Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (8 page)

“See her!” said Chinky, pointing. “That’s the witch Kirri-Kirri. I know where she lives. We’ll go and rescue Whiskers this very night—even if we have to go on foot!”

The four little pixies twittered goodbye and ran out. The picture in the mirror faded away. The children and the pixie looked at one another.

“What a marvellous spell!” said Mollie. “Oh, I did enjoy that, Chinky! Shall we really go and fetch Whiskers tonight?”

“Yes,” said Chinky. “Come here at midnight, ready dressed. If the chair has grown its wings, we’ll go in it—if not, we’ll take the underground train to the witch’s house.”

“Ooh!” said Mollie. “What an adventure!”

THE children dressed themselves again after they had been to bed and slept. Mollie had a little alarm-clock and she set it for a quarter to twelve, so they awoke in good time for their adventure. Chinky was waiting for them.

“We can’t go in the wishing-chair,” he said. “It hasn’t grown its wings again. I think it’s asleep, because it gave a tiny snore just now!”

“How funny!” said Mollie. “Oh, Chinky—I do feel excited!”

“Come on,” said the pixie. “There’s no time to lose if we want to catch the underground train.”

He led the children to a big tree at the bottom of the garden. He twisted a piece of the bark and a door slid open. There was a narrow stairway in the tree going downwards. Mollie and Peter were so surprised to see it.

“Go down the stairs,” Chinky said to them. “I’ll just shut the door behind us.”

They climbed down and came to a small passage. Chinky joined them and they went along it until they came to a big turnstile, where a solemn grey rabbit sat holding a bundle of tickets.

“We want tickets for Witch Kirri-Kirri’s,” said Chinky. The rabbit gave them three yellow tickets and let them through the turnstile. There was a little platform beyond with a railway line running by it. Almost at once a train appeared out of the darkness. Its lamps gleamed like two eyes. There were no carriages—just open trucks with cushions in. The train was very crowded, and the children and Chinky found it difficult to get seats.

Gnomes, brownies, rabbits, moles, elves, and hedgehogs sat in the trucks, chattering and laughing. The two hedgehogs had a truck to themselves for they were so prickly that no one wanted to sit by them.

The train set off with much clattering. It stopped at station after station, and at last came to one labelled “Kirri-Kirri Station.”

Chinky and the children got out.

“Kirri-Kirri is such a rich and powerful witch that she has a station of her own,” explained Chinky. “Now listen—this is my plan, children. It’s no use us asking the witch for Whiskers, our cat—she just won’t let us have her. And it’s no use trying to get her by magic, because the witch’s magic is much stronger than mine. We must get her by a trick.”

“What trick?” asked the children.

“We’ll creep into her little garden,” said Chinky, “and we’ll make scrapey noises on the wall, like mice. We’ll squeak like mice too—and the witch will hear us and send Whiskers out to catch the mice. Then we’ll get her, run back to the station, and catch the next train home!”

“What a fine plan!” said Peter. “It’s so simple too! It can’t go wrong!”

“Sh!” said Chinky, pointing to a large house in the distance. “That’s Kirri-Kirri’s house.”

They had left the station behind and had come up into the open air again. The moonlight was bright enough to show them the road, and they could see everything very clearly indeed.

They slipped inside the witch’s wicket-gate. “You go to that end of the house and I’ll go to the other,” said Chinky. So Peter and Mollie crept to one end and began to scratch against the wall with bits of stick, whilst Chinky did the same the other end. Then they squeaked as high as they could, exactly like mice.

They heard a window being thrown up, and saw the witch’s head outlined against the lamplight.

“Mice again!” she grumbled. “Hie, Whiskers, come here! Catch them, catch them!”

Whiskers jumped down into the garden. The witch slammed down the window and drew the blind. Mollie made a dash for the big black cat and lifted her into her arms. Whiskers purred nineteen to the dozen and rubbed her soft head against Mollie’s hand. Chinky and Peter came up in delight.

“The plan worked beautifully!” said Peter. “Come on—let’s go to the station!”

And then a most unfortunate thing happened! Peter fell over a bush and came down with a clatter on the path! At once the window flew up again and Kirri-Kirri looked out. She shouted a very magic word and slammed the window down again.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” groaned Chinky at once.

“What’s the matter?” asked Mollie, scared.

“She’s put a spell round the garden!” said the pixie. “We can’t get out! She’ll find us here in the morning!”

“Can’t get out!” said Peter, going to the gate. “What nonsense!
I’m
going, anyway!”

But although he. opened the gate he couldn’t walk out. It was as if there was an invisible wall all round the garden! The children couldn’t get out anywhere. They forced their way through the hedge—but still the invisible wall seemed to be just beyond, and there was no way of getting out at all!

“Whatever shall we do?” asked Mollie.

“We can’t do anything,” said Chinky gloomily. “Peter was an awful silly to go and fall over like that, just when we had done everything so well.”

“I’m terribly sorry,” said poor Peter. “I do wish I hadn’t. I didn’t mean to.”

