‘GOODBYE, GOODBYE,’ shouted the brownies, waving their hands in delight. ‘THANKS SO MUCH FOR LETTING US HAVE THIS ENGINE!’
They passed the last person by the line, and went tearing round the bend. They heard shouts and yells behind them, but they didn’t even bother to look round.
‘Hurrah! Hurrah!’ shouted Skip. ‘We’ve got away! Good old Hop!’
Hop grinned. He was being very careful, for he didn’t want to run any risks of being taken back to Toadstool Town. The engine went racing on, and passed one station after another. Jump read them out loud as they passed.
‘We ought to be getting near Fiddlestick Field,’ said Skip at last. ‘Keep a good look out, Jump. Hadn’t you better go a bit slower, Hop, so that we don’t go rushing past the station!’
Hop twisted a wheel marked ‘GO SLOW’, and the engine slowed down.
Two more stations were passed, and then Jump gave a squeak of delight, as the engine went up a steep hill.
‘Fiddlestick Field!’ he shouted. ‘Pull up, Hop, quick! We’re really here!’
Hop stopped the engine and the three brownies jumped out. No one was about at all. Evidently no train was expected at that time.
‘Good for us!’ grinned Hop. ‘We shan’t have any questions asked!’
‘I wonder what the people of Toadstool Town are thinking!’ chucked Skip. ‘They’ll know we can drive all right now !’
‘Come on,’ said Jump, running out of the station. ‘Let’s find someone to ask where the Saucepan Man lives.’
They went down a little winding lane, with honey-suckle hedges on each side. They hadn’t gone far when they heard a most curious noise. It was a clanging and a clanking, a jingling and a jangling.
‘What in the world is that?’ wondered Hop. ‘It sounds as if it’s coming towards us. Perhaps we shall find out what it is, round the next corner.’
Sure enough they did. They saw the most comical sight – it looked just like a walking mass of jingling-jangling saucepans!
‘Goodness gracious!’ said Hop in great astonishment. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a whole heap of saucepans,’ said Skip, ‘and there are feet at the bottom. I can see them walking!’
When they got nearer they saw a tiny, bearded face peeping out of the crowd of saucepans, and discovered that it was a little man, hung from head to foot with saucepans of all sizes, shapes, and colours.
‘It must be the Saucepan Man himself,’ said Hop, in delight. ‘What a bit of luck!’
Their Adventure with the Saucepan Man
The three brownies ran up to the jingling-jangling little man.
‘Hello!’ cried Hop. ‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’
The little man looked at him inquiringly.
‘Hey?’ he said. ‘What did you say?’
‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’ bawled Hop, over the jingling of scores of saucepans.
‘No I ain’t got a sausage-pan!’ answered the Saucepan Man, shaking his head so that the saucepans rattled tremendously.
‘Sausage-pan! I never said a word about a sausage-pan,’ said Hop in surprise. ‘I said, “Are you the Saucepan Man?”
‘I tell you I ain’t got a sausage-pan,’ said the little man crossly, ‘I only sell saucepans, I do.’
‘He’s deaf,’ said Skip, ‘and I don’t wonder, with all those saucepans jangling round him all day.’
Hop tried again. ‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’ he bawled. ‘Can you hear me when I shout?’
‘Yes, I think there’s rain about,’ said the Saucepan Man, looking up at the sky wisely. ‘Come before evening too, likely enough.’
‘You try, Skip,’ said Hop, quite out of breath.
‘WHERE ARE YOU GOING?’ shouted Skip.
‘Now don’t be silly,’ answered the Saucepan Man sharply. “Tain’t snowing, and you can see it ain’t. Don’t tell me any fairy-tales like that.’
‘CAN WE GO HOME WITH YOU?’ asked Jump in his most enormous voice.
‘No, my boots ain’t new, but what’s that to do with you, I’d like to know?’ said the little man, looking crosser and crosser.
‘Oh, buttons and buttercups!’ sighed Hop. ‘We’ll never make him hear, while he’s got all those saucepans jangling round him. Let’s follow him and see if he’s going home. Then if he takes off his saucepans, we’ll try again then.’
So the three brownies trotted behind the Saucepan Man, back down the lane again, and round by the station. There they saw the station-master and the porter, staring in great astonishment at the empty engine standing all by itself in the station.
