CHAPTER XXI
_The Grey Pumpkin's Fate_
And now, the smoke having entirely disappeared, Old Nancy turned againtoward the Grey Pumpkin. She raised the Black Leaf high over her headand, closing her eyes, murmured something to herself; then she openedher eyes and said to Molly:
"I have summoned the Pumpkin's spies, but while we are waiting for themI want you to tell us the story of how you found the Black Leaf."
Molly felt very shy all at once, but she obeyed Old Nancy, and standingon the doorstep, facing the crowd, she told her story as briefly asshe could, without leaving out the name of anybody who had helped.One of the councillors was asked by the King to take down her wordsin a note-book so that they could be afterward read by all those at adistance who could not hear. When Molly came to the part about MissLydia she forgot her shyness and grew enthusiastic.
"I could never have got the Black Leaf at the end if it hadn't been forMiss Lydia," she cried. "She was awfully brave. Although she had beenmade blind by the Pumpkin she walked out into the garden where the Leafwas growing and where the Pumpkin and his spies were waiting--she wentout deliberately--to distract them--while I got the Leaf."
"Three cheers for Miss Lydia!" cried someone in the crowd, and thecheers were given heartily, much to Miss Lydia's confusion.
When Molly reached the end of her tale there was a perfect storm ofcheering; she stepped down, flushed and excited, and stood talkingto Old Nancy for a few minutes, until the cheering gradually diedaway and in its place a low muttering and groaning arose at the backof the crowd, followed by an outburst of booing and hissing. Mollyturned quickly and saw that the crowd had parted, and through thespace made a procession of people was wending its way. They were thePumpkin's spies; some very dejected, with hanging heads; others sullenand defiant. First came the old woman with the scarlet turban and thelittle darting eyes; next came the girl in green; then several othersthat Molly had never seen before--though judging by the remarks to beheard on all sides they were no strangers to the other searchers; amongthose in the rear Molly recognized the old watchmaker, and the man onhorseback, who had given her the letter that was supposed to be fromOld Nancy. There were about thirty of the spies altogether, and theygathered in a group before Old Nancy, who eyed them sadly.
"Was it you who scattered the grey powder on my window sill, andmade me sleep through the sunset hour, and so enabled the Pumpkin toreturn?" she asked of the old woman who had led the band of spies.
The old woman nodded. "When some one in the Impossible World piercedthe Pumpkin with a pin, the power for good which held me was suddenlydispersed, and all the evil magic that I knew rushed into my mind,and I made the grey powder and brought it to you ... heh, heh, heh,"a chuckle escaped. "And I'm glad I did. We've had a splendid time,ain't we, ducky?" she leered at the girl in green, who nodded sullenly."And if it hadn't bin for a sort of muddle we made between us in oureagerness to keep that meddlin' gel away"--the old woman gave Mollyan ugly glance--"our Grey Pumpkin wouldn't have bin caught and hereto-day, that he wouldn't."
"Tell me about the muddle," said Old Nancy, swaying the Black Leaf inher hand gently toward the old woman, who seemed compelled to answer.
"In the first place one of us led her"--she jerked her head in thedirection of Miss Lydia--"to the wrong lake by mistake, when she wasblind--right into that gel's path instead of out of it, and when wefound out what had bin done and went to fetch her away from LakeDesolate, we couldn't find her. So, in case she came back to the Lake(which she did) another of us, thinking to cover up the mistake, wrotea letter making believe it was from you, Old Nancy; and the gel wouldhave believed the letter and obeyed it, and everything would have binall right for us, only something put it into her head not to believethe letter, and so she led the blind woman home and found the Leafgrowing in her garden. But even then she would never have got the Leafif it hadn't bin for those matches of yours, Old Nancy; they do burn,"and the old woman held out her right hand across the back of whichwas a deep red scar. "What put it into your head not to believe thatletter?" she asked suddenly of Molly.
