Last Term at Malory Towers

  He snatched at it, but Chinky was skipping down the room, waving it.

  "I'll give you all a half-holiday! Yes, I will! See my wand waving to give you all a half-holiday! Go into the garden and play, all of you!"

  The brownies didn't wait. They rushed out of the room at top speed, shouting and laughing. Soon only Peter, Mollie and Chinky were left with Mis¬ter Grim. Winks was peeping round the door.

  "How DARE you treat me like this!" shouted Mister Grim, marching towards Chinky. "I'll —"

  "Go back, go back!" chanted Chinky, and waved his wand at Mister Grim, whose feet at once took him six steps backwards, much to his surprise. "You see, I've got magic in my wand," cried the pixie. "Aha! I may have powerful magic, Mister Grim, so be careful!"

  "Come on, Chinky," whispered Peter. "Let's go and find the Wishing-Chair and fly off."

  "But I want my doll Rosebud before we go," said Mollie. "And have you forgotten your engine and all the other toys, Peter? We must take those with us. Mister Grim, give us our toys!"

  "Certainly not," said Mister Grim, and he shook a large key at them. "See this key? It's the key of the storeroom, which I've locked. You can't get your toys and you never shall!"

  "We'll see about that," said Chinky. "We'll just see about that, Mister Grim!"

  "But it's pouring with rain," said Peter, look¬ing in at the door as he struggled to put down the big

  umbrella. "We shall get soaked if we go miles through this rain."

  "We'll take the umbrella,' said Mollie. "It will cover all three of us easily."

  "Four of us," said Winks, and he popped out of the cupboard and grinned at them. "I've come back for a day or two. I hid in the cupboard in case it was your mother or somebody coming."

  "Oh, Winks, I'm so glad you're coming, too," said Mollie. "Can we go now, this very minute, Chinky?"

  "I don't see why not," said Chinky. "Don't put down that umbrella, Peter; we'll come now and you can hold it over us as we fly."

  So very soon all four were sitting in the Wish- ing-Chair, flying through the rain. Peter held the big umbrella over them, and although their legs got a bit wet, the rest of them was quite dry.

  "It's quite a long journey, so I hope the chair will fly fast," said Chinky. "It will be a bit dull because the rain clouds stop us from seeing any¬thing."

  The chair suddenly began to rise high. It went right through the purple-grey clouds, higer and higher and higher—and then at last it was through the very last of them, and the children found them¬selves far above the topmost clouds, full in the blaz¬ing sun!

  "Well," said Peter, trying to shut the umbrella, "what a brainy idea of yours, Wishing-Chair. Now we shall soon be warm and dry again. Blow this umbrella! 1 simply can't shut it."

  So it had to remain open; and, as it happened, it was a very good thing it did, because Winks tried to catch a swallow going past at sixty miles an hour, and overbalanced out of the chair! He clutched at the umbrella as he fell and down he went, with the umbrella acting just like a parachute!

  "Very clever of you, Winks!" said Chinky, as the chair swooped down and hovered by the um¬brella for Winks to climb on to the seat again. "I hope you only do this sort of thing when there's an open umbrella to catch hold of!"

  Winks looked rather pale. He sat panting on the seat. "I got a fright," he said. "I really did."

  "Well, don't be frightened if you do fall," said Mollie. "Do what Chinky did when he once fell! He changed himself into a large snow-flake and fell gently to earth! He hadn't even a bruise when he changed back to himself again."

  "Very clever. I must remember that," said Winks. "I say, doesn't this Wishing-Chair fly fast?"

  It certainly did. It flew even faster than the swal¬lows, and passed over miles and miles of country, which lay spread out like a coloured map far be¬low. The children caught glimpses of it through openings in the clouds.

  "What's your cousin Pipkin like?" asked Mollie.

  "Well, he was a bit plump," said Chinky. "And

  I expect he's plumper still now that he lives in the Land of Goodies. He's very generous and kind, thouth he's rather greedy, too. He could easily beat Mollie at eating ice-creams.'

  "Could he really?" said Mollie. "Oh, look, Chinky-we're going downwards. Are we there?"

  They went down and down through layers of clouds. When they came below them they found that the rain had stopped. Chinky peered down.

  "Yes—we're there. Now just remember this, all of you—you can eat whatever is growing on bushes, hedges, or trees, but you mustn't eat anybody's house."

