Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (5 page)

“And whilst we’re in the cottage we look round to see if our chair is there!” cried Peter. “What a marvellous plan!”

They set off. Chinky took them through a little wood they never seemed to have seen before, and, when they came out on the other side of it, they were in country that looked quite different! The flowers were brighter, the trees were full of blossom, and brilliant birds flew here and there!

“I never knew it was so easy to get to Fairyland!” said Mollie, in surprise.

“It isn’t!” said Chinky, with a grin, lifting up his black shawl and peeping at the children merrily. “You couldn’t possibly find it unless you had me with you!”

“Is that Bone-Lazy’s cottage?” asked Mollie, pointing towards a cottage at the foot of a nearby hill.

Chinky nodded.

“I’ll go on ahead now,” he said. “Then you must do your part as we have planned. Good luck!”

He hobbled on in front, looking for all the world like an old woman. When he came just by the cottage, Chinky suddenly gave a dreadful groan, and fell to the ground. At once the children rushed up and pulled the pretended old woman to her feet. From the corner of his eye Peter saw someone looking out of the window of the cottage at them.

“Quick! Quick!” he cried very loudly to Mollie. “This poor woman has fainted! We must take her into this cottage and ask for a drink of water for her. She must rest!”

They half-carried Chinky to the cottage door and knocked loudly. An old, old man opened it. He had narrow cunning eyes and the children didn’t like the look of him at all. They explained about the old woman and took her into the cottage. “Could you get a drink of water?” said Mollie.

The old chap left the room, grumbling. “I shall have to go to the well,” he muttered crossly.

“Good!” thought Peter. “It will give us time for a look round.”

But, to their great disappointment, the wishing-chair was not to be seen! The cottage only had one room, so it did not take them long to hunt all round it. Before they had time to say anything the old, old man came back with a jug of water.

Mollie took it from him—and then she suddenly noticed a very curious thing. A great draught was coming from a big chest-of-drawers standing in a corner. She stared at it in surprise. How could it be making such a wind round her feet? It was only a chest-of-drawers!

But wait a minute!
Was
it
only a chest-of-drawers? Quick as lightning Mollie upset the jug of water, and then turned to Bone-Lazy in apology. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I’ve upset the water! How very careless of me! I wonder if you’d be good enough to get some more?”

The old man shouted at her rudely, snatched up the jug, and went down the garden to the well. The others stared at Mollie in surprise.

“Whatever did you do that for?” said Peter.

“There’s something queer about that chest-of-drawers,” said Mollie. “There’s a strange wind coming from it. Feel, Chinky! I upset the jug just to get the old man out of the way for a minute.”

“Stars and moon! He’s changed our chair into a chest!” cried Chinky. “It must have grown wings, but we can’t see them because of Bone-Lazy’s magic! Quick, all of you! Jump into a drawer, and I’ll wish us away!”

The children pulled open two of the enormous drawers and sat inside. Chinky sat on the top, crying “Home, wishing-chair, home!”

The chest groaned, and the children heard a flapping noise Just at that moment the old man came into the room again with a jug of water. How he stared! But, before he could do anything, the chest-of-drawers rose up in the air, knocked the water out of his hand, almost pushed him over, and squeezed itself out of the door.

“You won’t steal our chair again!” shouted cheeky Chinky, and he flung his black shawl neatly over Bone-Lazy’s head.

The chest rose high into the air, and then a funny thing happened. It began to change back into the chair they all knew so well! Before they could think what to do, the children found themselves sitting safely on the seat, for the drawers all vanished into cushions! Chinky was on the top of the back, singing for joy.

“That
was
a marvellous plan of yours!” said Peter.

“Well, Mollie was the sharpest!” laughed Chinky.

“It was she who noticed the draught from the chest. Good old Mollie!”

ONCE a dreadful thing happened when the children were adventuring on the wishing-chair. It had grown its wings most conveniently when all three were in the playroom, so they jumped on, and were soon flying high in the air.

As they were flying they heard a loud droning noise, and looked round.

“It’s an aeroplane!” shouted Peter.

“I say! It’s very near us!” cried Mollie.

So it was. It didn’t seem to see them at all. It flew straight at them, and the edge of one widespread wing just touched their flying chair, giving it a tremendous jerk. Mollie and Peter were sitting tightly in the seat— but Chinky was on the back, and he was jolted right off the chair.

Mollie clutched at him as he fell—but she only just touched him. The two children watched in the greatest dismay as he fell down—and down—and down.

“Oh, Peter!” cried Mollie in despair, “poor, poor Chinky! Whatever will happen to him!”

The aeroplane flew on steadily, never guessing that it had touched a wishing-chair. Peter turned pale and looked at Mollie.

“We must make the chair go down and see if Chinky is hurt,” he said. “Oh dear! What a dreadful thing to happen! Chair, fly down to earth!”

The chair flapped its red wings and flew slowly down to the ground. It stood there, and the children jumped off. They were in open country with wide fields all around them. There was no sign of Chinky at all.

