She pushed the tiny wishing-chair out of the hole. Peter picked it up gladly and ran up the cellar-steps with it. How glad Chinky and Mollie were to see it!
“Now,” said Chinky, “I must make it big again.” He felt in his pockets and took out a duster coloured yellow and green. It had a queer-smelling polish in the middle in a great smear. Chinky began to polish the chair.
As he polished it, it grew bigger—and bigger—and bigger! The children watched in amazement.
At last it was its usual size. “Where shall we hide it?” asked Mollie.
“I say! Don’t let’s hide it anywhere!” said Peter suddenly. “What about us all getting into it, and waiting till Clip-clap comes back? Then, as soon as he opens the door to come in, we’ll yell to the chair to fly out—and off we’ll go! The enchanter won’t know what’s happening till it’s too late to stop us!”
“That’s a splendid idea!” said Chinky, at once. “We’ll do it. Come on—get in, you two—the enchanter may be in at any moment! We must be ready!”
“The good old wishing-chair still has its wings,” said Mollie, thankfully. “Wouldn’t it be awful if they went, and we couldn’t fly away?”
“Don’t say things like that in front of the chair,” said Peter. “You know how silly it can be sometimes. Have you forgotten the time it landed us all into a chimney?”
“‘Sh!” said Chinky. “I can hear Clip-clap coming.”
Crash! The tower split in two, and a great door appeared in the slit. It opened—and in strode Clip-clap, calling Chinky. “Hi, Chinky, Chinky!”
“Home, wishing-chair, home!” yelled Chinky. “Hallo, Clip-clap—here I am!”
The chair rose up into the air, flew past the left ear of the astonished enchanter and shot out of the door before Clip-clap could shut it! They were safely out in the wood again!
“There’s Dimple and Harriet below, waving like mad!” said Peter. “Wave back, you two!”
They all waved to Dimple and Harriet and called goodbye. “We’ll send them a postcard when we get back,” said Chinky. “They were very good to help us.”
“Won’t Clip-clap be angry to think we’ve escaped after all!” said Mollie.
“I say! Oughtn’t you to go and tell your mother you are safe?” said Peter. “She was very worried about you.”
“I’ll go tonight when you are both in bed,” said Chinky. “I’ll take you home safely first. My, what adventures we’ve had since this morning!”
“I’m not going to quarrel ever again,” said Mollie, as the chair flew in at the playroom door. She jumped off and flung her arms round Chinky. “It was horrid when you didn’t come back. I didn’t mean what I said. You will always be our friend, won’t you, Chinky?”
“Of course,” said Chinky, grinning all over his cheeky pixie face. “I would have come back the next day. I was just in a bad temper. We all were.”
“I’m sorry about it, too,” said Peter. “Anyway, we’re all together again, friends as much as before.”
“You’d better run in and show your mother you’re all right,” said Chinky. “Mothers are such worriers, you know. You’ve not been in to tea, so yours will wonder if you’re all right. Goodbye! Thanks so much for rescuing me.”
Peter and Mollie ran off happily. Thank goodness everything was all right again! Good old wishing-chair—what would they do without it?
Big-Ears The Goblin
ONE day, when Mollie and Peter were playing with Chinky in the playroom, they heard footsteps running down the garden.
“Quick! Hide, Chinky! There is someone coming!” cried Mollie. The pixie always hid when anyone was about. He ran to a cupboard and got inside. Peter shut the door just as Mother came into the playroom.
“Children!” she said, “I’ve lost my ring! I must have dropped it in the garden somewhere. Please look for it, and see if you can find it. It is a very valuable ring.”
Peter and Mollie were upset. They knew that their mother was very fond of her best ring. It was a very pretty one, set with diamonds and rubies. They ran out into the garden and began to hunt—but no matter where they looked they could see no sign of any ring!
“Let’s go and ask Chinky to help,” said Mollie. So they ran back to the playroom. Chinky had got out of the cupboard and was sitting reading. They told him how they had hunted and hunted for the ring.
“I’ll soon find out if it’s in the garden,” he said, shutting his book. “Is your mother certain she dropped it there?”
“Quite certain,” said Peter. “How are you going to find out where it is, Chinky?”
“You’ll see in a minute!” said the pixie, with a grin. He went to the door of the playroom and looked round. There was no one about. He whistled softly a strange little twittering tune. A freckled thrush flew down to his hand and stood on his outstretched fingers.
“Listen, Freckles,” said Chinky. “There is a ring lost in this garden. Get all the birds together and tell them to hunt for it.”
Freckles gave a chirrup and flew off. In a few minutes all the birds in the garden were gathered together in a thick lilac bush. Mollie and Peter could hear the thrush singing away, just as if he were telling a story in a song. They knew he must be telling the birds what to do.
In a few seconds every sparrow, starling, thrush, blackbird, robin, and finch was hopping about the ground, under bushes and in the beds, under the hedges and over the grass. They pecked here and there, they turned over every leaf, and they hunted for that ring as neither Mollie nor Peter could possibly have hunted.
At last Freckles the thrush came back. He flew down on to Chinky’s shoulder and chirruped a long and pretty song into his ear. Then he flew off.
“What does he say?” asked Mollie.
“He says that your mother’s ring is nowhere here at all,” said Chinky. “She can’t have dropped it in the garden.”
“But she knows she did,” said Mollie. “Really she does, Chinky.”
“Well, someone must have found it already, then,” said Chinky. “I wonder if any goblin was about last night! They are not honest if they find any beautiful jewel. Wait! I’ll find out!”
He went to the lawn near the playroom. It was well hidden from the house, so he could not be seen. He drew a ring on the grass in blue chalk.
“Keep away from this ring,” he said to the watching children. “When I say the goblin spell, you will see blue flames and smoke come up from the ring—if goblins have been this way during the last few hours. Don’t go too near. If nothing happens we shall know that no goblins have been this way.”
Mollie and Peter watched whilst Chinky danced slowly round the ring, chanting a string of curious, magic-sounding words.
“Look! Look! Smoke is coming — and blue flames!” shrieked Mollie excitedly. “Oh, Chinky, don’t go too near!”
Sure enough, as they watched, the ring began to smoke as if it were on fire, and small blue flames flickered all around. Chinky stopped singing. He threw a pinch of dust over the ring. Smoke, flames, and chalk ring vanished as if they had never been there!
“Yes,” said Chinky, “a goblin has been here all right! When a blue chalk ring flames like that it’s a sure sign of goblins. I wonder which one it was. I’ll just go and ask the fairies at the bottom of the garden— they’ll know.”
He ran off. The children didn’t follow, for they knew that Chinky didn’t like them to see the fairies, who were very shy. He came back, running fast, his face red with excitement.
“Yes—the fairies saw Big-Ears the goblin pass by here last night—so he must have found the ring and taken it. They said that he seemed very pleased about something.”
“Oh dear! How can we get it back for Mother?” asked Mollie in despair.
“We’ll get it back all right. Don’t worry,” said Chinky. “As soon as the wishing-chair grows its wings again we’ll go off to old Big-Ears. He’ll soon give it back. He’s an old coward.”
“Good!” said the children in deligh
t. “Oh, won’t it be fun to have an adventure again! Where does Big-Ears live?”
“Not very far away,” said Chinky. “In Goblin Town. Listen — there’s your dinner-bell. You go in to dinner and I’ll see if I can get the wishing-chair to grow its wings again. Sometimes a little singing helps it.”
The children ran indoors, bubbling with excitement. What fun if the chair grew its wings that afternoon.
After dinner they ran back to their playroom. Chinky met them at the door with a grin.
“The chair’s grown its wings!” he said. “It is in a great hurry to get away, so come on!”
Peter and Mollie ran into the playroom. The wishing-chair certainly seemed in a great hurry to go. Its wings were flapping merrily, and it was giving little hops about the floor.
“It thinks it’s a bird or something!” said Chinky, grinning. “It will twitter soon!”
The children sat down on the seat. Chinky climbed on to the back. “To Goblin Town!” he cried.
The chair rose into the air and flew out of the door with such a rush that the children were nearly thrown out of their seats.
