A Matter-of-Fact Magic Book (4 page)

“Because it’s rude,” Nora said.

“Well, I’ll act as if I don’t like her cat, and she’ll give me some. I’ll pretend to eat it. But I’ll save it till later. Henry’s an OK cat. I don’t need magic to like him.”

“Maybe I can work the same trick with that lizard,” Nora said.

Tad put away the box of nuts and bolts. “Let’s go next door.”

They went downstairs and were about to go out when their mother stopped them. “Where are you going?”

“To see Mrs. Brown,” said Nora.

“You know I don’t like you bothering the neighbors,” Mrs. Cooper said.

Tad held up the screw. “I promised to fix Maggie’s birdcage.”

“
Mrs. Brown!
Not
Maggie
, Tad,” said his mother. “Well, run along then, but don’t stay longer than you need to.”

Tad and Nora went next door to ring the bell.

There was no answer. Tad rang again.
Still no one came to the door. The children turned to go. They met Mrs. Hastings coming up the steps with a bag of groceries. Mrs. Hastings owned the house. She lived on the ground floor.

“We’re looking for Mrs. Brown,” said Tad.

Mrs. Hastings put her shopping bag on the stoop. “She’s not in,” she said. “She goes out early every morning to take care of her cat-service customers. She feeds the cats when their owners are out of town. She won’t be home until this afternoon.”

“Can I help carry your groceries, Mrs. Hastings?” asked Nora.

“Thank you, Nora. Would you put them on the kitchen table, please.” Mrs. Hastings opened the door and led the children through the house to the kitchen. The house was dark and neat. Mrs. Hastings lived alone. She looked out of her kitchen window into the backyard.

Suddenly she rapped on the kitchen window. “Scat, scat!” said Mrs. Hastings. “Lately the yard is always full of cats,” she said in an angry voice.

Tad and Nora looked out to see two cats sitting on the grass in Mrs. Hastings’ yard. One was black and white and one had gray stripes. Both cats were looking up at Maggie Brown’s window. Mrs. Hastings banged on her window again. The cats did not move. She took a broom and went out the back door.

Tad and Nora followed her into the yard. “Good-bye, Mrs. Hastings,” said Tad. He and Nora climbed the fence into their own yard.

After lunch Tad and Nora went to ring Maggie Brown’s bell again. This time Maggie opened the door. She smiled when she saw who it was.

“I’ve got the screw to fix your birdcage,” said Tad. He and Nora followed Maggie up the stairs. There was a folding gate at the top, like the ones people use to keep babies from falling downstairs.

“I just put this up,” said Maggie. “It’s good enough to keep Taffy and Lucifer up here, but I still have to watch Henry.”

“Meow!” The cat jumped onto the bannister post at the top of the stairs.

Tad was about to pet him. Then he remembered. He wasn’t supposed to like cats.

“Meow!” Henry jumped onto Tad’s shoulder.

Nora grabbed the cat. “Tad doesn’t like cats,” she said. Henry spat at her. He jumped to the floor, shook his hind leg at Nora, and marched away toward the kitchen.

Maggie didn’t seem to notice. She was looking at the birdcage. “The stand is wobbly. I’m afraid it will fall over.”

Maggie took the parakeet out of the cage. “This is Chatty.” She handed the bird to Nora.

Chatty really was strange-looking. One wing was green and shiny, but the other had bare patches and broken feathers. Nora held the little warm bird in her hand. She could feel its tiny heart beating. How would it feel to have wings, Nora wondered, and then be shut up in a cage?

Something cold touched Nora’s leg.
She looked down to see the lizard looking up at her with soft brown eyes. Nora just couldn’t let the lizard think she didn’t like him. She stroked his smooth brown side. The lizard stuck out his forked tongue, and Nora thought that he smiled.

The parakeet fluttered out of Nora’s hand and flew onto the top of a door.

Maggie was holding the birdcage stand while Tad tightened the screw. Only Nora
saw Henry the cat make a leap for the bird. She grabbed the cat’s tail. Henry snarled and turned his head to bite her. Suddenly the lizard darted forward. Henry was so startled that he backed away, hissing.

Now Maggie turned her head to see what was going on. She hopped on a chair and grabbed the little bird off the top of the door.

The witch shut Chatty back in the cage. “Thank you for fixing the stand, Tad,” she said. “Now, how about some fudge?”