“Well, we’d better go and sit down in the porch,” said Chinky, who was shivering. “It’s warmer there.”

They sat huddled together in the porch and Mollie took Whiskers on her knee, saying she would make a nice hot-water bottle.

They were nodding off to sleep, for they were all very tired, when Whiskers suddenly began to snarl and spit. The children and Chinky woke up in a fright. They saw something flying round the garden, like a big black bird! Mollie stared—and then she leapt up and whispered as loudly as she dared— “It isn’t a bird! It’s the dear old wishing-chair! It’s come to find us!”

Chinky gave a chuckle of delight. He ran to the chair and took hold of it.

“Come on!” he said to the others. “The only way out of this bewitched garden is by flying up and up. We can’t get out any other way! The wishing-chair is just what we want!”

They all got into the chair. Whiskers was on Mollie’s knee. The chair flapped its wings, rose up into the air and flew almost to the clouds!

“What will old Kirri-Kirri say in the morning when she finds
no-one
in her garden, not even Whiskers!” giggled Chinky. “She’ll think she’s been
dreaming! I wish
I could see her face!”

The chair flew to the playroom. The children said good-night to Chinky, and, with Whiskers in her arms, Mollie ran with Peter up the path to their house. They were soon in bed and asleep. As for Whiskers, you may be sure she never went to sleep in the wishing-chair again!

IT happened once that the children and Chinky had a most unpleasant adventure, and it was all Mollie’s fault.

The wishing-chair grew its wings one bright sunny morning just as the three of them were planning a game of pirates. Mollie saw the red wings growing from the legs of the chair and cried out in delight.

“Look! The chair’s off again! Let’s get in and have an adventure!”

They all crowded into it, and in a trice the chair was off through the door and into the air. It was such fun, for the day was clear and sunny, and the children could see for miles.

The chair flew on and on, and came to the towers and spires of Fairyland. They glittered in the sun and Peter wanted to go down and visit the Prince and Princess they had once rescued, but the chair still flew on. It flew over the Land of Gnomes, and over the Land of Toadstools, and at last came to a bright blue sea.

“Hallo, hallo!” said Chinky, peering over the edge of the chair, “I’ve never been as far as this before. I don’t know if we ought to fly over the sea. The chair might get tired—and then what would happen to us if we all came down in the sea!”

“We shan’t do that!” said Mollie, pointing to a blue island far away on the horizon. “I think the chair is making for that land over there.”

The chair flew steadily towards it, and the children saw that the land they had seen in the distance was a small and beautiful island. It was packed with flowers, and the sound of bells came faintly up from the fields and hills.

“We mustn’t go there,” said Chinky suddenly. “That’s Disappearing Island!”

“Well, why shouldn’t we go there?” said Mollie.

“Because it suddenly disappears,” said Chinky. “I’ve heard of it before. It’s a horrid place. You get there and think it’s all as beautiful as can be— and then it suddenly disappears and takes you with it.”

“It can’t be horrid,” said Mollie longingly, looking down at the sunny, flower-spread island. “Oh, Chinky, you must be mistaken. It’s the most beautiful island I ever saw! I do want to go. There are some lovely birds there too. I can hear them singing.”

“I tell you, Mollie, it’s dangerous to go to Disappearing Island,” said Chinky crossly. “You might believe me.”

“You’re not always right!” said Mollie obstinately. “I
want
to go there! Wishing-chair, fly down to that lovely island.”

At once the chair began to fly downwards. Chinky glared at Mollie, but the words were said. He couldn’t unsay them. Down they flew and down and down!

The brilliant island came nearer and nearer. Mollie shouted in delight to see such glorious bright flowers, such shiny-winged birds, such plump, soft rabbits. The chair flew swiftly towards them.

And then, just as they were about to land in a field spread with buttercups as large as poppies, among soft-eyed bunnies and singing birds, a most strange and peculiar thing happened.

The island disappeared! One moment it was there, and the sun was shining on its fields—and the next moment there was only a faint blue mist! The chair flew through the mist—and then splash! They were all in the sea!

Mollie and Peter were flung off the chair into the water. Chinky grabbed the back of the chair, and reached his hand out to the children. They clambered back on to the chair, which was bobbing about on the waves, soaking wet.

“What did I tell you?” said Chinky angrily. “Didn’t I say it was Disappearing Island? Now see what’s happened! It’s gone and disappeared, and we’ve fallen into the sea! A nice pickle we are in—all wet and shivery! Just like a girl to get us into this mess!”

Mollie went red. How she wished she hadn’t wanted to go to Disappearing Island!

“Well, I didn’t know it was going to disappear so suddenly,” she said. “I’m very sorry.”

“Not much good being sorry,” said Peter gloomily, squeezing the water out of his clothes. “How are we going to get to land? As far as I can see there is water all round us for miles! The chair’s wings are wet, and it can’t fly.”

The three of them were indeed in a dreadful fix! It was fortunate for them that the chair was made of wood, or they would not have had anything to cling to!

They bobbed up and down for some time, wondering what to do. Suddenly, to their great surprise, a little head popped out of the sea.