“Now I really must go," said Jo, and he got up. He chose a red cushion, said good-bye to Silky and Moon-Face, and shot off down the slippery-slip. Jo thought he really could do that all day, it was such a lovely feeling! He flew out of the trap-door at the bottom and landed on the moss. He got up and ran off home.
The girls were pleased to see him back so soon. When they heard about the Birthday Land they were tremendously excited.
"Ooooh!" said Bessie, going red with joy. "I am lucky! I wonder what will happen. Do you suppose there will be a cake for me?"
"Rather!" said Jo. "And lots of other things too, I expect!"
“We shall have to tell Mother," said Fanny. "I wonder if she will let us go."
Mother didn’t seem to mind. "I expect it’s just some sort of birthday joke your friends in the wood are playing on you!" she said. "Yes, you can go, if you like. Our cottage is really too small for a large party."
"I shall wear my best dress," said Bessie happily. "The one Mother got me last week, with the blue sash!"
But Mother wouldn’t let her!
“No," she said firmly. "You will all go in your old clothes. I remember quite well what you looked like when you went off to tea with that funny friend of yours, the Old Saucepan Man. I certainly shall not allow any of you to wear nice things next Wednesday."
Bessie was nearly in tears. "But, Mother, I can’t go to my own birthday party in old clothes," she said.
But it was no good. Mother said they could wear old clothes or else not go. So there was no help for it.
“I don’t know what everyone will think of us going to the Birthday Land in our oldest things," said Jo gloomily. "I’ve a good mind not to go."
But when Wednesday afternoon came, they all thought differently! Old clothes or not, they meant to go!
"Come on!" said Jo. "It’s time we went to the Land of Birthdays!"
XXVII
THE LAND OF BIRTHDAYS
The children set off once again to the Enchanted Wood. They knew the way to the Faraway Tree very well by now.
"Wisha-wisha-wisha!" whispered the trees, as the children ran between them. Bessie put her arms round one, and pressed her left ear to the trunk. "What secret are you saying today?" she asked.
"We wish you a happy birthday," whispered the leaves. Bessie laughed! It was fun to have a birthday!
When they came to the Faraway Tree, how marvellous it looked! The folk of the IICC had decked it with flags because it was Bessie’s birthday, and it looked simply lovely.
"Oooh!" said Bessie, pleased. "I do feel happy. The only thing I wish is that I had proper party clothes on, not my old ones."
But that couldn’t be helped. They were just about to begin to climb the tree when Dame Washalot’s big washing-basket came bumping down on the end of Moon-Face’s rope for the children to get into.
"Good," said Jo. "Get in, girls." They all got in and went up the tree at a tremendous rate. "Moon-Face must have someone helping him to pull," said Jo, astonished.
He had. Mister Whiskers was there, with Watzisname and the Old Saucepan Man, and they were all pulling like anything. No wonder that basket shot up the tree!
"Many happy returns of the day," said everyone, kissing Bessie.
"Oh, good! You’re not in your best clothes," said Moon-Face. "We wondered if you would make it a fancy-dress party, Bessie."
"Oh, I’d love to!" said Bessie. "But we haven’t got any fancy dresses."
"We can easily get those in the Birthday Land!" said Silky, clapping her hands for joy. "Good, good, good! I do like a fancy-dress party."
"Everybody is ready to go," said Moon-Face. "The brownies are just below us. Where’s Saucepan? Hie, Saucepan, where have you got to?"
"He stepped into your slippery-slip by mistake," said a brownie, appearing out of Moon-Face’s house. "He went down the slide with an awful noise. I expect he’s at the bottom by now."
"Good gracious! Just like silly old Saucepan!" said Moon-Face. "We’d better let down the washing-basket for him, or he’ll never get up to us!"
So down went the basket again, and old Saucepan got into it and came up with a clatter of saucepans and kettles.
"Now are we really all ready?" said Moon-Face. "Silky—Watzisname—Saucepan—the Angry Pixie—Dame Washalot—-Mister Whiskers—the brownies . . ."
"Gracious! What a lovely lot of people are coming!" said Bessie, seeing all the brownies and tree-folk on the branches below. "Is that Mother Washalot? What a nice old woman!"
