Enid Blyton (26 page)

Everyone in the Land of Treats stood and watched
Connie
’
s cat chasing Saucepan
’
s mouse. Round
and round and in and out they went, knocking
over stalls of fruit and upsetting all kinds of
little Folk.

The mouse ran into a hole in the ground, and
Saucepan fell off with a crash. He stood in front
of the hole and clashed a kettle and saucepan
together, frigh
tening the cat, who
stopped so
suddenly that Connie shot over its head.

"
Now, now, now!" said the roundabout man,
panting up, looking very cross. "Puss, have you
forgotten this is the Land of Treats? I shall send
you to the Land of Nursery Rhyme to
J
ohnny
Thin! He
’
ll put you down the well, you bad cat."

The cat looked very solemn and sorry. "We
shall have to give the mouse a real Treat all for
himself," said the roundabout man. "Go back to
the roundabout, Puss. Come out, Mouse, and you
shall have a Treat to make up for your fright."

The mouse came out, its nose twitching. The
roundabout man beckoned to an old woman who
was selling sandwiches at a nearby stall.

"Four cheese sandwiches, please," he said,
"and six bacon-rind buns. There you are, Mouse
—
that
’
s a lovely Treat for you!"

The mouse squealed his thanks and took the
sandwiches and buns down
the hole, in case the
cat came back again. The roundabout man
frowned at Saucepan.

"You ought to have known better than to take
your Mouse over to the cat," he said. "I always
keep them on opposite sides of my roundabout.
Don
’
t do it again, please."

"Let
’
s come and have a ride in a balloon," said
Moon-Face, seeing that Saucepan looked rather
miserable. "Look!—
we get into that basket-thing
there—and they let the balloon go—and it carries
us up in the basket below it."

So they al
l got into the basket, and the
balloon
rose into the air and took them with it. They had
a wonderful view of everything.

And then somebody cut the rope! Connie gave
a squeal as the balloon rose high, and floated
ri
ght across the Land of Treats!

"The balloon
’
s fl
ying away! What shall we do?"

"Don
’
t be silly!" said Moon-Face. "This is all
part of the Treat. We come down near the Boating
Pool, and choose a boat to go on the water."

He was quite right. It was all part of the Treat.

The balloon fl
oated on gently, and came down
beside a big blue boating-pool, at the sides of
which were dozens of exciting boats, all in the
shape of birds or animals.

"Now, Saucepan, for goodness
’
s
ake don
’
t
choose that mouse-boat and take it near the cat-
boat," said Moon-Face.

"Come on, Saucepan! We will share a boat
together, then you can
’
t get into trouble," said
Silky.

They hustled him into a boat shaped like a
grey-
white gull.
J
o got into a boat like a goldfish,
which at times put its head under the water and
opened and shut its mouth to breathe, The others
all chose boats too, and Connie
’
s was the grandest,
for it was a
magnificent
peacock! It spread its
tail to make a sail, and everyone stared at it in
wonder and delight.

Silky
’
s gull-
boat gave her and Saucepan a great
surprise, for it suddenly rose into the air, spread
its wings and flew around the Pool. It came to rest
with a little splash, and Silky got out hurriedly.

Saucepan
stayed in. He liked boats that fl
ew. He
was so pleased with the gull-
boat that he presented
it with a large-
sized saucepan when he did at last
get out. The gull thought it was a hat and put it
on proudly.

"Now, what next?" said
J
o, when they had all
had enough of the boats. "What about something
to eat. There
’
s an exciting place over there,
where you can get anything you like, just by
pressing a button. Let
’s
try it, shall we?"

So they went to the curious little counter,
behind which stood a smiling pixie. There were
buttons all over the counter, which could be
pressed. As you pressed them, you said what you
wanted, and it at once came out of a little trap-door
in the side of the counter.

"I
’
ll have cold chicken, cold sausages, and
salad," said
Jo
, who felt hungry. Moon-Face
pressed a button for him, whilst
J
o watched the
trap-door. It opened, and out came a plate with
chicken, sausage and salad on it.
Jo
took it in
delight and went to sit at a nearby table, which
was set with knives, forks and spoons.

