The Magic Faraway Tree Page 12

  24

  A Most Exciting Time

  As the children stood gloomily outside Silky's house, a voice called to them from farther down.

  "Is that you, Watzisname? Any news of our missing friends?"

  "That's the Angry Pixie," said Jo. "Let's go down and talk to him."

  The Angry Pixie was looking very miserable.

  "I can't understand all this mystery," he said. "I saw Silky and the others a few days ago-and then they suddenly disappear like smoke without a cry or a yell. It's funny."

  "We've just been up in the Land of Tempers," said Fanny. "But they're not there."

  "I thought of going up there to see," said the Angry Pixie, "but I was so afraid I'd lose my temper and have to stay there always. You know what a temper I've got."

  "Yes," said Jo. "You certainly mustn't dream of going up there. You'd never come back."

  They sat there, looking at one another and then they all pricked up their ears. They could hear a very peculiar noise.

  Boom, boom, boom! Knock, knock, knock! Boom, boom, boom! "Whatever's that?" said Fanny, looking all round. "And where is it coming from?"

  "I can't imagine," said the Angry Pixie. "I keep on hearing it. I heard it yesterday and last night and this morning. It just goes on and on."

  Everyone listened. The noise stopped and then went on again. Boom, boom, boom! Knock, knock, knock! "Where does it come from?" said Bessie.

  "From the inside of the tree," said Watzisname, listening hard. "I'm sure of that!"

  "Do you suppose -do you possibly suppose-that it might be Silky and the others-somewhere inside the tree?" said Fanny suddenly.

  Boom, boom, boom! Knock, knock, knock! There it was again! "I believe Fanny's right. I think Silky, Moon-Face and Saucepan are prisoners inside the slippery-slip. Stamp-a-Lot must have pushed them down there, and then stuffed up the hole with all those things," said Watzisname.

  "But they would have shot out of the trap-door at the bottom," said Dick.

  "We'll go down and open it and see if anything has been put there to stuff that up, too," said Jo. "Come on, everyone."

  So they all went down to the tree to where the trap-door was at the bottom. Jo opened it. He looked inside and then gave a shout.

  "This end is all stuffed up, too! These two horrid people from the Land of Tempers have got Silky and the others in there, I'm sure. Look-there's all kinds of things stuffed in here. The poor things can't get up or down. They're trapped!" "Well, let's pull everything out and set them free!" said Dick, and he tugged at a great ball of moss. But it wouldn't move! Everyone had a turn at tugging and pulling-but it was no use at all. Not a thing would move.

  "They've stuffed everything in and then put a spell on it to make it stay where it is," said Watzisname at last. "It's no good. We'll never be able to move a thing. Look-there's Lady Yell-Around coming back from her shopping. We'll just see if we can't make her do something about this!"

  But that wasn't any good either. Lady Yell-Around pretended that she didn't know anything about the stopped-up hole.

  "What's the good of shouting at me and asking me something I don't know anything about?" she said. "You go and ask old Stamp-a-Lot. He'll tell you what you want to know."

  "No, he won't," said Jo. "He's just as big a fibber as you are."

  Anyway, no one wanted to see Stamp-a-Lot again. He was such a bad-tempered person. They all climbed back to the Angry Pixie's house, sat down, and looked gloomily at each other.

  "Can't get in at the top of the Slippery-slip, and can't get in at the bottom," said Jo. "How in the world can we rescue poor Silky and the others? It's simply dreadful."

  "They'll be starving!" said Fanny, beginning to cry. "Oh, Jo, do think of something!"

  But nobody could think of anything at all. It was only when the woodpecker flew by to go to his hole in the tree that any idea came -and then Jo jumped up with his eyes shining. "I know! I know!" he cried. "Let's ask the woodpecker to help us."

  "But how could a bird help?" said Dick.

  "Well, a woodpecker pecks holes in wood to make his nest," said Jo. "I've seen them pecking hard with their strong beaks. They make a kind of drumming noise, and can peck out quite a big hole in no time. If we asked him, I'm sure the woodpecker could peck a hole at the back of this room, right into the Slippery-slip-and then we could pull Silky, Moon-Face and Saucepan through the hole."