  Peter and Mollie stared at him in wonder. "Eat anybody's house! Are the houses made of eatable things, then?"

  "Good gracious, yes," siad Chinky. "Every¬thing is eatable in the Land of Goodies—even the chimneys! They are usually made of marzipan."

  The Wishing-Chair landed on the ground. The children jumped off quickly, anzious to see this wonderful land. They looked around.

  Mollie's eyes grew wide. "Look—look, Pe¬ter—there's a bush growing currant buns. It is really. And look, there's a hedge with a funny-look¬ing fruit—it's bars of chocolate!"

  "And look at that house!" cried Peter. "It's all decorated with icing sugar—isn't it pretty? And it's got little silver balls here and there in its walls— and all down its front door too.'

  "Look at these funny flowers in the grass!" cried

  Mollie. "I do believe they are jam tarts! Chinky, can I pick one?"

  "Pick a whole bunch if you like," said Chinky. "They're growing wild."

  Mollie picked two. "One's got a yellow middle—It's lemon curd—and the other's got a red middle—it's raspberry jam,' she said, tasting them.

  "Better come and find my cousin Pipkin," said Chinky. "We're not supposed to come to the Land of Goodies except by invitation, so we'd better find him, so that he can say we are his guests. We don't want to be turned out before we've picked a nice bunch of jam tarts, currant buns and chocolate bis¬cuits!"

  Chinky asked a passer-by where his cousin Pipkin lived. Luckily, it was very near. They hur¬ried along till they came to a kind of bungalow. It was round and its roof was quite flat.

  "Why, it's built the shape of a cake!" cried Mollie. "And look, it's got cherries sticking out of the walls—and aren't those nuts on the roof—stick¬ing up like they do in some cakes? Oh, Chinky, I believe your cousin lives in a cake-house!"

  "Well, he won't need to do much shopping then," said Chinky, with a grin. "He can just stay indoors and nibble at his walls!"

  They went in at a gate that looked as if it were made of barley sugar. Chinky knocked at the door. It was opened by a very, very fat pixie indeed! He fell on Chinky in delight, almost knocked him over, and kissed him soundly on his cheek.

  "Cousin Chinky! You've come to see me after all!" he cried. "And who are these nice people with you?"

  "Mollie and Peter and Winks," said Chinky.

  "Glad to meet you," said Pipkin. "Now—how would you like to see my Biscuit Tree to begin with? And after that we'll go a nice hungry walk, and see what we can find!"

  XVI

  AN AFTERNOON WITH COUSIN PIPKIN

  Piplin took them to see his Biscuit Tree. This was really marvellous. It had buds that opened out into brown biscuits—chocolate ones! There they hung on the tree, looking most delicious.

  "Pick as many as you like,' said Pipkin, gener¬ously. "It goes on flowering for months.'

  "Aren't you lucky to have a Chocolate Biscuit Tree," said Pipkin. "The chocolate melts then, you know. It was most annoying the other afternoon. It was very hot and 1 sat down under my Biscuit Tree for shade—and I fell asleep. The sun melted the chocolate on the biscuits and it all dripped over me, from top to bottom. I was sight when I got up!"

  Everyone laughed. They ate a lot of the bis¬cuits and then Mollie remembered something else.

  "You said in your letter to Chinky that you had a jelly plant," said Mollie. "Could we see that, too?"

  Pipkin led
the way round to his front door. Then the children saw something they had not noticed when they had first arrived. A climbing plant traild over the door. It had curious big, flat floweres, shaped like white plates.

  "The middle of the white flowers is full of coloured jelly!" cried Mollie. "Gracious—you want ot walk about with spoons and forks hanging at your belt in this land!"

  "Well, we do, usually," said Pipkin, 'I'll get you a spoon each—then you can taste the jelly in my jellypalnt."

  It was really lovely jelly. "I should like to eat two or three," said Mollie, "but I do so want to leave room for something else. Can we go for a walk now, Pipkin?"

  "Certainly," said Pipkin. So off they went, each carrying a spoon. It was a most exciting walk. They picked bunches of boiled sweets growing on a hedge like grapes, they came to a stream that ran ginger-beer instead of water and they actually found meat-pies growing on a bush.

  The ginger-beer was lovely, but as they had no glasses they had to lie down and lap like dogs. "I should have remembered to bring one or two enamel mugs," said Pipkin. "We shall pass a lem¬onade stream soon."

  "Is any ice-cream growing anywhere?" asked Mollie longingly.

  "Oh, yes," said Pipkin. "But you'll have to go down into the cool valley for that. It's too hot here in the sun—the ice-cream melts as soon as it comes into flower."

  "Where's the valley?" said Mollie. "Oh—down there. I'm going there, then."

  Mollie found a sturdy-stemmed plant with flat green leaves, in the middle of which grew pink, brown or yellow buds, shaped like cornets.

  "Ice-creams!" cried Mollie, and picked one. "Oooh! This is a vanilla one. I shall pick a pink flower next and that will be strawberry."

  "I've got a chocolate ice," said Peter.

  Pipkin and Chinky ate as many as the others. Chinky could quite well see why his cousin had grown so fat. Anyone would, in the Land of Good¬ies. He felt rather fat himself!

  "Now let's go to the village," said Pipkin. "I'm sure you'd all like to see the food in the shops there, really delicious."

  "Is there tomato soup?" asked Peter; it was his very favourite soup.

  "I'll take you to the soup shop," said Pipkin, and he did. It was a most exciting shop. It had a row of taps in it, all marked with names—such as tomato, potato, chicken, onion, pea—and you chose which you wanted to turn, and out came soup—tomato, chicken, or whatever you wanted!

  "There isn't the soup I like best," said Winks, sadly. "I like pepper soup."

  "You don't!" said Chinky. "It would be terri- bly terribly hot."

  "Well, I like it—and there isn't any," said Winks.

  "There's a tap over there without any name,' said Pipkin. "It will produce whatever soup you want that isn't here.'

  He took a soup-plate and went to the tap with¬out a name. "Pepper soup," he said, and a stream of hot soup came out, red in colour.

  "There you are, red pepper soup," he said, and handed it to Winks. "Now we'll see if it really is your favourite soup or not!"

  "'Course it is!" said Winks, and took a large spoonful. But, oh dear, oh dear, how he choked and how he spluttered! He had to be banged on the back, and had to be given a drink of cold wa¬ter.

  "It serves you right for saying what isn't true," Mollie said to Winks. "You didn't like pepper soup, so you shouldn't have asked for any.'

  "I was just being funny, said poor Winks.

  "Well, we thought it was all very funny, espe¬cially when you took that spoonful," said Peter. "Now—can I get you a little mustard soup, Winks?"

  But Winks had had enough of soups. "Let's leave this soup shop," he said. "What's in the next one?"

  The next one was a baker's shop. There were iced cakes of all shapes and colours set in rows upon rows. How delicious they looked!

  "Wouldn't you each like to take one home with you?" said Pipkin. "You don't have to pay for them, you know.'

  That was one of the nice things about the Land of Goodies. Nobody paid anyone anything. Mollie looked at the cakes. There was a blue one there, with yellow trimmings of icing sugar. Mollie had never seen a blue cake before.

  "Can I have this one, do you think?" she said.

  The baker looked at her. He was as plump as Pipkin and had a little wife as plump as himself. Their dark eyes looked like currants in their round little faces.

  "Yes, you can have that," said the baker. "What is your name, please?"

  "Mollie,' said Mollie. "Why do you want to know?"

  "Well, it's to be your cake, isn't it?" said the baker. He dabbed the cake and suddenly in the

  very middle of the icing came the letters MOLLIE—Mollie! Now it really was Mollie's cake.

  Peter had one with his name, and Pipkin had another. Chinky chose a pretty pink cake and his name came up in white icing sugar.

  Wink's name came up spelt wrongly. The let¬ters were WINXS, and Peter pointed out that that was not the right way to spell his name. Winks hadn't noticed. He was a very bad speller. But Peter noticed it, and Winks chose another cake on which his name appeared spelt rightly. It was all very queer indeed.

  "Well, Pipkin, thank you very much for a most interesting and delicious afternoon," said Chinky, when they each had a cake to take home. "How I'm going to eat this cake I really don't know. Actually I don't feel as if I could ever eat anything again."

  They came to Pipkin's house and said good-bye to him. Then they went off to find their Wishing- Chair. Winks lagged behind, nibbling his cake. The others hurried on. They knew exactly where they had left the chair.

