Enid Blyton (3 page)

"Oh,
dear!"
thought Miss Trot-About, "she's glad I'm better so that she car* go. I expect she's bored being here so long, poor child.

Well, she really has been very good. I must give her a nice present.'*

Miss Trot-About took hardly any notice of her cats! She didn't even speak to her parrot. She talked to Alice all the time, and fetched a little blue skirt she thought she could make into a dress for her, and asked her what her favourite cake was so that she could make it for tea.

Alice suddenly ran to her and gave her a hug. "Do you know," she said, "you're
just
like a mother!"

Miss Trot-About was so surprised that she couldn't say a word. Well, well—that was about the very nicest thing anyone had ever said to her in her life. Just like a mother! Would you believe it?

Mr. Pink-Whistle came to tea. He hadn't been near Alice and Miss Trot-About since he had left Alice at the cottage. He badly wanted to know what had happened. Did Miss Trot-About like Alice? Did Alice want to stay? Would they tell me some good news?

But they didn't. Miss Trot-About was sure that Pink-Whistle had come to fetch Alice, and she was sure that Alice wanted to go.

And Alice was sure that Pink-Whistle was going to take her away, and perhaps send her to Mrs. Clamp, and she was sure that Miss Trot-About wouldn't want her any longer now that she was better.

"Well—did you have a happy time together?" said Mr. Pink-Whistle at last.

"Oh, very," said Miss Trot-About. "But I'm sure Alice is ready to go now."

"A very, very happy time," said Alice, "but I'm sure Miss Trot-About will be glad to be on her own again."

Mr. Pink-Whistle sighed. What a pity! This w7as something he hadn't managed to put right after all.

"You'd better get your little bag," he said to Alice. "It's time we went.

What a lovely tea that was, Miss Trot-About. Thank you very much."

He went to help Alice with her bag. She was in her dear little room, tears in her eyes. "I hate to say good-bye to it, Mr. Pink-Whistle," she said.

"It's so homely. And Miss Trot-About is just like a real mother. I do love her. I just hate to go. If only she would love me instead of her cats!"

"Now you just stay here a minute and dry your eyes," said Pink-Whistle, taking her bag. "Don't let Miss Trot-About see you crying. It would upset her."

He went down with the bag and popped his head round the sitting-room door. "Just going," he said, and then he stopped in surprise. Miss Trot-About was dabbing her eyes with her hanky!

"Well—what's the matter with
you"?"
said Pink-Whistle, quite expecting the parrot to burst into tears next.

"Nothing. Nothing, really," said Miss Trot-About. "It's just that I shall miss Alice so dreadfully, and I'm such a
fraud,
Mr. Pink-Whistle. My leg was better days ago, but I wouldn't get up because I wanted to keep Alice to the very last minute. I wish I was her mother. She's just exactly right for me. She's much better than five cats and a parrot. I do so wish she was mine!"

Alice came in just as Miss Trot-About said all this. She listened in the greatest surprise. Then she flew over to Miss Trot-About and put her arms round her.

"I heard you! Well, if you wish you were my mother, so do I! I won't leave you! Don't let me go, don't let Mr. Pink-Whistle take me away!"

"I won't. He shan't," said Miss Trot-About, suddenly looking so very fierce that Mr. Pink-Whistle backed away in alarm.

"Go away, Mr. Pink-Whistle," said Miss Trot-About. "I shan't allow you to take Alice away. This is her home. I won't allow you to send her to Mrs. Clamp. What a very wicked thing to do!"

"And I won't leave Miss Trot-About," said Alice. "It's no good, Mr.

Pink-Whistle, I just won't come with you. I'm needed here. We love each other, and no matter
what
you say I'm going to live here with Miss Trot-About. So there!"

They both looked so fierce that Pink-Whistle hardly dared to say a word. He just said, "Good-bye, bless you both," and disappeared out of the door.

When he had gone, Miss Trot-About and Alice looked at one another. "Do you know7—I have a feeling that Mr. Pink-Whistle
meant
this to happen?" said Miss Trot-About. "He was just putting another wrong thing right. He didn't
want
to take you away. And instead of thanking him, we've been cross. Oh, dear!"

"Never mind. He'll understand," said Alice. "We'll ask him to tea again on Friday—and we'll have the most wonderful cake you ever saw, with 'Thank you, Mr. Pink-Whistle' on top of it. He's a darling."

He is, of course—and I can just imagine how pleased he will be when he sees that cake, can't you?

MR. PINK-WHISTLE HAS 
SOME FUN!

ONE day Mr. Pink-Whistle was sitting reading by the fire, when he heard a knock at his front door. It was rather a timid little knock—rat-a-tat-tat.

"Sooty," said Pink-Whistle to his big black cat, "see who's at the door, please."

Sooty scurried to the door and opened it. Outside stood two little girls, looking rather scared. "Oh!" said one, when she saw Sooty, "this
must
be Mr. Pink-Whistle's house, because we know he has a cat called Sooty who looks after him. Please, are you Sooty?"

"That's my name," said Sooty. "Do come in."

The two little girls went in and wiped their feet very carefully on the mat. Sooty took them into the room where Mr. Pink-Whistle sat. He smiled at them.

"Oh, you're just
exactly
like Mr. Pink-Whistle in our stories!" said one little girl. "You are, really!"

"I'm glad," said Pink-Whistle. "As a matter of fact I always do look like myself, of course. What are your names?"

"I'm Katie and she's Jessie," said Katie. "And we've come to ask your help. We've heard so many stories about you, and how you go round the world putting wrong things right—so we thought we'd ask you to put something right for
us.
Will you, please, Mr. Pink-Whistle?"