They heard the sound of someone chanting a song, and saw coming towards them, a round, fat little man carrying a bundle on his head.

“Hi!” called Peter. “Have you seen a little pixie falling out of the sky?”

“Is that a riddle?” said the round little man, grinning stupidly. “I can ask
you
one too! Have you seen a horse that quacks like a duck?”

“Don’t be silly,” said Mollie. “This is serious. Our friend has fallen out of the sky.”

“Well, tell him not to do it again,” said the little round man. “All that fell out of the sky today was a large snowflake! Good-morning!”

He went on his way, his bundle bobbing on his head. The children were very angry.

“Making a joke about a serious thing like poor Chinky falling out of the sky!” said Mollie, with tears in her eyes. “Horrid fellow.”

“Here’s someone else,” said Peter. “Hi! Stop a minute!”

The someone was another round, fat person, also carrying a bundle on her head and singing a little song. She stopped when she saw the children.

“Have you seen a pixie falling out of the sky?” asked Peter.

“No. Have you?” said the round little woman, grinning.

“Of course!” said Mollie impatiently.

“Fibber!” said the round woman. “A big snowflake fell out of the sky, but nothing else.”

“They’ve got snowflakes on the brain!” said Peter, as the woman went on her way, singing. “Come on, Mollie. We’d better go and look for Chinky ourselves. We know that it was somewhere near here that he fell. We’ll carry the chair between us so that we may have it safely. I don’t trust these stupid people.”

They carried the chair along and came to a marketplace. It was full of the same round, fat people, all humming and singing. A town-crier was going round the market, ringing a bell, and crying “Oyez! Oyez! Dame Apple-pie has lost her spectacles! Oyez! Oyez!”

Then Peter had a splendid idea! “I say, Mollie! Let’s tell the town-crier to shout out about Chinky. We’ll offer a reward to anyone that can tell us about him.
Someone
must have seen him fall.”

So, before very long the town-crier was ringing his bell and crying loudly, “Oyez! Oyez! A reward is offered to anyone having news of a pixie who fell from the sky! Oyez!”

Mollie and Peter stood on a platform so that people might know to whom to go if they had news. To their delight there came quite a crowd of people to them.

“We’ve news, we’ve news!” they cried, struggling to get to Peter first.

“Well, where did you see the pixie fall?” asked Peter of the first little man.

“Sir, I saw a big snowflake fall in the Buttercup Field,” said he.

“Don’t be foolish,” said Peter. “I said a
pixie
, not a snowflake. Don’t you know the difference between pixies and snowflakes? We all know that snowflakes fall from the sky. That is not news. Next, please!”

But the next person said the same thing—and the next—and the next! It was most annoying and very disappointing.

“We want our reward!” suddenly shouted someone. “We have given you news, but you have given us no reward.”

“You haven’t given us the right news!” shouted back Peter angrily.

“That doesn’t matter!” shouted the little folk, looking angry. They looked rather funny too, because for some reason or other they all carried their bundles and baskets balanced on their heads. “Give us our reward!”

They swarmed towards the platform on which the two children were standing, and Mollie and Peter suddenly felt frightened.

“I don’t like this, Mollie,” said Peter. “Let’s go! These stupid creatures think that pixies and snowflakes are exactly the same—and we certainly can’t give them
all
a reward. Climb into the chair!”

Mollie jumped into the chair, which was just near them on the platform. Peter sat on the arm and cried out loudly, “Home, chair, quickly!”

The chair flapped its wings and rose up—but it didn’t rise very high, only just above the heads of the angry people. Its legs began to jerk in and out, and to Peter’s enormous astonishment, the chair kicked off bundles, pots, and baskets from the heads of the furious marketers! Peter began to laugh, for, really, it was most comical to see the chair playing such a trick—but Mollie was in tears.

“What’s the matter?” asked Peter, drying her tears with his handkerchief.

“It’s Chinky,” sobbed Mollie. “I did love him so. Now I feel we shall never see him again.”

Peter’s eyes filled with tears too. “He was such a good friend,” he said. “Oh, Mollie! It would be so dreadful if we never saw him again.”

They flew home in silence. The chair flew in at the playroom door and the children jumped off.

“It will never be so nice going adventures again,” said Mollie.

“Why ever not?” said a merry little voice—and the children turned round in joy—for there was Chinky, the pixie, sitting on the floor, reading a book!

“Chinky! We thought you were lost for ever when you fell from the chair!” cried Mollie, hugging him hard.

“Don’t break me in half!” said Chinky. “I wasn’t hurt at all! I just changed myself into a big snowflake and fell into the Buttercup Field. Then I caught the next bus back to the bottom of the garden, and here I am. I’ve been waiting simply ages for you!”

“A snowflake!” cried Peter. “So that’s why everyone talked about snowflakes!
Now
I understand!”

He told Chinky all about their adventures—and
how
the pixie laughed when he heard about the chair kicking the bundles off the heads of the angry people