“Steady, chair, steady!” said Chinky. “There’s not such a dreadful hurry, you know.”
The chair flew high, and its red wings flapped strongly. It was so high in the air that the children were above the clouds, and could see nothing below them but the rolling white mist, like a great dazzling snowfield.
“Where are we now?” asked Mollie, peering down. “Are we getting near Goblin Town?”
“We must be,” said Chinky. “But we shan’t know till the chair dives down through the clouds again. Ah! Here we go!”
Down went the chair through the cold white clouds. The children looked to see if Goblin Town was below.
“Look at those funny, crooked little houses!” cried Mollie in delight. “And look at the goblins! Oh, it’s a market, or something!”
The chair flew down to a busy market-place. The goblins crowded round it in surprise.
“Good afternoon,” said Chinky, getting down from the back of the chair. “Can you tell me where Big-Ears lives?”
“He lives in the yellow cottage at the foot of the hill,” said a little green goblin, pointing. The children carried the chair down the hill, for it had stopped flapping its wings and seemed tired. They came to the yellow cottage, and Chinky knocked loudly.
The door opened. There stood a goblin with yellow eyes and great big pointed ears that stuck above the top of his head.
“Good morning, Big-Ears,” said Chinky. “We have come for that ring you picked up in our garden the other night.”
“W-w-w-what r-r-r-ring?” stammered the goblin, going pale with fright. “I d-d-d-didn’t see any ring.”
“Oh yes, you did,” said Chinky firmly. “And if you don’t give it back AT ONCE I’ll turn you into a wriggling worm.”
“No, no, no!” cried Big-Ears, falling to his knees. “Don’t do that. Yes—I did take the ring—but I have given it to the Snoogle, who lives in that castle over there.”
“Off to the Snoogle then!” shouted Chinky, and he jumped into the wishing-chair. The children followed— and up went the chair into the air. They were off to the Snoogle—whatever he might be!
The Snoogle
THE wishing-chair was off to find the Snoogle! “If the Snoogle has your mother’s ring, we shall have to find some way of getting it back,” said Chinky. “I wonder who or what he is. I’ve never heard of him before.”
The chair flew on. Soon, in the distance, the three could see an enormous castle set on a hilltop. At the bottom, all round the foot, was a great moat full of water. A drawbridge stretched across the moat—but, even as the children looked at it, it was drawn up into the gateway on the castle side of the moat.
“There’s no way of getting in the Snoogle’s castle except by flying, that’s plain,” said Chinky. “Fly on to the roof, wishing-chair.”
The wishing-chair flew to the roof of the castle. It was turreted, and the chair flew over the turrets and down on to a flat part behind.
Sitting on the roof basking in the sunshine was the Snoogle.
The children stared at him in astonishment. He was the funniest-looking creature they had ever seen. He had the body of a dragon, the tail of a cat, always twirling and twisting—and the head of a yellow duck!
He was sitting in a deck-chair fast asleep. The wishing-chair flew down beside his chair, and the children stared at the Snoogle. They did not get out of the chair, because, really, they hardly liked the look of the Snoogle.
But Chinky jumped down and went to have a good stare at him.
“Snore-r-r-r-r-r!” went the sleeping Snoogle. “Snore-r-r-r-r-r!”
“Hie! Wake up, Snoogle!” shouted Chinky, and he gave the Snoogle a poke in the chest. The Snoogle woke up in a fright and quacked loudly.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!” He leapt to his two pairs of dragon feet and glared at Chinky.
“I’ve come to fetch the ring that Big-Ears the goblin gave you,” said Chinky boldly. “Will you get it, please?”
“You’d better get it yourself,” said the Snoogle sulkily.
“Where is it, then?” asked Chinky.
“Go down the stairs there, and walk down two hundred steps,” said Snoogle. “You will come to a bolted door. Unbolt it and walk in. You will see my bedroom there. In a big box on the mantelpiece you will find the ring. It was given to me by Big-Ears, and I think you should give me something in return for it.”