  "Oh, that really does sound a marvellous idea!" said Fanny, beaming. "Let's call him now." So they went outside on to a big branch of the Faraway Tree and called to the woodpecker.

  "Woodpecker! Come here a minute!"

  The woodpecker stared round in surprise. He was cleaning his wing feathers by running each one carefully through his beak. He was a lovely bird with his bright, red-splashed head. He spread his wings and flew down.

  "What's the matter?" he asked.

  Jo told him. The bird listened with his head on one side and his bright eyes shining.

  "Do you think you could possibly help us to rescue Silky and the others by pecking a hole at the back of the Angry Pixie's house?" said Jo, when he came to the end of his story. "You have such a strong beak."

  "Yes, I know I have," said the woodpecker. "The only thing is I generally only peck rotten wood-that's easy to peck away, you know. It just falls to pieces. But good, growing wood like the trunk of the Faraway Tree-well, that's different. That's very hard, indeed. It would take me ages to peck a large hole through that."

  "Oh, dear!" sighed Jo. "I'm so disappointed. We daren't let Silky and the others stay in the Slippery-slip too long in case they starve. There's nothing to eat down there, you know. Whatever are we to do?"

  Everybody thought hard. It was the woodpecker who had an idea first.

  "I know!" he said. "I could fetch my cousins who live in the Enchanted Wood in another tree-and maybe if there were three or four of us all pecking hard together we could make a good hole quite quickly. I know I couldn't make one by myself without taking two or three days-but a lot of us working together might do it easily."

  "Oh, good!" cried everyone. "Go and get your cousins, there's a dear. Hurry!"

  The woodpecker flew off. Everyone waited impatiently. They heard the noise from the inside of the Tree again. Boom, boom, boom! Knock, knock, knock! "Poor things!" said Bessie, tears in her eyes. "It must be so dreadful inside there in the dark, with nothing to eat or drink."

  After about ten minutes the woodpecker carne back, and with him he brought five others! They were all woodpeckers, with bright, red-splashed heads, strong-looking birds with powerful beaks.

  "Oh, splendid!" cried Jo, and he took them all into the Angry Pixie's little house. "Peck away at the back, here." The six birds stood in a row and began to peck as close to one another as they could. Peck, peck, peck! They pecked so hard and so very fast that they made a curious drumming noise that echoed through the little house. R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! They pecked hard for about an hour and then stopped for a rest.

  Jo pressed close to see how they were getting on. To his joy he saw that a small hole had been pecked right through into the Slippery-slip. He asked the Angry Pixie for a torch and shone it through the hole. Yes- there was no doubt about it, the woodpeckers had got right through the tree trunk just there.

  "Now you've only got to make the hole bigger!" cried Jo joyfully. "Peck away, woodpeckers, peck away! You are doing marvellously!"

  25

  Everything Comes Right

  After a good rest the six woodpeckers set to work again at the hole they had made. R-r-r-r-r-r-r! went their strong beaks, drumming away at the wood. Everyone watched to see the hole getting bigger and bigger. Then a voice floated up, singing a mournful song: "Two kettles for Silky, Two saucepans for me, Two dishes for Moon-Face, We're sad as can be!"

  "That's the old Saucepan Man!" said Jo in delight. "Did you hear his silly song? That's to tell us they are all there. Move aside a bit, woodpeckers, and let me call to the
m." The woodpeckers made room for Jo by the hole. He stuck his head through it and yelled loudly: "Silky! Moon-Face! Saucepan! We're going to rescue you. We'll pull you through a hole we've made at the back of the Angry Pixie's room."

  There was a squeal of delight from Silky, a shout from Moon-Face, and a clatter of pans from Saucepan.

  "We're coming, we're coming!" yelled Moon-Face. "We've got a rope to come up by. We shan't be long. Is the hole big enough to squeeze through?"

  "Not yet," shouted back Jo. "But the woodpeckers are just going to set to work again, and they'll soon have made it bigger."

  "R-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r!" went the woodpeckers' strong beaks, and the hole grew larger and larger. At last it really was big enough for anyone to get through. Jo leaned through it, his torch shining into the Slippery-slip. He saw a light gleaming a little way down, and noticed a rope shaking near by, as if someone was holding on to it.

