The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World)

The Book of Brownies
First published in Great Britain 1926
This edition published in 2014 by Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road
London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 1926 Hodder & Stoughton
ENID BLYTON ® Copyright © 2014 Hodder & Stoughton

First e-book edition 2013

ISBN 978 1 4052 1542 8
eISBN 978 1 7803 1543 0

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

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CONTENTS

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Hop, Skip and Jump Play a Naughty Trick

Their Adventure in the Cottage Without a Door

Their Adventure in the Castle of the Red Goblin

Their Adventure in the Land of Giants

Their Adventure in the Land of Clever People

Their Adventure in the Land of Clever People (continued)

Their Adventure on the Green Railway

Their Adventure in Toadstool Town

Their Adventure with the Saucepan Man

Their Adventure with the Labeller and the Bottler

Their Adventure in the House of Witch Green-eyes

Their Very Last Adventure of All

GOODBYE!

Waiting for the postman

Hop, Skip and Jump Play a Naughty Trick

Hop, Skip and Jump were just finishing their breakfast one morning when they heard the postman rat-tatting on all the knockers down the street.

‘Dear me!’ said Hop. ‘Everybody seems to be getting a letter this morning! Perhaps we shall too.’

The three brownies leaned out of the window of Crab-apple Cottage and watched the postman come nearer. Next door but one, rat-tat! And a large letter fell into the letter-box. Next door,
rat-tat! Another large letter, just like the first.

‘I wonder whatever the letters are!’ said Skip. ‘They’re all the same and everyone is having one, so there’ll be one for us too!’

But there wasn’t. The postman walked right past Crab-apple Cottage.

‘Hey!’ called Jump. ‘You’ve missed us out! Come back, postman!’

The postman shook his head.

‘There isn’t a letter for you,’ he said, and rat-tatted on the knocker of the cottage next door.

Well, Hop, Skip and Jump
were
upset. No letter for them, when everyone else had one! Whoever could be writing letters and missing them out!

‘Let’s go and ask Gobo next door what his letter’s about,’ said Hop.

So the three brownies hopped into Gobo’s. They found him looking very pleased and excited, reading his letter out loud to Pinkie, his wife.

‘What’s it all about?’ asked Skip.

‘Listen! Just listen!’ said Gobo. ‘It’s an invitation from the King. This is what he says: “His Majesty, the King of Fairyland, is giving a Grand Party on Thursday.
Please come”.’

‘Oh!’ cried the brownies. ‘Then why haven’t
we
been asked?’

Gobo looked surprised.

‘Haven’t you had a letter?’ he asked. ‘Oh well, there must be a reason for it. Have you been good lately?’

‘Not
very
,’ said Hop.

‘Not
much
, said Skip.

‘Not at all,’ said Jump, who was the most truthful of the three.

‘Well, there you are,’ said Gobo, folding up his letter. ‘You know the King never asks bad brownies to his parties. You can’t expect to be invited if you
will
be
naughty.’

The brownies went out crossly. They ran back into Crab-apple Cottage and sat down round the table.

‘What have we done that was naughty lately?’ asked Hop.

‘We painted Old Mother Wimple’s pig green,’ said Skip.

‘Yes, and we got on to Gillie Brownie’s cottage roof and put fireworks down her chimney,’ said Jump.

‘And we put a bit of prickly gorse in that horrid old Wizard’s bed,’ said Hop. ‘Oh dear – perhaps we
have
been a bit naughtier than usual.’

‘And someone’s told the King,’ sighed Skip.

‘So we’ve been left out of the party,’ groaned Jump. ‘Well, it serves us right!’

Everybody except the three bad brownies had got an invitation. Brownie Town was most excited.

‘It’s going to be a
very
grand party!’ said Gobo next door, who was busy making himself a new suit. ‘There’s going to be dancing and conjuring, and presents
for everybody!’

This made Hop, Skip and Jump feel more disappointed than ever.

‘Can’t we go somehow?’ wondered Hop. ‘Can’t we dress up and pretend to be someone else, not ourselves?’

‘We haven’t got a card to show,’ said Skip mournfully.

‘Look, there’s Gobo’s wife,’ said Jump, pointing through the window. ‘What’s she looking upset about? Hey, Pinkie, what’s the matter?’

‘Oh, a
great
disappointment,’ answered Pinkie. ‘The conjurer that the King was going to have at the party can’t come after all, and the Lord High Chamberlain
can’t get anyone else.
Isn’t
it disappointing?’

‘Not so disappointing for us as for you!’ said Hop. Then a great idea came to him, and he turned to Skip and Jump.

‘I say!’ he said, with his naughty little eyes twinkling. ‘I say, couldn’t we pretend we were conjurers and get the Lord High Chamberlain to let us in to the
party?’

‘What a fine idea!’ cried Skip and Jump in delight. ‘You can be the conjurer, Hop, and we’ll be your assistants!’

‘But what tricks shall we do?’ asked Hop. ‘We don’t know how to do any yet!’

All that morning the brownies tried to think of conjuring tricks to do at the party, but although they tried their hardest to make rabbits come out of hats, and ribbons come out of their mouths,
it wasn’t a bit of good, they just couldn’t do it.

They were having dinner, and feeling very unhappy about everything, when a knock came at the door.

‘Come in!’ cried Hop.

The door opened and an old woman with green eyes looked in.

‘Good afternoon,’ she said, ‘do you want to buy any magic?’

‘She’s a witch!’ whispered Jump. ‘Be careful of her.’

‘What sort of magic?’ asked Hop.

‘Oh, any sort,’ said the witch, coming into the room. ‘Look here!’

She took Hop’s watch, rubbed it between her hands, blew on it, and opened her hands again. The watch was gone!

‘Buttons and buttercups!’ gasped Hop in astonishment. ‘Where’s it gone to?’

‘You’ll find it in the teapot,’ said the witch.

Skip lifted the lid of the teapot, and there, sure enough, lay the watch, half covered in tea-leaves. He fished it out with a spoon. Hop was very cross.

‘I call that a
silly
trick!’ he said. ‘Why, you might have spoilt my watch!’

‘Do something else, Miss Witch,’ begged Jump.

‘Give me your tea-cup,’ said the witch.

Jump gave it to her. The witch filled it full of tea, covered it with a plate, whistled on the plate, and took it off again.

‘Oh,’ cried Jump, hardly believing his eyes, ‘it’s full of little goldfish!’

So it was – the tiniest, prettiest little things you ever saw! The brownies thought it was wonderful.

Then the witch emptied Jump’s tea into Skip’s cup. And, hey presto! all the fishes vanished.

The brownies began to feel as if they were dreaming.

‘If only we could do one or two tricks like that!’ sighed Hop. ‘Why, we could get into the King’s party as easily as anything.’

‘Oho, so you want to go to the party, do you?’ asked the witch. ‘Haven’t you been invited?’

‘No,’ answered Skip, and he told the witch all about it. She listened hard.

‘Dear, dear!’ she said at the end. ‘It really is a shame not to invite nice little brownies like you! Listen – if I get you into the Palace as conjurers, will you do the
trick I want you to? It’s a very, very special one.’

‘Show us it!’ said the brownies, beginning to feel most excited.

The witch went outside and came back carrying a round green basket, with a yellow lid. She put it on the floor.

‘Now you,’ she said, pointing to Hop, ‘jump into this basket!’

Hop jumped inside. The witch put the lid on. Then she tapped three times on the top of it and sang: