The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair Read online

  The smoke went. The magician tapped the floor again and up rose five black cats, each with a violin except the last one, and he had a drum. After the cats came six plump rabbits, who danced to the tunes that the cats played. One rabbit turned upside down and danced on his ears, and that made Peter laugh so much that he had to get out his handkerchief to wipe his tears of laughter away.

  Then an even stranger thing happened next. The magician tapped the floor once more, and up came a great flower of yellow. It opened, and in the middle of it the guests could see five red eggs. The eggs broke and out came tiny chicks. They grew—and grew—and grew— and became great brilliant birds with long drooping tails. Then they opened their beaks and sang so sweetly that not a sound could be heard in the great hall but their voices.

  The birds flew away. The flower faded. The magician tapped the floor for the last time. A gnome appeared, whose long beard floated round him like a mist. He handed Greatheart a big dish with a lid. The magician took off the lid and lifted out a silver spoon. He stirred in the air and a bubbling sound came. Round the spoon grew a glass bowl. The children could see the spoon shining in it. But suddenly the spoon turned to gold and swam about—a live goldfish.

  Greatheart took the goldfish neatly into his hand and threw it into the air. It disappeared.

  “Who has it?” asked Greatheart. Every one looked about—but no one had the fish. Greatheart laughed and went over to Mollie. He put his hand into her right ear and pulled out the goldfish! Then he took up Peter’s hand and opened it—and will you believe it, Peter had a little yellow chick there, cheeping away merrily!

  Oh, the tricks that the magician did! No one would ever believe them! Peter and Mollie rubbed their eyes several times and wondered if they were dreaming.

  Best of all came the last trick. The magician as he said good-night to his guests, gave each a tiny egg.

  “It will hatch tomorrow,” he said. “Keep it safely!” The children thanked him very much for a marvellous evening, and then got sleepily into the wishing-chair with Chinky and the elves. How they got home they never knew—for there must have been magic about that took them home, undressed them, and popped them into bed without their knowing. Anyway, they found themselves there the next morning when they awoke, although they did not remember at all how they got there!

  “I believe it was all a beautiful dream,” said Mollie.

  “It wasn’t!” said Peter, putting his hand under his pillow. He brought out his little egg. As he looked at it, it broke—and there, in his hand, was a tiny silver watch, ticking away merrily!

  Mollie gave a scream of delight and put her hand under her pillow to get her egg too. It broke in her hand —and out of it came a necklace of beads that looked exactly like bubbles! It was the loveliest one Mollie had ever seen!

  “Hurry up and dress and we’ll see what Chinky got,” said Mollie. They hurried—and when they saw Chinky, he showed them his present—golden buckles for his shoes. Didn’t they look grand!

  “That was the loveliest party I’ve ever been to!” said Mollie happily. “I wish all our wishing-chair adventures were like that!”

  The Wishing-Chair is Foolish

  ONCE the Wishing-chair was very foolish, and nearly landed the children and Chinky in a dreadful fix!

  It grew its wings one morning when the children were playing snakes and ladders. Chinky saw the red wings flapping and jumped up in excitement.

  “Come on!” he cried. “I’m longing for another adventure!”

  They all jumped on to the chair. It flew out of the door in a great hurry, and then up into the air. It was a beautiful day and the children and Chinky could see for miles. The chair seemed in a rather silly mood. It swung to and fro as it flew, and even jiggled about once or twice.

  “I say!” said Chinky. “I don’t like this! Hold on tightly, children, in case the chair turns head-over-heels, or something silly. It’s in a dangerous mood.”

  “Shall we go back home?” asked Mollie, in alarm.

  “Of course not!” said Peter. “We’ll never turn our backs on an adventure!”

  So on they went, the chair still doing its little tricks. At last Chinky really did get a bit frightened, for once Peter nearly fell off.

  “Go down to earth at once, chair!” he commanded. The chair seemed cross. It didn’t want to go down—but it had to. So down it went, jiggling every now and again as if it really did mean to jerk the children off.

  Peter looked down to see where they were going.

  There was a village below them, and they seemed to be going down towards the roof of a house.

  “Hope the chair doesn’t land on the roof!” said Peter. “It looks just as if it’s going to!”

  But it did something even worse than land on the roof! What do you suppose it did?

  It tried to go down the large red chimney belonging to the house! It really was behaving very foolishly!

  Of course, it couldn’t possibly go down—and it stuck fast, three legs in, one out, and there it was, all sideways, with the children getting covered with soot and smoke!

  Chinky climbed out first, and helped Peter and Mollie out too. They sat on the roof, holding on to the chimney, which felt rather hot, because warm smoke was coming out of it.

  Chinky was very angry.

  “I never thought the chair would be so silly!” he said. “It has acted so sensibly up to now. Now look what it’s done! It’s gone and stuck itself in somebody’s chimney, and goodness knows how we’re going to get it out! And here we are up on a roof in a village we don’t know!”

  “It’s too bad,” said Mollie. “Look at my frock! All over soot.”

  “We’d better shout and see if someone will get us down,” said Peter. So they shouted.

  “Hie, hie, hie! Help! Hie, hie, hie!”

  Soon a gnome heard their shouting, and came out to see what it was all about. When he saw the three children up on the roof and the chair in the chimney he was amazed. He shouted to his friends, and soon the whole village was staring upwards.

  “Get a ladder and help us down!” shouted Peter. “Our chair has landed us in this fix!”

  In a few minutes a long ladder was brought, and the children and Chinky climbed carefully down it to the ground. Chinky explained what had happened, and the village folk exclaimed in astonishment.

  “The thing is,” said Peter. “How are we going to get the chair out? It can’t stay there for the rest of its life, cooking in a chimney pot! Who would have thought it would have been so silly?”

  “It’s trying to get out!” said Mollie suddenly. “Look, it’s wriggling!”

  So it was. It did look funny! It tried its hardest to get out, but it was stuck much too tightly.

  “It’s no good,” said Peter gloomily. “It will have to stay there. I don’t see how we can possibly get it out.”

  “Of course we can!” said Chinky. “We’ll get the village sweep to come along and put his long brush up the chimney! Then the silly old chair will be swept out of the chimney! We will get into it when it comes to earth, and go home immediately before it has time to do anything silly again!”

  “I’ll fetch the sweep!” said a round-faced gnome at once. “He lives next door to me.”

  He ran off, and in a few minutes came back with a little sweep, looking rather black, carrying his bundle of poles. He stared in astonishment at the chair in the chimney.

  “Can you push it out for us?” asked Chinky anxiously.

  “I’ll try,” said the sweep. He went into the house and fitted the big round brush on to the first pole. He pushed it up the chimney. Then he fitted another pole on to the first one, and pushed that up the chimney too. So he went on until the brush was almost at the top. Then he fitted on his last pole, and prepared to give a good push.

  Chinky, Mollie, and Peter were outside the house, watching the chair in the chimney. All the gnome villagers were with them too. It was really rather exciting.

  The chair gave
a jolt!

  “The sweep is pushing it!” yelled Chinky, dancing about excitedly. “Ooh, look! He’s pushing it hard—the chair is coming out! It’s nearly out!”

  So it was! The sweep was pushing and pushing with his round brush, and the chair was getting loose as it was jerked farther up. Suddenly it came right out of the chimney with a rush! The sweep’s brush came out too, and twiddled round in the air in a funny manner.

  “There it comes, there it comes!” shouted Mollie. “Hie, chair, come to earth!”

  But to the children’s dismay, that naughty wishing-chair flapped its red wings and flew right up into the air! It didn’t go near the ground!

  “Oh, I say!” said Chinky. “Isn’t it behaving badly!”

  They all watched it fly away till they could no longer see it. It was gone!

  “Well,” said Mollie, “we’ll have to get home another way, that’s all. I’m afraid we’ve lost the chair now.”

  “We’ll catch the bus that leaves here in five minutes’ time,” said Chinky, looking at a bus time-table set out on a wall nearby. “It won’t be long before we’re home.”

  “I’m sorry about the chair,” said Peter sadly. “It gave us some fine adventures, you know. It has behaved very badly today, it’s true—but once or twice it has been very good to us—like when it fetched us from Witch Kirri-Kirri’s.”

  “Yes,” said Chinky, “we mustn’t forget the good things just because it has once been bad. Come on— here’s the bus.”

  They got into the bus, which was very peculiar, because the driver was a duck and the conductor a rabbit. However, Chinky didn’t seem surprised, so Mollie and Peter said nothing, but just stared. In ten minutes they found themselves outside a cave in a hillside.

  “This is where we get off,” said Chinky, much to their surprise. They followed him into the cave and up some steps. Chinky opened a door—and to the children’s amazement they found themselves climbing out of a tree in the wood near to their home!

  “You simply never know where an entrance to Fairyland is!” said Mollie, staring at the tree, as Chinky shut the bark door.

  They ran home—and the very first thing they saw in their playroom was—guess! Yes, their wishing-chair. They stared in astonishment.

  “Why, it’s come back home after all!” said Peter, delighted. “Its wings have gone. Oh, fancy, it’s come back to us! Isn’t that lovely!”

  “Good old chair!” said Mollie, running to it and sitting down in it. “I’m glad it’s back. I expect it’s sorry now. I don’t mind having nearly gone down a chimney now it’s all over—it s so exciting to think of!”

  “Don’t say things like that in front of the chair,” said Chinky. “There’s no knowing what it might do next.”

  “Let’s brush our clothes clean,” said Peter, getting a brush. “We’ll get into trouble if we don’t—and certainly no one would believe us if we said we’d been stuck in a chimney!”

  “Whatever shall we do next?” said Mollie. Aha! Wait and see!

  The Polite Goblin

  THE next time the chair grew its wings again, Chinky looked at it sternly. “Last time you were very badly behaved!” he said. “If you want us to come with you this time, just behave yourself. If not, I’ll sell you to the Jumble-Man, and you won’t like that!”

  The chair flapped its wings violently, and Chinky grinned at the others. “That will make it behave itself this time,” he said. “It wouldn’t like to be given to the Jumble-Man! Come on, let’s get in.”

  They all got in. The chair rose very slowly, and flew out of the door, taking care not to jerk or jolt the children at all. It flew so very slowly and carefully that Chinky got quite impatient.

  “Now you’re being silly!” he said to the chair. “Do fly properly. You’re hardly moving.”

  The chair flew faster. It flew very high and the children could hardly see the houses below them. They even flew above the clouds—and suddenly, to the children’s great astonishment, they saw a big castle built on a cloud!

  “I say! Look!” said Peter, in amazement. “A castle on a cloud! Who lives there, Chinky?”

  “I don’t know,” said Chinky. “I hope it’s someone nice. I don’t want to meet a giant this morning!”

  The chair flew to the castle. There was a big front door standing open. The chair flew inside.

  “Goodness!” said Mollie, in alarm. “This isn’t very polite. We ought to have knocked!”

  The chair came to rest in a big kitchen. A small goblin, with pointed ears, green eyes, and bony legs and arms, was sitting in a chair reading a paper. When the wishing-chair flew in with Chinky, Mollie, and Peter in it, he jumped up in astonishment.

  The children and Chinky got out of their chair. “Good morning,” said Chinky. “I’m so sorry to come in like this—but our chair didn’t wait to knock.”

  The goblin bowed politely. “It doesn’t matter at all!” he said. “What a marvellous chair you have, and how pleased I am to see you! Pray sit down and let me give you some lemonade!”

  They all sat down on stools. The goblin rushed to a cupboard and brought out a big jug of lemonade.

  “It is so nice to see such pleasant visitors,” said the goblin, putting a glass of lemonade before each of them. “And now, will you have biscuits?”