Dame Washalot was fat and beaming. For once in a way she was going to leave her wash-tub. Going to the Land of Birthdays was not a treat to be missed!
"Come on, then," said Moon-Face, and he led the way to the ladder. Up he went, popped his head above to make quite sure that the Land of Birthdays was there, and then jumped straight into it!
Everyone climbed up. "That’s all, I think," said Moon-Face, peering down. "Oh no—there’s someone else. Whoever is it? I thought we were all here?"
"Gracious! It’s my clock!" said Silky. "The one I got in the Land of Take-What-You-Want!" Sure enough, it was. "Ding-dong-ding-dong!" it cried indignantly, as it climbed up on its flat feet.
"All right, all right, we’ll wait for you!" said Silky. "Go carefully up the ladder. You weren’t really asked, you know."
"Oh, I’d love your clock to come to my party," said Bessie at once. "Come along, clock."
"Ding-dong," said the clock, pleased, and managed to get up the ladder.
The Land of Birthdays was simply beautiful. To begin with, there was always birthday weather there—brilliant sunshine, blue sky, and a nice little breeze. The trees were always green, and there were always daisies and buttercups growing in the fields.
"Oh, it’s lovely, it’s lovely!" cried Bessie, dancing round joyfully. "Moon-Face, what about fancy dresses? Where do we get them?"
"Oh, you’ll find them in that house over there," said Moon-Face, pointing to a very pretty house. They all trooped over to it. As they went, small brown rabbits hopped out of holes, called "A Happy Birthday!" to Bessie, and popped back. It was all very exciting.
Everyone crowded into the pretty house. It Was full of cupboards—and in the cupboards were the most thrilling dresses you can think of.
"Oh, look at this!" cried Jo, in delight, as he came across a Red Indian’s dress, with a wonderful head-dress of bright feathers. "Just the right size for me!"
He put it on. Bessie chose a dress like a fairy’s, and Fanny chose a clown’s dress with a pointed hat. She looked fine.
Moon-Face dressed up as a pirate and Silky became a daffodil. Watzisname was a policeman, and as for the Old Saucepan Man, he simply could not find a fancy dress to fit him, because he was so bumpy with kettles and saucepans!
Everyone else dressed up and, dear me, they did look fine! Bessie had wings with her dress, but she was disappointed because she couldn’t fly with them. How she would have loved to spread them and fly, as the real fairies did!
"Now for balloons!" said Silky, and she danced into the sunshine and ran to an old balloon woman who was sitting surrounded by a great cloud of coloured balloons. Everybody chose one, and what games they had!
Suddenly a tea-bell rang, and Moon-Face gave a scream of joy.
"Tea! Birthday tea! Come on, Everyone!”
He rushed to a long, long table set out in the field. Bessie ran with the others, and took her place at the head. But to her great surprise and disappointment there was no food on the table at all—only just empty plates, cups, and glasses!
"Don’t look so upset!" whispered Silky. "You’ve got to wish your own tea!"
Bessie gave a squeak. Wish her own tea! Oooh! That would be the best fun in the world!
"Don’t wish for bread-and-butter!" called Moon-Face. "Wish for orange jelly. I like that!"
"I wish for orange jelly!" said Bessie at once. And immediately a large, fat wobbly orange jelly appeared on one of the empty dishes. Moon-Face helped himself.
"Wish for strawberries and cream!" cried Fanny, who simply loved those. .
"I wish for strawberries and cream!" said Bessie, and an enormous dish of strawberries appeared, with a large jug of cream beside it. "And I wish for chocolate biscuits too—and iced lemonade—and chocolate blancmange—and treacle pudding—and strawberry ices—and—and—and . . ."
"Fruit salad!" yelled someone.
"Sausage rolls!" cried Watzisname.
"]am tarts!" begged Mister Whiskers.
"Ding-dong-ding-dong!" said Silky’s clock in the greatest excitement. Everyone laughed.
"Don’t wish for ding-dongs!" said Jo. "We’ve got plenty of those, as long as Silky’s clock is here!"
The clock struck fourteen without stopping. It wandered about, looking as happy as could be.
Everyone began to eat. My goodness, it was a wonderful tea! The strawberries and cream and the ices went almost at once, for Mister Whiskers and fifty brownies liked those very much. So Bessie had to wish for some more.