  Suddenly they heard Chinky give a loud cry of anger. "Look! Winks is doing JUST what I said nobody was to do! He's breaking off bits of gate¬posts to chew—and look, he's taken a bit of win¬dow-sill—it's made of gingerbread! And now he's throwing currant buns at that marzipan chimney to try to break it off!"

  So he was! Poor Winks—he simply couldn't change from a bad brownie to a good one all at once. He was tired of being good and now he was being thoroughly naughty.

  Crash! Down came he the Chimney, and Winks ran to it to break off bits of marzipan. And round the corner came two policemen! They had heard the crash and come to see what it was. When they saw Winks they blew their whistles loudly and ran up to him.

  "Well—he's really got himself into trouble again now," said Chinky. "Isn't he silly?"

  Winks was struggling hard with the two police¬men. He called out to Chinky. "Save me, Chinky, save me! Mollie, Peter, come and help!"

  "Oho!" said the bigger policeman of the two. "Are they your friends? We'll catch them, too! No doubt they are as bad as you."

  "Quick! We must get in the Wishing-Chair and go!" said Chinky. "Winks will always get into trouble wherever he goes—but there's no need for us to as well. Where's the Wishing-Chair?"

  They found it where they had left it, hidden well away under a bush. They climbed in, with Chinky at the back, just as the big policeman came pound¬ing up.

  "Hey! What's all this?" he called. "Is that chair yours?"

  "YES!" shouted Chinky. "It is. Home, chair, home. Good-bye, Winks. Say you're sorry for what you've done and maybe you'll be set free."

  Off went the chair, high into the air, leaving the big policeman gaping in surprise. He had never seen a Wishing-Chair before. They were soon out of sight.

  That night, when the three of them were play¬ing Snap in the playroom, the door opened cau¬tiously—and who should come in but Winks! The others exclaimed in surprise.

  "Winks! you didn't get put into prison, then?"

  "Yes," said Winks. "But the walls were made of chocolate cake—so I just ate my way through and got out easily. But, oh dear—I feel as if 1 never want to taste chocolate cake again! What is for supper?"

  "CHOCOLATE CAKE," roared everyone in de¬light, and Winks fled out into the night. No—he simply could not face chocolate cake again.

  XVII

  A MOST ALARMING TALE

  For a week Chinky didn't see the children because they had gone
to the seaside. They gave him all kinds of advice before they went.

  "Now you see that you keep an eye on the Wish¬ing-Chair for us, won't you?" said Peter. "And if it grows its wings, don't you go on adventures with- out us. And DON'T let Winks have the chair at all. I like Winks, and he's good fun, but he's dread¬fully naughty. 1 shouldn't be a bit surprised if he isn't sent back to Mister Grim's school again some day."

  "I know. 1 caught him practising magic with my wand last night," said Chinky. "He was trying to change the teapot into a rabbit. Silly thing to do."

  "Yes,very," said Mollie. "You can't pour tea out of a rabbit. Now you be sure to keep an eye on Winks, Chinky."

  "And don't sleep with the door or window open at night, in case the chair grows its wings when you're asleep and flies off by itself," said Peter.

  "Oh dear—it's so hot now," said poor Chinky. "It's dreadful to have to sleep with the doors and windows shut. I've been tying the chair to my leg, so that if it does try to fly off, it will tug at my leg and wake me. Isn't that all right? I thought it was a very good idea."

  "Yes, it is," said Peter. "Well, so long as you remember to tie your leg and the chair's leg to¬gether at night, you can sleep with the door and windows open."

  "But watch that nobody slips in to steal the Chair,' said Mollie.

  Chinky began to look very worried. "I'm be¬ginning to feel you'd better not go away," he said. "Anyway, don't I always look after the chair at night for you? Nothing has ever happened to it

  yet!"

  The others laughed. "We're being fussy, aren't we!" they said. "Good-bye, Chinky, dear. A week will soon go, so don't be too lonely. I expect Winks will be popping in and out to see you."

  The children had a lovely week at the seaside and came back browner than ever. As soon as Mother would let them they rushed down to the playroom to see Chinky.

  He wasn't there, so they looked for a note. There wasn't one. "Well, he's probably just gone out for a few minutes to see a friend," said Peter. "We'll hang up the seaweed we've brought, and tidy up the room."

  So they spent a happy ten minutes nailing up the long fronds of seaweed they had brought back, and tidying up their playroom, which seemed to have got very untidy whilst they had been away.