  “Thank you,” said Mollie and Peter and Chinky. They felt that it was kind of the goblin to welcome them —but they didn’t like him at all. He seemed much too polite!

  “Another glass of lemonade?” asked the goblin, taking Chinky’s empty glass. “Oh do! It is a pleasure, I assure you, to have you here! Another biscuit, little girl? I make them myself, and only save them for special visitors.”

  “But we aren’t very special,” said Peter, thinking that the goblin was really silly to say such things.

  “Oh yes, you are very special,” said the goblin, smiling politely at them all. “So good of you to come and see an ugly little goblin like me!”

  “But we didn’t mean to come and see you,” said Mollie truthfully. Chinky frowned at her. He didn’t want her to offend the goblin. He did not trust him at all. He wanted to get away as soon as he could.

  “Well,” said Chinky, finishing his biscuit, “it is kind of you to have welcomed us like this. But now we must go.”

  “Goodbye and thank you,” said the polite goblin. He shook hands with each of them and bowed very low. They turned to go to the wishing-chair.

  And then they had a most terrible shock! The wishing-chair was not there! It was gone.

  “I say! Where’s the wishing-chair?” shouted Chinky. “Goblin, where’s our chair?”

  “Oh, pixie, how should I know?” said the goblin. “Haven’t I been looking after you every minute? It must have flown away when you were not looking.”

  “Well, it’s funny if it has,” said Chinky. “We should have seen it, or at least felt the wind of its wings flapping. I don’t believe you, goblin. You have done something with our chair—your servants have taken it away! Tell me quickly, or I will punish you!”

  “Punish me!” said the goblin. “And how would you do that, pray? You had better be careful, pixie— how are you going to get away from my castle without a wishing-chair? I live here by myself in the clouds!”

  “Be careful, Chinky,” said Peter. “Don’t make him angry. Goodness knows how we’d escape from here if he didn’t help us!”

  Mollie looked frightened. The little goblin smiled at her politely, and said, “Don’t be afraid, pretty little girl. I will treat you as an honoured guest for as long as you like to stay with me in my castle.”

  “We don’t want to stay with you at all,” said Chinky. “We want our wishing-chair! What have you DONE with it?”

  But he could get no answer from the polite goblin. It was most tiresome. What in the world were they to do?

  Chinky suddenly lost his temper. He rushed at the goblin to catch him and shake him. The goblin looked scared. He turned to run and sped out of the big kit
chen into the hall. Chinky ran after him. Mollie and Peter looked at one another.

  “Chinky will get us all into trouble,” said Mollie. “He really is a silly-billy. If he makes the goblin angry, he certainly won’t help us to get away. I suppose that naughty wishing-chair flew away home.”

  “I’m quite sure it didn’t,” said Peter. “I know I would have seen it moving.”

  The goblin came running into the room followed by Chinky. “Catch him, catch him!” yelled Chinky. Peter tried to—but the goblin was like an eel. He dodged this way, he dodged that way—and then a funny thing happened. Peter fell over something that wasn’t there!

  He crashed right into something and fell over, bang! And yet, when he looked, there was nothing at all to fall over! He felt very much astonished. He sat up and stared round. “What did I fall over?” he said. Chinky stopped chasing the goblin and ran to him. He put out his arms and felt round about in the air by Peter— and his hands closed on something hard—that couldn’t be seen!

  “Oh!” he yelled joyfully, “it’s the wishing-chair! That deceitful goblin made it invisible, so that we couldn’t see it, even though it was really here! And he meant to help us home all right—and as soon as we had gone he meant to use our wishing-chair for himself, and we’d never know!”

  “Then it hasn’t flown away!” cried Mollie, running over and feeling it too. “Oh goody, goody! We can get into it and go home even if we can’t see what we’re sitting on! Get up, Peter, and let’s fly off before that nasty little polite goblin does any more spells!”

  They all sat in the chair they couldn’t see. “Home, wishing-chair, home!” cried Chinky. The invisible chair rose in the air and flew out of the door. The goblin ran to the door and bowed. “So pleased to have seen you!” he called politely.