"What about my birthday cake?" she asked Silky. "Do I wish for that too?"
"No. It just comes," said Silky. "It will appear right in the middle of the table. You just watch."
Bessie watched. There was a wonderful silver dish in the middle of the table. Something seemed to be forming there. A curious sort of mist hung over it.
"The birthday cake is coming!" shouted Jo, and Everyone watched the silver dish. Gradually a great cake shaped itself there—oh, a wonderful cake, with red, pink, white, and yellow icing. All round the side were flowers made of sweets. On the top were eight candles burning, for Bessie was eight that day. Her name was written in big sugar letters on the top: "BESSIE. A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Bessie felt very proud. She had to cut the cake, of course. It was quite a difficult job, for there were so many people to cut it for.
"This is a wishing-cake!" said Moon-Face, when everyone had a piece on their plate. "So wish, wish, wish, when you eat it—and your wish will come true!"
The children stared at him in delight. What should they wish? Fanny was just holding her cake in her hand, thinking of a wish, when the Old Saucepan Man upset everything! Whatever do you think he did?
XXVIII
THE LITTLE LOST ISLAND
"Wouldn’t you like to wish?" said Moon-Face, turning to the Old Saucepan Man, who was just about to bite his cake.
"Fish?" said the Saucepan Man, in delight. "Yes, I’d love to fish! I wish we were all fishing for fine fat fishes in the middle of the sea."
Well! What a wish to make, just as he was eating a wishing-cake! Of course, Saucepan didn’t know it was a wishing-cake, for he hadn’t heard Moon-Face properly.
Anyway, the wish immediately came true. A wind blew down, and lifted up the whole crowd of guests at the table. Sitting on their chairs, clinging tightly, they flew through the air for miles!
Whatever was happening?
Down flew the chairs in the big wind. A shower of salt spray drenched Everyone. Jo gasped and looked down. Bump! He and everyone else landed on soft sand, rolled off their chairs, and sat up, blinking in surprise.
The long-bearded brownies looked frightened. Moon-Face kept opening and shutting his mouth like a fish, he was so astonished. Jo was cross, and so was the Angry Pixie.
"Now what’s happened?" said Dame Washalot, in a most annoyed voice. "Why have we come here?"
"Look at all those fishing rods!" said Silky, pointing to a whole row of rods standing in the sand, with their lines in the water.
“Waiting for us!" groaned Moon-Face. "Silly old Saucepan didn’t hear what I said about wishing—he thought I said fishing-and he wished us all here, fishing in the sea!"
"Goodness!" said Bessie, alarmed. “Where are we, then?"
"I think we’re on the Little Lost Island,” said Silky, looking round. "It’s a funny little place, always floating about and getting lost. But there’s always good fishing to be had from it."
"Fishing!" said Jo, Who wants to go fishing in the middle of a birthday party? Let’s get back at once."
"Ding-dong-ding-dong!" said Silky’s clock, walking about at the edge of racism and getting its feet wet in the waves.
"Come back, clock!" called Silky. "You know you can’t swim."
The clock came back and wiped its wet feet on the grass that grew around. Bessie thought it was a remarkably sensible clock, and she wished she had one like it. "I say, you know, we really must do something about getting back to the Land of Birthdays," said Jo, getting up and looking round the little island. “What can we do? Is there a boat here?"
There was nothing except the fishing-rods!
Nobody took up even one of those, for they didn’t feel in the least like fishing. The Little Lost Island was just a hilly stretch of green grass and nothing else whatever.
"I really don’t know what to do!" said Moon-Face, frowning. "Do you, Mister Whiskers?"
Mister Whiskers was dressed up like Santa Claus, and looked very fine indeed, with his long beard. He rubbed his nose thoughtfully and shook his head.
"The difficulty is," he said, "that none of us has any magic with him, because we’re all in fancy dress and our other clothes are in the Land of Birthdays. So the spells and magic we keep in our pockets are not here."
"Well, we shan’t starve," said Watzisname. "We can always fish.”
"Fancy eating fish and nothing but fish always!"· said Jo, making a face. "When I think of all those lovely things that Bessie wished for—and nobody to eat them now! Really, I could cry!"