Maggie went to the kitchen and came back with a plate of fudge. “Just one piece, now,” she said.

Tad took a piece and pretended to put it in his mouth. He moved his mouth as if he were chewing. When the witch turned to offer the fudge to Nora, Tad slipped his piece into his pocket.

Nora took the biggest piece of fudge on the plate. She held it to her mouth and pretended to be nibbling. Nora didn’t have a pocket in her dress.

The lizard rubbed his soft side against Nora to remind her that he was there. She stroked him gently with the hand that didn’t hold the fudge.

Tad went to look for Henry. He found him in the kitchen, picked him up, and rubbed the cat’s stomach. Henry purred loudly.

Maggie came into the kitchen and opened the window. Tad saw her tie a string to a tin pail. She put some cat food in the pail and leaned out the window to lower the pail to the ground. Just then Nora came into the kitchen, followed by the lizard. She went to the window to see what Maggie was doing.

Nora looked down. The black and white cat and the striped gray one were
climbing into the pail and gobbling the cat food. Now Nora knew why the cats were always in Mrs. Hastings’ yard.

While the witch’s back was turned, Tad took two more pieces of fudge off the plate on the kitchen table.

As soon as the cats had finished eating, Maggie pulled up the pail with the string and shut the window. “I’ll have to get something to feed the pigeons,” she said.

Nora wondered if Mrs. Hastings liked pigeons. Nora’s mother thought they were dirty birds.

Maggie looked around the messy kitchen. “There’s nothing more to do here,” she said. “I think I’ll pull the feathers out of Chatty’s wing.”

Nora felt sick. So that was what was wrong with the bird! The cruel witch pulled her feathers out! Nora had begun
to like the witch, but she didn’t like her now.

Nora wished she had the horseshoe. She was afraid the witch might do something terrible to her. Still she had to speak.

“Maggie—I mean Mrs. Brown,” she said. “Please don’t hurt the bird.”

“It’s for her own good,” said the witch.

Nora could see that nothing she said would make any difference. Suddenly she couldn’t bear to be near the witch. “Tad,” she said, “Mother told us not to stay long. Come on home.”

Tad went on playing with Henry. Nora took the cat and put him on the floor. She grabbed Tad’s hand. “Good-bye, Mrs. Brown,” she called, and dragged Tad out of the kitchen.

“What’s the matter, Nora?” asked Tad
as she hurried him down the stairs and out the front door.

“Can’t you see how wicked she is?” said Nora. “She gets those animals in her power and then she tortures them.”

Nora ran up to her room and put her piece of fudge in her dresser drawer. “I’m going to save it till I need it,” she told Tad when she came back downstairs.

Tad’s fudge was still in his pants pocket. His mother was just putting supper on the table. Tad knew she’d take the fudge away if she saw it.

After supper Tad and Nora went up to Nora’s room. “There’s no need for us to use all the fudge,” said Nora. “I can eat two pieces and get Skipper to tell me where he put my bedroom slipper.”

“Why can’t
I
eat them?” said Tad. “I was the one who swiped the extra pieces.”

Nora didn’t really want to eat the fudge. It had been in Tad’s pants pocket
for several hours. “All right,” she said, “but promise you won’t let Skipper talk you into anything stupid. And don’t forget to ask him about my slipper.”

Tad took all three pieces of fudge out of his pocket. It was sticky and soft now, but it still tasted better than any other fudge he’d ever had. Tad ate two pieces.

“That’s enough,” said Nora. But the fudge tasted so good that Tad couldn’t stop eating it. He put the third piece in his mouth.

“Now go find Skipper,” said Nora, “and ask him what he did with the slipper.”

Tad didn’t seem to hear. He stretched his neck. Then he carefully licked the stickiness off his hands. He got down on the floor and tried to touch his chin with his foot. After that he put his nose to the crack under Nora’s closet door and sniffed.

“That mouse is in there again,” he
said in a whisper. “Mousie, would you like some bacon?” Tad put his fingers under the closet door and pulled it open.

The fat gray mouse sat in the doorway. He squeaked something, but Nora couldn’t understand it. She wished Tad hadn’t eaten all his fudge. It would be nice to know what the mouse was saying.

Nora opened her dresser drawer and took out her fudge. It was a very big piece. Maybe it would work like
two
pieces. She was just going to put the fudge in her mouth when Tad reached up and batted it out of her hand.