"Of course," said Pink-Whistle. "Sooty, bring some biscuits and lemonade."

So, over biscuits and lemonade, the two little girls told kind Mr.

Pink-Whistle their troubles, just as you would if you had something to tell him.

"You see, it's like this," said Katie, "there are two boys in our village who are very cruel and unkind, Mr. Pink-Whistle. They throw stones at the cats and dogs, they take birds' eggs out of the nests, they hide round corners and jump out at us, and—

"Yes, and they knock at doors and run away, and they go to the greengrocer's and take apples and oranges when he's not looking," said Jessie. "And, oh dear, lately they have been lying in wait for Katie and me and the other girls, and taking our dolls from us."

"And they
broke
my doll," said Katie, with tears in her eyes. "They dropped her on the pavement. So we've come to you to ask you if you could put things right for us. We are all getting so afraid of Tom and Len."

"I hope you don't think we're telling tales," said Jessie. "We just simply didn't know what to do. And now the two boys are frightening babies in their prams by booing at them when they pass. The worst of it is that their parents think they are wonderful boys and won't believe a word against them. So what are we to do?"

Mr. Pink-Whistle looked very solemn. He handed round the biscuits for the third time. "This is very serious," he said. "Serious for you because you are frightened—and serious for the boys because they will grow up into just the kind of people we don't want. Hmmmmmm! I must certainly think of something."

"We knew you would," said Katie. "What will you do?"

"I don't quite know," said Pink-Whistle. "I'll think about it. I'd like it to be something that will teach the parents to be sensible about their boys too. You know, as a rule, if children grow up bad it's the fault of the fathers and mothers."

"Yes, we've noticed that," said Katie. "If you've got a nice mother, you're usually nice yourself. But if you've got a horrid mother, you're horrid too. Or a silly mother. She makes a boy or girl horrid, because they don't take any notice of her."

The clock struck four. Katie got up at once. "We must go," she said, "or we shall be late for tea. Mother will worry about us. Thank you, Mr. Pink-Whistle, for listening to us, and for the lemonade and biscuits."

"Yes, thank you very much," said Jessie.

"What a very nice mother you both must have!" said Pink-Whistle, shaking hands with them. "Now you needn't go red! You've just told me that nice mothers have nice children and, as I can see you are both nice, I know what your mothers are like!"

The two little girls went away, excited and pleased. They trusted Mr. Pink-Whistle. He would do something to stop those two boys and put things right.

THE TWO LITTLE GIRLS TOLD KIND MR. PINK-WHISTLE THEIR TROUBLES.

He did! He thought and he thought, and then the next day he called Sooty. "I'm going off to that village the girls came from," he said. "I'm going to make myself invisible so that no one can see me. And I'm going to find those boys—and their parents too—and give them a shock. I'll be back when my job is finished, Sooty."

"Very good, Master," said Sooty. "Just let me brush your hat for you.

What a pity there aren't more people like you in the world, always trying to put bad things right!"

Pink-Whistle went off. Sooty couldn't see him when he got to the gate, because he had already made himself quite invisible. Ah, Pink-Whistle could see a lot of queer things going on when he was invisible —nobody knew he was there then!

He soon found the two boys. He saw them hiding behind a wall, waiting for an old woman to come. They had water-pistols in their hands.

Just as the old woman came round the wall the boys squirted their pistols.

The water went right into the old woman's face. She gasped, and dropped her basket. The eggs in it broke, and the yellow yolk dripped out on to the pavement.

"Oh! Oh! What is it? I've been shot! Oh, what has happened to me?" groaned the old woman, sitting down on the kerb with her head in her hands.

Pink-Whistle saw someone coming to help her. He quickly followed the two boys, who had run away at once, laughing. They got on a bus. Pink-Whistle got on too. Nobody saw him, of course, nobody at all. He sat down just behind the two boys.

He waited till the bus had started, then he spoke in a loud and angry voice.

"Which boys on this bus frightened an old lady just now? Who shot her with a water-pistol and made her drop her basket and break her eggs?"

There was a startled silence in the bus. All the passengers looked round to see who was speaking. The boys went red from their foreheads down to their necks, and hardly dared to breathe. Who knew all this? Was it a policeman?

"I can see those boys," said Pink-Whistle, in a loud and stern voice. "I CAN SEE THEM!"

In fright the two boys leapt off the bus. Pink-Whistle went too, though they didn't see him. "Now we've got to walk home," said one boy, crossly.

"Who was that shouting at us in the bus?"

"Pooh! What does it matter?'* said the other boy. "Come on, Len—let's ring a few bells and run away!"

Pink-Whistle followed Len and Tom. They crept up to a front door and tugged at the bell. Then they ran away. They went to another door and did the same thing. Pink-Whistle frowned. He walked behind them down the street.

When the boys came into the High Street Pink-Whistle began to shout loudly again. "Where are those two boys who rang the bell and ran away?

Where are they? Bring them here to be punished!"

Everyone was startled to hear this sudden voice coming from nowhere.

As for the two boys they were terrified! They looked all round, and people began to point at them. "They must be the two boys, look! Somebody must be after them!"

The boys fled at once. Pink-Whistle followed them, still invisible.

Round the corner they met a small girl with a little puppy. Len pounced on the dog and the little girl screamed.

"Don't! Don't hurt him! He's only little!"

Tom took up an old tin lying in a nearby ditch and began to tie it to the tail of the frightened puppy. The little pup bit at him and squealed. Len smacked it.

Pink-Whistle's voice boomed out again.

"Where are those boys? Where are those two bad boys?"