The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) (6 page)

The giant was so astonished that he dropped his fork with a clatter, and sat open-mouthed. All the giants stared at the brownies in the greatest amazement.

The giantess thought it was time to surprise her guests a little more.

‘Now I’ll cut the cake,’ she said.

At once Hop, Skip, and Jump leapt out of their chairs and cheered as they had been told to do.

The giants jumped in astonishment.

‘They squeak!’ said one.

‘They move!’ said another.

‘They must be alive,’ said a third.

‘They
are
,’ said the giantess proudly. ‘They’re brownies. What do you think of
that
for a surprise?’

She began cutting the cake, and the brownies jumped down on to the table. As soon as the giants heard they were brownies they began talking excitedly all at once, and each giant tried to catch a
brownie, so as to have a good look at him.

The brownies dodged their great fingers as best they could. They hid behind glasses and under the edges of the plates, and Hop even jumped into the salt-cellar, and covered himself with salt
– but it was no good. They were caught and held, and passed from one giant to another.

They hated it, for the giants held them so tightly, and seemed to enjoy giving them a poke now and again, just to see them roll head over heels.

‘I shall break my neck soon,’ panted Hop. ‘That’s twice I’ve been poked over.’

‘Let’s pretend we’re hurt,’ said Skip, ‘perhaps they’ll stop then.’

So Hop lay down on the table and groaned, Skip walked about with a limp and Jump held his head as if it hurt him.

The giantess, who had quite a kind heart, was most upset.

‘You’ve hurt the poor little mites,’ she cried. ‘Look at them! Leave them alone now, do, or you’ll kill them, and I want to keep them for pets, and give them to my
children when they come back from their aunt’s.’

‘Oh!’ groaned Hop. ‘Did you hear what she said? Goodness knows what giant children would do with us! What a terrible fix we are in!’

The giantess brought their thimble filled with lemonade, and put some cake crumbs on a cotton-reel.

‘Here you are,’ she said, giving them lumps of sugar to sit on. ‘Sit down at this cotton-reel table, and have your tea, while we watch you.’

The brownies sat down and took the cake crumbs. They were as large as cakes and very nice. When they wanted a drink they went to the thimble and sipped the lemonade.

The giants soon grew tired of watching them, and fell silent. The giantess rose and began clearing away the dishes into the kitchen. Then, one by one, the giants fell asleep.

Hop looked round at them.

SNORE, SNORE, SNORE, went the giants, sleepy after their big meal. They breathed so heavily that they nearly blew the brownies off the table.

‘I say,’ shouted Hop, trying to make himself heard over the snoring, ‘let’s escape!’

‘How?’ shouted Skip. ‘If one of the giants wakes whilst we are slipping away he’ll wake the others, and they’ll all come thundering after us and kill us.’

‘Think of an idea, Hop,’ shouted Jump.

Hop thought – then he grinned.

‘What about the ointment?’ he shouted back. ‘Shall we use that on the giants whilst they’re asleep?’

‘Yes, yes!’ shrieked Skip and Jump, nearly deafened by the snores of the giants. ‘Get it out quickly, Hop.’

Hop got out the boxes of ointment and opened them.

‘There isn’t very much left of either of them,’ he shouted. ‘We’ll use both and see what happens. Here, Skip, take the purple ointment, and I’ll take the
yellow. Jump, you keep a watch for the giantess.’

Hop and Skip ran across the table, and each climbed up a giant’s arm on to his shoulder. They couldn’t reach his forehead, so they rubbed the ointment on to his chin, and hoped it
would act just as well.

Then down they clambered, and up on to two more giants’ shoulders. Hop was nearly blown away by one tremendous giant, who puffed him nearly off his arm.

At last all the sleeping giants had the magic ointment rubbed on to their chins.

‘Now listen!’ shouted Hop, whose voice was getting quite hoarse. ‘I’m going to say the magic words. The giants will grow smaller and bigger, and they’ll wake up in
a terrible fright. We’ve got to escape whilst they’re in a muddle. Climb off the table first.’

The brownies clambered down the table-cloth, slid down the table-legs, and landed bump on to the floor. They ran to the door.

Then Hop called out the magic words.

At once three of the giants grew so much smaller that they were only about three times as big as the brownies. The other four grew so much bigger that their heads bumped against the ceiling,
their chairs broke with their weight, and they fell on to the floor with yells of fright.