‘Gracious!’ said Hop. ‘Let’s hope we don’t get asked any awkward questions!’
The station-master saw them coming and immediately rushed over to them.
‘Pretend we don’t understand,’ said Hop quickly to the others. ‘If we talk a lot of rubbish, he’ll soon let us go.’
‘Hi! Hi!’ called the station-master. ‘Do you know anything about this engine?’
Nobody answered anything.
‘Are you dumb?’ asked the station-master angrily. ‘Come now! Do you know anything about this engine, I say?’
‘Kalamma Koo, chickeree chee,’ answered Hop solemnly.
‘Krik-krik,’ said Skip.
‘Caw,’ said Jump.
‘They don’t know anything, that’s certain,’ said the station-master to the porter. ‘They’re foreigners.’
‘Tanee jug jug jug?’ said Hop, in an inquiring voice.
‘It’s all right,’ said the station-master. ‘I don’t understand you. I’ll have a word with this saucepan chap.’
‘Caw, caw,’ said Jump, and nearly made the others giggle.
The station-master poked the Saucepan Man in the ribs.
‘Hi!’ he cried. ‘Do you know anything about this engine?’
‘My name ain’t Benjamin, and kindly take your fingers out of my waistcoat,’ said the Saucepan Man huffily.
The station-master groaned.
‘Come on,’ he said to the porter. ‘They’re quite mad – too mad to know anything about an engine, anyway!’
They went off to the station again, and the three brownies breathed freely once more.
‘That was a near squeak!’ said Hop. ‘Come on, and let’s follow the Saucepan Man.’
On they went again, until at last the Saucepan Man came to a little tumbledown cottage, called Saucepan Cottage. It had old saucepans for its chimneys, and looked the funniest little place the brownies had ever seen. They followed the Saucepan Man inside. He looked at them in surprise.
‘What do you want?’ he asked.
Hop suddenly saw that the table was very dusty. He quickly wrote on it with his finger.
‘We are three brownies who want to know the way to Witchland,’ he wrote. ‘The Very Wise Man told us to ask the Saucepan Man the way. Are you the Saucepan Man?’
‘Course I am,’ said the little man. ‘Can’t you see that? Anyway, I don’t know why you didn’t ask me that in the road, instead of talking about sausage-pans and the weather.’
He took off his saucepans and clattered them into a corner.
‘I can tell you the way to Witchland all right,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m on my way there tomorrow. You’d better come with me, you’ll be safe then. Witches don’t touch me, they don’t.’
‘Why not?’ asked Hop.
‘Feel hot, do you?’ said the little man. ‘Well, open the window then.’
Hop sighed. It really was very difficult to talk to the Saucepan Man. He tried again.
‘May we spend the night here?’ he asked in his loudest voice.
‘What’s the matter with my right ear?’ said the Saucepan Man, going to the looking-glass, and peering into it. ‘Nothing at all. Don’t you be saucy, young man.’
‘I can’t stand this!’ groaned Hop to the others. ‘Haven’t you got a note-book that we can write in?’
‘Yes, I have!’ cried Skip, pulling out an old note-book and a s
tumpy pencil. ‘Here you are – write in this, Hop.’
Hop quickly wrote down his questions, and showed them to the Saucepan Man.
‘Yes, you can stay here for the night,’ said the little man, ‘and I’ll take you with me tomorrow. Find the cocoa tin now and make some cocoa, while I boil some eggs and make some toast.’
The brownies hunted about for the cocoa, filled one of the many saucepans with milk and put it on the fire to boil.
Soon the four were enjoying boiled eggs, toast and cocoa, and the brownies began to think the Saucepan Man was a very jolly little man, for although he couldn’t hear very well, he could tell lots of funny tales.
‘Now to bed, to bed!’ he said at last. ‘We’ve a long way to go tomorrow and we must be up early.’
He showed them a bedroom with a big bed in it, said goodnight, and shut the door.
‘Well, I really feel we’re on the way to find the Princess Peronel now,’ said Hop, as he got into bed.
‘Yes, if the Saucepan Man takes us to Witchland, we’ve only got to find out where Witch Green-eyes lives, and then make up a plan to rescue the Princess,’ said Skip sleepily.