“You shall have nothing!” cried Chinky. “You knew quite well that Big-Ears should not have taken that ring from our garden. I believe you were just keeping it for him till people had forgotten it and had given up hunting for it. You are just as dishonest as Big-Ears!”
The Snoogle waved its cat-like tail to and fro in anger. It gave a few loud quacks, but Chinky only laughed. He didn’t seem a bit afraid of the Snoogle.
“I’ll go down and get the ring,” he said to the others. “Stay here.”
He ran down the steps—but no sooner had he disappeared down them than the Snoogle also went down— following softly behind Chinky!
“Oh! He’s gone to catch Chinky!” cried Mollie. “Shout, Peter, shout, and warn him!”
So Peter shouted with all his might—but Chinky was too far down the steps to hear. The Snoogle waited for him to unbolt the bedroom door—and then, when Chinky was safely inside looking for the box on the mantelpiece, he slammed the door and bolted it.
“Quack!” he cried, with a deep chuckle. “Now you are caught, you cheeky little pixie.”
Mollie and Peter were running down the steps, shouting to Chinky. They suddenly heard the sound of the bedroom door being slammed, and the bolts driven home.
“Stop, Mollie,” said Peter, clutching hold of her arm. “Chinky is caught. It’s no use us running straight into the Snoogle as he comes back. Slip into this room here, and perhaps he will go past us up to the roof again.”
They slipped into a nearby room. They hid behind the door—and as he passed, the Snoogle popped his head into the room and looked round it—but he did not see the two children squeezed tightly behind the door.
“Quack!” he said loudly, and went on up the steps.
Mollie and Peter slipped out of the room as soon as it was safe and ran to where Chinky was hammering on the inside of the bolted door in a furious rage. “Let me out, let me out!” he was shouting.
“Chinky, Chinky, hush!” said Peter. “We’ve come to get you out. We are just going to unbolt the door.”
The bolts were big and heavy. It took both Mollie and Peter to pull them back. They opened the door— and there was Chinky, looking as angry as could be.
“To think I should have been trapped so easily!” said Chinky, in a fury. “Anyway—I’ve got the ring! Look!”
He showed them a ring—and sure enough it was the very one their mother had lost! Mollie and Peter were so pleased.
“Now I’ll just go a
nd tell that Snoogle what I think of him!” said Chinky fiercely. “I’m not afraid of any Snoogle—silly, duck-headed creature!”
“Oh, Chinky, do be careful,” said Mollie, half afraid. “We’ve got the ring. Can’t we just go quietly up to the roof, get into our chair, and go away? I’d much rather do that.”
“We’ll get into the chair and fly away all right,” said Chinky. “But I’m just going to tell the Snoogle a few things first.”
The children had never seen the little pixie look so angry. He marched up the steps and out on the roof. Mollie and Peter followed.
The Snoogle was looking all round for the two children, quacking angrily. He was surprised to see them coming up the steps—and even more surprised to see Chinky, whom he thought was safely bolted in the room below.
“Now, look here, Snoogle,” said Chinky boldly, walking right up to the surprised creature, “how dare you try to capture me like that? I am a pixie—yes, and a powerful one too. I can do spells that would frighten you. Shall I turn you into a black-beetle—or a tadpole— or a wasp without a sting?”
To the children’s surprise, the Snoogle looked very much frightened. He was such a big creature compared with Chinky—it seemed strange that he should be so scared of him.
“I’ve a good mind to fly off in our chair to the Pixie King and complain of you,” said Chinky. “Yes—I think that is just what I shall do! You will have your castle taken away from you then, for daring to interfere with a pixie.”
“No one can get me out of my castle,” said the Snoogle, in a quacking sort of voice. “I have a big moat round— and a drawbridge that I can keep drawn up for months on end. Do your worst, stupid little pixie!”
“Very well, then, I will!” said Chinky. “But just to go on with—take that, you silly Snoogle!”
Chinky took hold of the Snoogle’s waving tail and pulled it hard. Naughty Chinky! There was no need to do a thing like that. It made the Snoogle very angry indeed . . . but he did not dare to touch Chinky or the children, for he really was afraid of Chinky’s magic.