  "They're coming up," he said to the others. "They've got a light of some sort, too. Oh! It's a candle. I can see Moon-Face now. He's the first. And he's helping Silky up. The old Saucepan Man is behind. They'll soon be here! Angry Pixie, put on a kettle to boil some water. I expect they would like some hot cocoa or something. And have you got anything to eat?"

  "I've got Pop Biscuits and Google Buns," said the Angry Pixie, looking into a tin. "They'll like those."

  Moon-Face at last hauled himself right up to the hole. His round face looked white and rather worried -but he gave Joe a grin as usual. "Help Silky through first," he said.

  Jo and Dick pulled Silky through the hole. She looked pale, too, but how glad she was to see all her friends!

  She flung her arms round Bessie and Fanny, and they all cried tears of joy down one another. Then Moon-Face squeezed through the hole, and last of all the old Saucepan Man, though he had to take off a few pans before he could get through!

  "We never, never thought we'd be rescued!" said Moon-Face. "We'd quite given up hope. We kept knocking and banging, hoping someone would hear us."

  "Yes, we did hear you," said Jo. "That's what made us think you might be trapped in the Slippery-slip. But Moon-Face, how did you get there? What happened?"

  "Wait a minute -let them have something to eat and drink first," said Watzisname. "They must be terribly hungry, not having had anything to eat and drink for so long."

  "Oh, we had plenty," said Moon-Face. "We didn't starve. But I'll tell you all about it." Everyone settled down to hear his story.

  "You see, one morning this week Silky, Saucepan and I were sitting up in my house talking," began Moon-Face, "and suddenly we saw two people from the Land of Tempers looking in at us."

  "Yes-Sir Stamp-a-Lot and Lady Yell-Around!" said Jo. "'We know them!"

  "Well, they looked very fiercely at us," said Moon-Face, "and they told us that they wanted to leave the Land of Tempers because the head-man was very angry with them about something. I think they had broken his windows in a temper. Well, they had escaped, and they meant to live in the Faraway Tree. They had found out by accident that their Land was over it, you see."

  "And they wanted your house!" cried Dick.

  "Yes," said Moon-Face. "They had been down the tree and seen that Silky's house was empty, because Silky was up here with me, and had taken that for themselves. At least Yell-Around meant to have it for herself. And Stamp-a-Lot meant to have mine."

  "And they said they had stopped up the trapdoor at the bottom," said Silky, "and they meant to push us down the Slippery-slip, and then stop up the hole in Moon-Face's room, so that we would be prisoners in the slide!"

  "Well, you can guess how frightened we were!" said Moon-Face. "Old Saucepan heard it all because Stamp-a-Lot shouted so loudly. And the clever old thing began to stuff his kettles and saucepans with food from my larder, and some candles, too, and matches -and a rope. I couldn't think what he was doing!"

  "So, of course, when we were pushed into the Slippery-slip we had plenty of food!" said Silky, putting her arm round Saucepan and hugging him. "All because Saucepan was so clever."

  "He managed to tie the rope on to something so that we had that to climb up and down on if we wanted to," said Moon-Face, "and we found a little sort of cubby-hole half-way down where we could sit and eat and drink. We lighted a candle, and then Silky thought of knocking and banging somewhere near to the Angry Pixie's house just in case you might be there and heard it."

  "Oh, we were so worried about you," said Jo. "We just simply didn't know WHAT to do! I'm so glad we thought of the woodpeckers. So you're really not very hungry or thirsty after all?"

  "No, not very," said Moon-Face. "But some of the cake we brought got rather stale. Woodpeckers, would you like it?" It was a treat for the woodpeckers and they pecked up the stale cake eagerly before they flew off. They had been very pleased to help.

  "And now what are we going to do about turning Stamp-a-Lot and Yell-Around out of our houses?" said Silky. "We can't all live with the Angry Pixie. His house is too small."

  Just as she said that there came the sound of shouting and yelling some way up the tree. Everyone listened.

  "That's Yell-Around, I'm sure," said Silky. "Let's go and see what's happening."

  Well, quite a lot was happening! About eight people from the Land of Tempers, with the headman leading them, had come down the tree to capture Stamp-a-Lot and Yell-Around! The head-man had remembered what Fanny had said, and had come to find the two escaped people. They had easily found Stamp-a-Lot, for he was asleep in Moon-Face's house, which was not far below the ladder leading up to the Land of Tempers.

  But Yell-Around had not been so easily captured. She had seen the head-man climbing down the tree and had tried to escape. She had fallen, and had hung by one foot from a branch, yelling and squealing, because she was so afraid of falling. And the head-man picked her up by her foot and dragged her up the Tree like that, bumping her as he went.

  Everyone watched in silence. Yell-Around was squealing loudly in a terrible rage, but nobody took any notice.

  "I won't go back to the Land of Tempers!" she yelled. "I won't, I won't!" But she had to! Up the ladder she was carried, upside down, and Stamp-a-Lot was pushed up, too.

  "Serves them right," said Moon-Face. "Taking our houses from us and trapping us in the Slippery-slip like that. Let's go up to my house." They all went up. Moon-Face was sad to see his house so untidy and so many of his things broken. Everyone helped him to put it right. Then they all looked at the stuffed-up Slippery-slip.

  "The spell put on it will be gone now that those two horrid people have gone," said Moon-Face. "We can pull everything out." So it wasn't long before the hole was free of all the things that stuffed it up. Moon-Face shook out his cushions and grinned at the children.

  "Well, everything's all right again," he said.

  "I'm so happy, It's lovely to have good friends like you."

  "We'd better get home now," said Jo. "We've been away a long time."

  "We can't slide down the Slippery-slip because it's all stuffed up at the bottom," said Fanny.

  "Well, I'll send a message down to the red squirrel to clear it," said Moon-Face. He whistled to a sparrow sitting on a nearby branch.

  "Hey, little brown bird! Fly down to the red squirrel and tell him to open the trap-door at the bottom of the tree, and clear the slide there, will you?" he asked. "Tell him to do it at once."

  The sparrow flew off. Moon-Face handed round a tin of Toffee-Shocks, and everyone took one. "Just time to have one whilst the squirrel is clearing out the mess," he said. "Hark! I can hear the Land of Tempers moving off." Sure enough there came the noise of the Land moving away -the curious creaking, groaning noise that the strange lands always made when they went.

  "What Land will come next, I wonder?" said Jo.

  "I know what it will be," said Watzisname. "I heard the head-man of the Land of Tempers say that the Land of Presents was due to-morrow."

  "Oooooh!" said Moon-Face, his eyes shining. "We must all go to THAT
! The Land of Presents! That's a marvellous land! We can all go and get as many presents as we like -just as if it was our birthday! Come to-morrow, will you? We'll all go! I can get some new carpets and things. Stamp-a-Lot spoilt so many of my belongings."

  "We'll come!" said Jo as he slid down the Slippery-slip on a yellow cushion. "We'll all come! RATHER!"

  26

  The Land of Presents

  Next day all the four children woke up feeling excited. It was so lovely when a really nice Land was at the top of the Faraway Tree. They had been to the Land of Birthdays before, and the Land of Take-What-You-Want. The Land of Goodies had been nice, and the Land of Do-As-You-Please. The Land of Presents sounded just as exciting! "I wonder who gives the presents -and if you can choose them," said Fanny. "I’d like a necklace of blue beads."

  "And I'd like an enormous box of chocolates," said Dick.

  "You would!" said Jo. "Anything to eat, and you're happy! I'd like a toy aeroplane that would fly from my hands and come back to them."

  "I shall bring something home for Mother," said Bessie. "She wants a new purse. When can we start, Jo? I'm all ready." They set off about eleven o'clock, when they had done all their work. They were very excited.

  It was so lovely to think that Silky, Moon-Face and Saucepan were safe again and coming to enjoy the Land of Presents with them. Perhaps Watzisname, Saucepan and the Angry Pixie would come, too.

  Well, everyone in the Faraway Tree had heard that the Land of Presents was at the top of the Tree that day; and, dear me, what a lot of people were steadily climbing up that morning! Brownies from the wood below, pixies and elves, even rabbits from their holes. The Angry Pixie's house was empty. He had gone already. The owl had gone, too, for he was not asleep in his little house as usual. Dame Washalot was gone, and no water came pouring down the Tree as the children climbed up.

  "What a crowd there'll be!" said Jo happily. "I hope we aren't too late. I hope there will be some presents left for us!"