"What will
you
have, Silky dear?" asked
Saucepan, who was longing to press a button.

"Pear-t
art," said Silky. "And cream."

Saucepan pressed a button and spoke loudly.
"Bear-tart and cream
!
"
At once a tart shot out of the trap-door with a
little jug of cream—but there were no pears in it
—
there were small teddy-bears, nicely cooked and
arranged in rings in the tart.

"Oh Saucepan—I said
pear
-tart, not
bear
-tart!"
said Silky, and she gave the plate back to the pixie
behind the counter
. She pressed a button herself,
and a delicious tart made with pears came out of
the trap-door. Silky joined
J
o at his table.

"I
’
l
l have a big chocolate pudding," said
Moon-Face as he pressed a button, and out came
the biggest chocolate pudding he had ever seen.

Saucepan pressed a button and got out a treacle
pudding and cucumber sandwiches. He went off
to a table by himself to eat them.

Everyone got what they wanted. In fact, they
had more than they wanted, because it really was
such fun to press the buttons and get something
else. The buttons were marvellous and they
produced anything that anyone asked for. Even
when Connie asked for a ginger bun stuffed with
carraway seeds, iced with chocolate, and
scattered
with small boiled sweets, the button she pressed
made exactly what she wanted come out of the
trap-door. Connie said the bun tasted really
lovely.

They went over to the circus after that, and had
a most exciting time, especially afterwards when
anyone who liked could have a ride on the circus
elephants. The elephants were very solemn and
kind, and once when Connie wobbled a bit, one
of the elephants lifted up his trunk and held her on.

Then they went into a magician
’
s room and sat
down in a ring on the floor to watch him do magic.
He was the best conj
urer anyone had ever seen.

"Ask me what you want, and I will do it!" he
cried, after every trick, and then somebody or
other wo
uld call out something very diff
icult. But,
without any delay, the magician would do it.

"Make roses come in my kettle
!
" said Saucepan,
suddenly, and he held out one of his kettles.

"Easy!" said the magician, and rapped on the
kettle with his wand. Immediately a smell of roses
came into the room. Saucepan took off the lid, and
put in his han
d. He pulled out dozens of deep-
red,
velvety roses. He gave one to everyone to wear.

"Make me fly round the room!" cried Connie,
who had always longed to be able to fly. The
magician tapped her shoulders, and two long blue
wings shot out from them. Connie stood looking
over her shoulder at them in delight.

Connie
flapped them—and to her great joy she
flew into the air as easily as a butterfly, hovering
here and there as light as a feather.

"Oh, oh! This is the greatest Treat I
’
ve ever
had!"
she cried, and flew round once again. Then,
as she came to the ground, the magician tapped
her once more and the wings disappeared. Connie
was disappointed. She had hoped she would be
able to keep them. She wouldn
’
t have minded
going back home a bit, if only she could have
taken her wings with her.

The magician took a couple of goldfish out of
Jo’
s ears. "What a place to keep goldfish, my boy!"
he said. "You should keep them in a bowl of
water."

"But—but," began
Jo
in surprise.

The magician took a bowl from the top of
Silky
’s
head, made
J
o lean over sideways, and
filled the bowl with water that seemed to come
out of
J
o
’
s ear. It was really most extraordinary.
He gave the goldfish to
J
o.

"Now don
’
t you keep those goldfish in your ears
anymore," he said. "You keep them in that
bowl!"

Everyone laughed at
J
o
’
s astonished face.

"I
’
ll take them home to Mother," he said. "She
has always wanted goldfish."

J
ust then a bell rang loudly. "Oh! What a pity!
It
’
s time to go," said Moon-Face, getting up.

"They turn you out of the Land of Treats every
evening, you know. No one is allowed to stay
here for the night. It
’
s too magic. Come on, we
must go!"

Rather sadly they went to the hole in the clouds,
with a crowd of other visitors. They went down to
Moon-Face
’
s, and there Connie said
goodbye
.