‘OH! OH! OH!’ they shouted in astonishment. The giantess came running in to see what was the matter. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

‘What’s happened?’ she cried. ‘Oh, what’s happened? Why have some of you grown small and some of you big? Oh dear, dear, dear!’

‘Come on,’ said Hop, and he and the other brownies ran out of the door.

The giantess saw them.

‘Oh, you’ve worked a spell on them!’ she cried angrily. ‘I’ll catch you, you wicked little things.’

Hop, Skip, and Jump raced across the kitchen floor as hard as they could, and out into the garden. They hid under a large leaf and watched the huge feet of the giantess go clomping by in search
of them.

‘Good thing she didn’t tread on us,’ said Hop. Then he saw something that made him shiver in fright.

‘Look!’ he said. ‘There’s a giant hen – and there’s another one – they’re scratching in the ground. Oh my, we’ve run into the chicken
yard!’

The brownies trembled in fear. The hens came nearer and nearer, clucking and squawking as they scratched for grain.

Suddenly one of them saw Hop under the big leaf. She pecked at him. He jumped away only just in time.

‘Run!’ he cried. ‘It’s the only chance we have!’

They ran from beneath the leaf and tore across the yard.

‘Squawk – squawk!’ cried all the hens, and tore after them.

‘They’ll catch us!’ panted Jump.

Suddenly, Hop saw a large hole in front of him. Quick as lightning he jumped into it and pulled the others after him.

‘It’s a worm-home!’ he gasped. ‘Come on, it’s our only chance of escaping those horrid birds.’

The hens were pecking and scraping around the hole, their beaks sounding like picks and hammers.

But once more the brownies were safe, for the worm-hole was like a narrow tunnel, and they could pass along it easily, one after another.

‘I hope we don’t meet a worm,’ said Skip. ‘It would be rather awkward, wouldn’t it?’

‘I’d much rather meet a worm than a crowd of huge giants, or a pack of greedy birds,’ said Hop cheerfully. ‘Come on! Goodness knows where this tunnel leads to, but
anyway, it must lead
somewhere
 
!’

Their Adventure in the Land of Clever People

The three brownies went on through the dark tunnel, hoping they would soon find it came to an end. It felt rather sticky, and Hop said it must be because a worm had lately
passed along it.

Just as he said that the brownies heard a peculiar noise. ‘Oh my! I do believe it’s a worm coming!’ Hop groaned.

It was a worm, a simply enormous one, for its body filled up the whole tunnel.

‘Ho,’ shouted Hop in a panic, ‘don’t come any farther, Mr Worm; you’ll squash us to bits!’

The worm stopped wriggling in surprise.

‘What are you doing in my tunnel?’ he asked.

‘Nothing much,’ said Skip. ‘Just escaping from a lot of greedy birds!’

‘Oh!’ said the worm with a shudder. ‘I know all about birds. I’ve had my tail pecked off twice by the greedy things.’

‘Do you know where this tunnel leads to?’ asked Jump.

‘It leads to all sorts of places,’ said the worm. ‘You’ll find cross-roads a little farther on, and a sign-post.’

‘Oh, thanks,’ said Jump. ‘Then I think we’ll be getting on.’

‘So will I,’ said the worm, and began to wriggle towards the brownies.

‘Stop!’ they shouted. ‘There isn’t room for you to go past us!’

‘But I
must
,’ said the worm. ‘I’ve an appointment with my tailor at six o’clock. He’s making me a few more rings for my body.’

‘Oh,
do
go backwards till you get to the cross-roads,’ begged Hop.

‘I’m going backwards
now
,’ said the worm. ‘At least I think I am. It’s so muddling being able to use both your ends, you know. I never know which way
I’m
really
going.’

‘It must be
very
muddling,’ said Skip. ‘But please don’t push past us; you’re rather sticky, you know, and you’ll spoil our suits, and
we
haven’t got a tailor like you!’

‘Dear, dear, you ought to have,’ said the worm. ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll bore you a little tunnel to stand in whilst I go past, then I shan’t
spoil your suits.’

The worm began to make them a little passage leading out of the main tunnel.

‘There you are,’ he said. ‘Get in there, and you’ll be quite safe.’

The brownies hopped in. Then, rustle-squelch-rustle! The worm pulled his long body past them, called goodbye, and left them.

