Just then a tiny fairy came knocking at the playroom door with a note for Chinky. He opened it and read it—and his face broke into smiles. “Just listen to this!” he cried. “It’s from my mother. She says:
‘Dear Chinky, this is just to let you know that the wishing-chair arrived here by itself today. I don’t know why.—Your loving Mother.’
“Oh, the clever old chair!” said Peter. “It heard us say that you would live with your mother and keep it there—so it has gone there itself! Well, you must say goodbye to it for us, Chinky—and we’ll hope to see it when we come home for half-term.”
A bell rang at the top of the garden. Mollie ran to Chinky and hugged him. “That’s the bell to tell us to go in,” she said. “We’d better say goodbye now, dear, dear Chinky, in case we can’t get down to the playroom tomorrow before we go. Goodbye and don’t forget us!”
They all hugged one another. Chinky waved to them as they ran up the garden. He felt rather sad— but never mind, there would be more adventures when the holidays came! He would wait for those.
Chinky caught the bus to Fairyland and went to Mrs. Twinkle, his mother. The children packed their last things. Everything was ready for school. They couldn’t help feeling rather excited.
The playroom was empty. The wishing-chair was gone. Ah—but wait till the holidays! What fine adventures they would all have then!
THE END
Original Illustrations
What’s a Shilling?
For those not familiar with old UK currency…
Pre decimalization (1971) a pound consisted of twenty shillings, each of which in turn consisted of twelve pennies or pence.
Post decimalization a pound consists of one hundred [new] pence.
A straight conversion for the three shillings which Mollie and Peter have in their money-box is therefore (3/20) X 100 = 15 pence. Buying the vase for 2/6 [two shillings and sixpence or “two and six”] leaves them sixpence for the flowers. In current UK currency that’s 12½p and 2½p, although we’ve long since got rid of the ½p.
More realistic conversion rates as at 2010 using Retail Price Index and Average Earnings are:
1950 (publication): £4.00/£11.50
1937 (first edition): £7.50/£22.00
Source: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php
If you need to relate the story in relative terms either five or ten pounds would be reasonable.
Enid Blyton, The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair
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