‘Well, goodnight,’ said Jump, yawning. All the brownies lay down and fell fast asleep.
In the morning the Saucepan Man woke them, and they started off on their journey. They walked for miles across the country, calling at little cottages on the way, and selling saucepans.
Soon Hop had a good idea. He took out his little note-book and wrote in it.
‘Let us carry your saucepans for you for a little while,’ Hop wrote. ‘You must be very tired, for the sun is hot.’
The Saucepan Man gladly took off all his saucepans and gave them to the three brownies. They divided the saucepans between them, and off they all went again, clinking and clanking for all the world as if they were saucepan men themselves.
Suddenly, as they were going along, a great shadow came over them, and made everything dark.
The brownies looked up and saw an enormous yellow bird hovering over them. The Saucepan Man gave a frightened yell.
‘Run!’ he said ‘Run! It’s the Dragon-bird that belongs to the Golden Dwarf. Don’t let him get you!’
The brownies sped away to some trees. The Saucepan Man didn’t seem to know where to go. He ran forwards and backwards, and sideways, and all the time the Dragon-bird hovered overhead like a great hawk.
Then zee-ee-ee! It swooped downwards so fast that its feathers made a singing noise. The brownies saw it get hold of the poor little Saucepan Man, and then the Dragon-bird rose into the air, taking him in its talons.
‘Oh my! Oh my!’ cried Hop in despair. ‘It’s got him! It’s got him!’
‘Poor little Saucepan Man,’ sobbed Skip, tears pouring down his face.
‘Look! Look! It’s flying towards that hill over there,’ said Jump.
The brownies watched. On the top of the faraway hill was a castle. The Dragon-bird flew to the highest window there, landed, and disappeared into the castle.
‘Now what are we to do?’ said Hop mournfully.
‘We can’t go on and leave him,’ said Skip, drying his eyes. ‘Besides, we’ve got his saucepans.’
‘Oh, isn’t it bad luck that this should happen, just as we were really on our way to Witchland!’ sighed Jump. ‘Look at that signpost there. It says “THIS WAY TO WITCHLAND” on it.’
‘Well, we’d better go to that hill over there,’ said Skip bravely. ‘We might be able to rescue the Saucepan Man somehow. We simply can’t leave him to that Dragon-bird and the Golden Dwarf ’
‘Come on then,’ said Hop, and off they all went, keeping a very sharp look-out in case the Dragon-bird came back again.
The hill was very much farther away than it looked. All the afternoon the brownies travelled, their saucepans clanking and jingling at every step.
‘No wonder the Saucepan Man is so deaf !’ said Hop. ‘It’s all I can do to hear myself speak with all this noise going on.’
Presently they came to a little cottage.
‘Let’s knock at the door,’ said Skip, ‘and see if we can get some food in exchange for a saucepan. I’m hungry.’
They knocked. A dwarf opened the door and peered at them.
‘What do you want?’ he said.
‘Do you want any saucepans?’ asked Hop. ‘We’ve got some fine ones here.’
‘How much?’ asked the dwarf.
‘We’ll give you a big one, if you’ll give us a loaf, and some milk,’ said Hop.
The dwarf fetched them three cups of milk and a loaf of bread.
‘Here you are,’ he said. ‘Now give me your biggest saucepan.’
Hop gave him a fine blue saucepan.
‘Who lives in that castle over there on that hill?’ he asked.
‘The Golden Dwarf,’ answered their customer. ‘Don’t you go there, or you’ll be captured by the Dragon-bird.’
‘Why does the Golden Dwarf capture people?’ asked Skip.
‘To eat,’ answered the dwarf. ‘Didn’t you know that ? Ah, he’s a terrible fellow, the Golden Dwarf is, I can tell you. There’s only one word that will stop him in his evil ways, but as he lives away up there in his high castle that nobody can enter, he’s safe!’
‘What’s the word?’ asked Hop with interest.
‘Ho ho! Don’t you wish you could use it on the Golden Dwarf !’ laughed the dwarf. ‘Well, I’ll tell you. It’s “Kerolamisticootalimarcawnokeeto”!’
‘Buttons and buttercups!’ said Hop. ‘I’ll never be able to say that!’
‘We’ll split it into three and each of us can remember a bit of it!’ said Skip cleverly.