‘Well, thank goodness, we’ve got over
that
difficulty,’ said Hop. ‘Now let’s get to the cross-roads before we meet any other worms.’

On they went again, meeting no one but a centipede, who fled past in such a hurry on his many legs that the brownies didn’t know
what
he was.

‘Must be the fast train to Wormland, I should think!’ said Hop, picking himself up, for the centipede had rushed straight between his legs.

Soon the brownies saw a light in the distance. They hurried towards it, and found that they stood at the cross-roads. In the middle was a sign-post with a lamp on top.

‘To Giantland,’ Hop read. ‘Ugh! That’s the way we’ve just come. What’s this other way? To the Land of Giggles! That sounds silly. To Cross-patch Country!
That
won’t do for us. Now what’s this last one?’

All the brownies peered at it.

‘To the Land of Clever People,’ they read.

‘Clever People
might
be able to tell us the way to Witchland,’ said Hop.

‘Yes, let’s go,’ said Jump.

‘I hope they’ll let us in,’ said Skip doubtfully. ‘I don’t really feel very clever, you know.’

‘You’re not,’ said Hop. ‘
I’m
the clever one.’

‘Yes, you were clever enough to get us all sent out of Fairyland,’ grumbled Skip.

‘Don’t let’s quarrel,’ said Hop. ‘Come on, and see what this new land is like.’

Off they went again, and found that the tunnel they were now in sloped upwards, and was lit by many little green lamps.

‘Green for safety, anyway,’ said Jump, cheerfully.

The lamps suddenly turned red. The brownies jumped in fright.

‘Red for danger!’ said Skip in a shaky voice.

The lamps turned blue. Hop thought of an idea.

‘I expect it’s somebody in the Land of Clever People, showing us how clever they are,’ he whispered. Then aloud he said in an admiring voice, ‘H’m, blue for
cleverness!’

All the lamps turned back to green.

‘There you are!’ whispered Hop. ‘Green for safety again.’

They went on up the slope and came to a corner. Just round the bend was a turnstile, and at it was seated an ugly little man, with an enormous bald head. He wore spectacles, and was writing in a
huge book. As the brownies drew near he looked at them over his spectacles. Then he spoke in a way that gave the brownies rather a surprise:

‘Good morning. Do I understand,

You wish to enter in this Land?’

‘He’s talking in poetry!’ said Jump. ‘Isn’t he clever! Are we supposed to answer in poetry too?’

‘We can’t,’ said Skip. ‘So that settles it.’

He turned to the turnstile man.

‘Yes, we want to come in,’ he said. ‘You see we . . .’

The bald-headed man interrupted him:

‘Please talk in rhyme. Unless you do,

I simply cannot let you through.’

‘Oh goodness gracious!’ groaned the brownies.

‘They must be
terribly
clever people,’ said Hop. ‘Let’s see if we can make up an answer in rhyme.’

They thought for some time, and at last they found one they thought would do. Hop went up to the turnstile man and bowed.

‘Will you kindly let us through,

There’s lots of things we want to do,’

he said. At once the man waved his hand to tell them to pass, and his turnstile clicked as they went through. Before they left him he handed them a book of rules.

‘Keep every rule that’s written here,

You’ll find them printed nice and clear,’

he said in his singsong voice.

‘Thank you very much indeed,

I like to have a book to read,’

answered Hop, as easily as anything.

‘Hop!’ cried Jump, when they had got out of the turnstile man’s hearing. ‘Hop! That
was
clever of you! How
did
you think of it?’

‘It just came into my head,’ said Hop, quite as surprised as the others. ‘I believe I’ll be quite good at it.’

‘What does the book of rules say?’ asked Jump. Hop read it, and told the others.

‘Nothing much,’ he said. ‘Always talk in rhyme. Make up a new riddle every day. Answer one. Not much, is it?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Skip doubtfully. ‘I think making up riddles is very hard.’

‘What happens if we can’t make up riddles or answer them?’ asked Jump.

‘I’ll look and see,’ said Hop, turning over the page. ‘Oh, buttons and buttercups!’

‘What, Hop?’ asked Skip and Jump.

‘Anyone who can’t make up riddles or answer them is scolded for being stupid,’ said Hop in dismay.

‘Oh, I
do
wish we hadn’t come here!’ said Jump. ‘This is
your
fault again, Hop. You’re always leading us into trouble.’

‘Let’s go back to the turnstile man and ask him to let us out,’ said Hop.