chinky couldn’t see her anywhere! They knew she was in the room, because they could hear her laughing.

“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “You should never be astonished at anything that happens in a witch’s house.”

“I say! The floor’s gone!” said Peter, in alarm, looking down at his feet. “Oooh! I feel as if I’m falling! Where’s the floor?”

“Oh, it’s there all the time,” said Witch Snippit, coming back in bits. “It’s only disappeared from sight. Don’t worry, it’s there!”

She put a tin of paint on the table. “Would
you
like to paint your chair and get it right again?” she asked. “It’s quite easy. There are three brushes for you. It’s good paint. It will make invisible things visible, or visible things invisible. I’m rather busy today, so if you’ll do the job yourself, I’ll be glad.”

“We’d love to!” said Chinky. He took off the lid of the paint tin and picked up a brush. “It’s going to be funny painting something you can’t see!” he said.

He felt for the legs of the chair and dipped his brush into the paint, which was a queer silvery colour and seemed as thin as smoke. He painted along one of the chair’s invisible legs—and hey, presto! it came into sight as brown and solid as ever!

“I’ve got a leg back!” said Chinky, in excitement, and waved his brush in the air. A drop of paint flew on to Peter’s nose.

“Don’t,” said Peter. Mollie stared at him in horror. His nose had disappeared!

“Peter, your nose has gone!” she said. “A drop of the paint went on to it! Oh, whatever shall we do?

“Get it back again, of course,” said Chinky. “Didn’t you hear Witch Snippit say that this paint acted either way? It makes things seen that can’t be seen, and it makes things that are seeable unseeable! Come here, Peter—I’ll paint where your nose should be, and it’ll come back again!”

He dabbed some paint where he thought Peter’s nose should be—and sure enough, it
did
come back again! Mollie was so glad. Peter looked horrid without a nose.

“I’ll teach you to make my nose disappear!” said Peter to Chinky. He dipped his brush in the paint and dabbed at Chinky’s pointed ears. They vanished in a trice!

“Don’t!” said Chinky crossly. He threw some paint at Peter’s feet and they disappeared at once!

“Oh!” said Peter, surprised. “I don’t like having no feet. I shall paint them back! There they are! Stop it, Chinky. I don’t like this game. It would be awful if something
didn’t
come back!”

Chinky was naughty. He dipped his brush in the magic paint, and ran it round Mollie’s neck. How queer she looked with a head and a body but no neck! Peter couldn’t bear it. He painted her neck in again at once, and frowned at Chinky.

“If you’re not careful I’ll paint you from top to toe and then take away the tin of paint!” he said.

“Now listen to me,” suddenly said Witch Snippit’s voice above them. “I didn’t give you that paint to waste. If you are not careful there will not be enough to finish painting your wishing-chair, and then you will find there is a bit still left invisible, that you cannot see. So be sensible.”

Chinky and Peter went red. They began to paint the chair busily, and Mollie joined them. The clock on the mantelpiece was so interested in what they were doing that it walked right off the mantelpiece and fell into the coal-scuttle.

“It can stay there,” said the witch. “It is much too curious—always poking its nose where it isn’t wanted.”

“Urrrrrrrrr!” said the clock, and disappeared. Mollie was glad her clock at home didn’t behave like that.

In an hour’s time the wishing-chair was itself again, and all the paint in the tin was finished. There it stood before them, their same old wishing-chair. It had been very strange to see it gradually becoming visible to their eyes.

“There’s a bit at the back here that can’t be seen,” said Mollie, pointing to a bit that hadn’t come back again. But there was no paint to finish that bit, and the children didn’t like to ask for any more. So that tiny piece of the chair had to remain invisible. It looked like a hole!

“Thank you very much, Witch Snippit,” said Chinky politely. “We’ve finished now, and had better be getting home. Could you stop your house spinning and let us go out?”

“Very well,” said Witch Snippit. She called out a magic word and the spinning house slowed down. “Goodbye,” she said to Chinky and the children. “Come and see me again another time. Hurry, now, or the house will start spinning again!”

The three squeezed into the wishing-chair. The house stopped and the witch opened the door.

“Home, wishing-chair!” shouted Chinky—and the chair flew straight out of the door and up into the air.

“Goodbye, goodbye!” called Mollie and Peter, looking down at the house, which was already spinning fast again. “I say, that was a pretty good adventure, wasn’t it!”

“I wish we’d got some of that magic paint with us,” said Chinky. “We could have some fun with it!”

“I’m glad we haven’t!” said Mollie. “I don’t know
what
mischief you’d get into, Chinky!”

THE children were cross because Mother had said that the painters were to paint the walls of the playroom and mend a window—and this meant that they couldn’t play there for some time.

Their playroom was built right at the bottom of the garden, and it was quite safe for their friend, Chinky, the pixie, to live there, for no one ever went to the garden playroom except themselves. But now the painters would be there for a week. How tiresome!

“It’s a good thing it’s summer-time, Chinky, so that you can live in the garden for a bit,” said Mollie.

“Oh, don’t worry about
me,”
said Chinky. “I’ve a nice cosy place in the hollow of an oak tree. It’s the chair I’m thinking about. Where shall we keep that? We can’t have it flying about whilst the painters are there.”

“We’d better put it in the boxroom, indoors,” said Peter. “That room’s just been repainted, so I don’t expect Mother or anyone will think it must be turned out just yet. It will be safe there.”