"I had seen Miss Lydia's photo at a friend's house, and I recognizedher as soon as I saw her beside Lake Desolate--and so I trusted her,"Molly answered.
"So that's how it was," nodded the old woman. "Of course we sent forthe Pumpkin at once as soon as we found you were on your way to thehouse, but he did not arrive until you were inside, so we thought we'dcatch you coming out."
"Are none of you repentant?" asked Old Nancy. "None of you sorry forall the unhappiness you have caused?"
"Repentant! I should think not," the old woman answered. "No, thoughwe're powerless now--we're not repentant. We had the finest time of ourlives; that's so, comrades, ain't it?"
The other spies assented without hesitation.
"Then," said Old Nancy, "it would be best to banish you all, togetherwith your leader, the Grey Pumpkin, out of our world into theImpossible World, where you can do no harm. Is it your wish that I dothis?" Old Nancy cried to the crowd.
"Yes, yes. Banish them! Banish them!" the answer came from hundredsof voices; and for a few minutes there was a deafening roar from thepeople; but as Old Nancy lifted her hand the noise died away and therewas silence again.
Old Nancy moved among the spies, touching each with the Black Leaf andmuttering some words to herself; they shivered as the Leaf touched them.
"You shall retain your human forms in the Impossible World," said OldNancy to the spies. "But all the evil magic you have learned you shallforget. You will forget, too, your life in this world; sometimes youwill have vague recollections, but you will never be able to findyour way back here again, and you will not be able to do any harm toothers in the Impossible World. I am allowing you to retain your humanforms, because, bad as you have been, you have not been as bad as theGrey Pumpkin. According to your wicked acts in this land, so will yourunhappiness be in the Impossible World. _You_ will be very unhappy,"she ended, pointing to the old woman.
Then muttering some strange words Old Nancy waved the Leaf again, andthe spies moved slowly away toward the great tree on the opposite sideof the High Road.
"Knock three times," commanded Old Nancy.
And the old woman, with a last defiant toss of the head, knocked threetimes. The door in the tree swung open, and one after the other thespies passed through, and the door closed after them with a thud.
All this time the Grey Pumpkin had remained motionless in front of thecottage door, and now Old Nancy approached him and, touching him oncemore with the Black Leaf, said:
"Go! Back to the Impossible World! Not as a pincushion this time,though you shall still retain your hated shape and shall not resumeyour human form again. You shall become a footstool for people to kickabout and rest their feet on--you shall become a hassock! Go! Andnever, never return."
Slowly the Grey Pumpkin swayed from side to side, then rolled awayacross the road to the tree. It knocked three times against the tree,the door opened, and the Grey Pumpkin passed out into the ImpossibleWorld.
The silence which followed the closing of the door in the tree wasbroken by a terrible guffaw of laughter from Glan's Father. At once awild outburst of cheers and laughter and shouting came from the crowdon the hill; cheers for Old Nancy; cheers for the King; cheers forMolly and Jack; cheers for the other searchers; there seemed no end tothe cheering, for the people were mad with delight. But through it allGlan's Father laughed on, until the tears rolled down his cheeks andAunt Janet grew flustered and alarmed. But Glan only stood in front ofhis Father, his arms akimbo, and laughed too.
"That's right, Father!" he cried. "Go on! Go on! Let him be, AuntJanet, he's not had a laugh for years and years."
Meanwhile, Jack and Molly were making preparations for returning homethrough the tree. Molly handed the satchels back to Old Nancy, andalthough both the children were sorry to leave their friends, they feltthat now their work was finished they would like to return home; it wasa long time since they had
seen Mother and Father. And so they beganto say good-bye to the little group of friends around them, includingMrs Jennet, who had arrived with Mr Jennet--so exactly like herself--intime to witness the exit of the Pumpkin.
The King and Old Nancy had been talking apart from the crowd, and nowthey turned to Jack and Molly.