The dwarf laughed, and said the long word again. Hop said the first piece over and over to himself, while Skip said the middle bit and Jump repeated the last bit.
‘Much good it’ll do you!’ said the dwarf. ‘Why, no one’s ever even seen the Golden Dwarf since I’ve lived here – and I’ve been here a hundred and forty-three years come next November!’
The brownies sighed. Things seemed very difficult. They said goodbye and left the cottage behind them.
‘Is it any good going to the castle?’ said Jump, who was beginning to feel very down in the dumps. ‘Suppose we all get caught and eaten.’
‘Cheer up,’ said Hop. ‘You can only get eaten once, you know!’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Jump crossly. ‘I don’t want to be eaten even once.’
‘Sh!’ said Skip. ‘We’re getting near the castle. Better keep a good look-out.’
‘Bother the clanking saucepans,’ said Hop. ‘Shall we take them off and leave them here?’
‘No,’ said Skip. ‘If that horrid Dragon-bird appears again we’ll pretend we’re just a heap of old tins, and maybe it won’t see us then.’
Just as he spoke a shadow fell over them again. At once the three sank down to the ground beneath their saucepans, and lay quite still. The shadow grew blacker, and at last the Dragon-bird landed by them with a flop. It pecked at Skip’s saucepans and dented them badly. Then it spread its wings, rose into the air, and flew away again.
‘Oh my stars!’ said Jump, shaking like a jelly. ‘This is the sort of adventure that doesn’t agree with me at all. Has that horrid bird gone?’
‘Yes,’ said Hop. ‘It’s a nasty-looking thing too, I can tell you. It’s got scales as well as feathers, and a long tail. It must have thought we were piles of saucepans!’
‘Come on while we’re safe,’ said Skip.
They ran towards the castle and, panting and breathless, flung themselves down at the foot of it.
‘Isn’t it a funny colour!’ said Hop, looking at it closely. ‘It looks just like toffee!’
Skip broke a piece off and licked it.
‘It is toffee!’ he said. ‘My goodness! Fancy a castle built of toffee!’
‘Toffee!’ cried Jump in delight. ‘I say, how lovely! I’m going to have a really big bit!’
He broke off a fine fat p
iece and began chewing it. It was delicious.
‘I suppose it was built by magic,’ said Hop. ‘I can’t imagine people building it, can you? They’d get so terribly sticky.’
‘Well, don’t let’s forget about the Saucepan Man,’ said Skip, looking round about him. ‘I expect he’s feeling very lonely and afraid.’
‘Let’s explore round the outside of the castle,’ said Hop. ‘Maybe we can find some way of getting in then.’
Off went the brownies, after having carefully taken off the saucepans and hidden them under a bush. They were afraid that the Golden Dwarf might hear the clanking if they carried them about.
They marched off round the toffee castle, looking everywhere for a window or a door.
Not one was to be seen.
‘Goodness!’ said Hop at last. ‘No wonder nobody ever sees the Golden Dwarf, if there’s no window and no door on the ground-floor.’
‘I don’t believe there’s any way of getting into the castle at all except by that window right at the very top,’ said Skip, craning his neck to see.
He was right. Not a door was to be seen, and no windows either, except the big one set right at the very top of the castle, where the Dragon-bird had flown in with the Saucepan Man.
The brownies came back to their saucepans and sat down under the bush.
‘Well, that is a puzzle,’ said Hop. ‘We haven’t a ladder, and there’s no door – so how ever can we get in?’
‘We can’t,’ said Jump. ‘The only thing left to do is to go back to that signpost, and take the road to Witchland.’
‘What, and leave the poor old Saucepan Man to be eaten by the Golden Dwarf ?’ cried Skip, who was very tender-hearted. ‘After he’s been so very kind to us too!’
The others looked uncomfortable. They didn’t like leaving their friend behind, but they didn’t really see what else there was to do.
‘Listen!’ said Skip. ‘If you want something badly enough, you’re sure to find out a way. Now let’s just keep quiet and think very, very hard.’
The three brownies put their heads on their hands, shut they eyes, and thought.
They thought and thought and thought.
The sun went down. Still the brownies thought.
The moon came up. Still the brownies thought.
Then Hop raised his head. ‘If only we could get something to climb up the wall with,’ he said. ‘But we haven’t anything at all.’