Fanny had something in her hand and she looked down to see what it was. It was a piece of the birthday cake. Good! She could eat that, at any rate. She lifted the delicious cake. to her mouth and took a nibble.
"What are you eating?" asked Moon-Face, bending over to see.
"A bit of the birthday cake," said Fanny, cramming all of it into her mouth.
"Don’t eat it! Don’t swallow it!" yelled Moon-Face suddenly, dancing round Fanny as if he had gone mad. "Stop! Don’t swallow!"
Fanny stared at him in astonishment. So did everyone else.
"What’s gone wrong with Moon-Face?" asked Silky anxiously. Fanny stood still with her mouth full of birthday cake, looking with amazement at Moon-Face.
"What’s the matter?" she asked, with her mouth full.
"You’ve got a bit of the wishing-cake in your mouth, Fanny!" shouted Moon-Face, hopping first on one leg and then on the other. "Wish, you silly girl, wish!"
"What shall I wish?" said Fanny.
"Wish us back in the Land of Birthdays, of course!" yelled everyone in excitement.
"Oh," said Fanny, “I didn’t think of that! I wish we were all back in the Land of Birthdays, eating our tea!"
Darkness fell round Everyone very suddenly. No wind came this time. Moon-Face put out his hand and took Silky’ s. What was happening?
Then daylight came back again—and Everyone gave a shout of surprise and delight. They were back in the Land of Birthdays! Yes—there was F the table in front of them and more chairs to sit down on, and the same delicious food as before!
"Oh, good, good, good!" shouted Everyone, and sat down at once. They beamed at one another, very thankful to be back from the Little Lost Island.
"What a queer little adventure !" said Jo, helping himself to a large piece of wishing-cake. "Please be careful what you wish, everybody—we don’t want any more adventures like that in the middle of a party!" .
"I wish that my wings could fly!" said Bessie, as she munched her cake. And at once her silver wings spread themselves out, and she rose into the air like a big butterfly, flying beautifully. Oh, it was the loveliest feeling in the world!
"Look at me—look at me!" she cried—and everyone looked. Fanny called out to her. "Don’t fly too far, Bessie. Don’t fly too far!"
Bessie soon flew down to the table again, her cheeks red with excitement and joy. This was the loveliest birthday party she had ever had!
&
nbsp; Everybody wished their wishes except the Old Saucepan Man, who had already wasted his. Fanny, too, had wished her wish when she was on the Little Lost Island, but when she looked upset because she had lost her wish, Moon-Face whispered to her.
"Don’t be upset. Tell me what you really wanted to wish and I’ll wish it for you. I don’t want a wish for myself."
“Oh, Moon-Face, you are kind!" said Fanny. "Well, if you really mean it, I did want a doll that could walk and talk."
"Easy!" said Moon-Face at once. "I wish that Fanny had a doll that walks and talks."
And at that very moment Silky cried out in wonder and pointed behind her. Everyone looked. Coming along on small, plump legs was a doll, beautifully dressed in blue, with a bag in its hand. It walked to Fanny and looked up at her.
"Oh! You lovely, beautiful doll!" cried Fanny in the greatest delight, and she lifted the doll on to her knee. It cuddled up to her and said, "I belong to you. I am your own doll. My name is Peronel."
"What a sweet name!" said Fanny, hugging the doll. "What have you got in that bag, Peronel?"
"All my other clothes," said the doll, and opened her bag. Inside were nightdresses, a dressing-gown, an overcoat, a mackintosh, overalls, dresses, and all kinds of other clothes. Fanny was simply delighted.
"What did you wish, Jo?" asked Bessie. Jo was looking all round and about as if he expected something to arrive at any moment.
"I wished for a pony of my own," said Jo. "Oh! Look! Here it comes! What a beauty!"
A little black pony, with a white mark on its forehead and four white feet, came trotting up to the party. It went straight to Jo.
"My own pony!" cried the little boy, in delight. "Let me ride you! I shall call you Blackie."
He jumped on the pony`s back and together they went galloping round the Land of Birthdays.
"Now let’s play games!" cried Moon-Face, capering about. And as soon as he said that, the tea-table vanished and music began to play.
"Musical chairs! Musical chairs!" shouted Silky, as the chairs suddenly put themselves together in a long row. “Come on, everybody!"