"Will you accept this?" said the King to Molly, handing her a littlebox, "as a small token of our thanks and appreciation of the serviceyou have done this country.... It seems a very insignificant thing tooffer you, but it has an unusual gift attached to it. Whenever you wearit you will be happy and will give happiness to those around you.... Donot open the box now, but place it on your table, when you get home,where the pincushion stood; and when the sunshine falls across it--openit; if you open it before, the special gift I mentioned will not bewith it."
Molly took the little box and thanked the King sincerely, withsparkling eyes.
To Jack the King said, "I have just heard that you go in for painting,so I am having a special set of painting-brushes made for you, whichwill help you to do good work--they are rather special brushes;" heand Old Nancy exchanged mysterious smiles. "I want you to accept themas a little memento of your visit, but as they are not quite ready, Ishall send them to you to-morrow."
"Thanks awfully, your Majesty, but I don't feel as if I've earned themproperly, you know," said Jack. But the King shook him warmly by thehand and said he had done a great deal to help.
And so they bade the King good-bye.
"You will find that your Mother hasn't been anxious about you--I saw tothat," said Old Nancy, as they said good-bye to her.
And Glan said, "Come and see us again some day, little lady, you andyour brother. Do, won't you? Knock three times on the tree when themoon is full, remember."
"Oh, we'd love to come again some day, wouldn't we, Jack?" said Molly.
"Rather," said Jack.
So, for the third time that night the door in the tree opened inresponse to the three knocks. And this time a little girl and boypassed through to the Impossible World again.
CHAPTER XXII
_The Impossible World Again_
When Jack and Molly reached the fence that separated their garden fromthe wood, Jack was surprised to find his slipper still lying there--theslipper he had lost on the way out.
"Oh, I say, Moll," he said. "Look here--I forgot to give Old Nancy herslipper back, and now I've got three slippers all alike!"
Which was in truth the case. As they crossed the garden they noticedthat day was just dawning. They found the back door locked, but Jackscrambled through the scullery window, which was unfastened, and so letMolly in without disturbing anybody. They crept upstairs and managed toget an hour's rest before the breakfast bell rang.
Molly remembered to place her little box on the dressing-table beforeshe went to sleep, and when she woke she saw that the sun was streamingright across it. So she sprang up eagerly and opened the box. Insidewas the most exquisite silver bangle that she had ever seen. Molly wasdelighted, and she found afterward that it had indeed some specialcharm about it, for she was always happy when wearing it and thosearound her seemed the same.
At the breakfast-table Mother and Father seemed to the children toglance at them rather curiously.
"Mother," began Molly, "do you know who gave me this?" and she showedher the silver bracelet.
"Yes," said Mother to Molly's surprise. "I know all about it."
"Why, how did you?" asked Jack.
But "Ah!" was all Mother would say, and she and Father exchanged amusedglances.
It was a little puzzling. And even when there arrived by post for Jacka long narrow box containing three paint-brushes, Mother and Fathernever asked whom they were from, although there was no name inside.
"I suppose there's no need for us to tell you all about our adventure,if you know already?" remarked Jack. "Do you know everything?"
"Everything," replied Mother, smiling.
Of course the grey pumpkin pincushion had entirely vanished fromMolly's dressing-table, and she never set eyes on it again, though shewrote and thanked Aunt Phoebe for her 'useful present.'
Jack and Molly often wonder where the Grey Pumpkin and his spiesare. They have never seen any of them yet, though Molly has seen aticket-collector who reminds her somewhat of the old watchmaker. Bothchildren keep a watchful eye on all shops that sell hassocks, andalways glance eagerly round the room when they are invited out to teaanywhere, but so far they have not come across the Grey Pumpkin.
Transcriber's note
Text in italics has been surrounded with _underscores_, and smallcapitals changed to all capitals. A table of Contents was missing inthe original, and has been added. Some missing letters and punctuationhave been added. Otherwise the original has been preserved, includinginconsistent spelling and hyphenation.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends