As the sun was setting, the three brownies awoke and rubbed their eyes.
The sea was still very calm. Hop looked all round. Then he pointed excitedly to the left.
‘Look!’ he cried. ‘Land!’
Skip and Jump looked.
‘An island!’ said Skip. ‘I wonder who lives there.’
‘That’s a very grand castle on the top of that hill,’ said Jump. ‘Someone grand must live there, I think.’
‘Well, it isn’t a very big island,’ said Hop. ‘What about landing, and seeing if we can find anyone and get something to eat?’
Just as he said that, the table-boat changed its course and floated with the tide towards the island.
‘Good!’ said Skip, ‘The boat thinks it would like to visit there!’ And he patted the table kindly.
As they floated nearer they saw that there were trees near the edge of the sea, and directly behind them rose the steep hill on the top of which was set the castle. It was built of red stone, and gleamed oddly in the setting sun.
‘I don’t much like the look of it,’ said Hop suddenly. ‘Goodness knows who lives there! Don’t let’s go!’
But Jump was curious to see what was on the lonely little island.
‘Oh, let’s go!’ he begged. ‘I tell you what we’ll do – we’ll just land for a few minutes, and have a look round. Then if we see anything we don’t like, we’ll jump on to our table-boat again, and sail off !’
‘All right,’ said Hop, ‘only don’t blame me if anything happens.’
The boat reached the shingle and grated against the stones. Off jumped the three brownies, pulled their boat higher up the beach and looked round.
No one was there at all. The trees grew right down to the beach, and whispered and sighed, as if they could tell many secrets, if only they knew the brownie language.
The brownies went into the wood. It was gloomy there. No birds sang, and no little animals frisked and rustled about. Hop, Skip and Jump thought it was a horrid place.
Then suddenly they heard the sound of crying.
‘Whoever’s that?’ said Hop, peering between the whispering trees.
‘Look! It’s a little girl!’ said Jump, in the greatest astonishment. ‘Whatever is she doing here?’
‘She’s lame,’ said Skip. ‘She can’t walk properly.’
‘Let’s go and comfort her,’ said Hop, who couldn’t bear to see anyone cry.
So, very quietly, they walked through the trees towards the little girl. She had sea-blue eyes, golden hair that floated around her, and a dress made of tight-fitting scales, just like a fish’s coat. Her feet were big and ugly.
‘What’s the matter, little girl?’ asked Hop in his kindest voice.
The little girl jumped. She looked up at him in fright, and then stared at him and the other brownies in astonishment.
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘brownies, however did you come here, to this dreadful island?’
‘Dreadful island?’ said Skip, feeling rather uncomfortable. ‘Why is it dreadful?’
‘Oh, don’t you know who it belongs to?’ asked the little girl. ‘It belongs to that horrid red goblin, and he’s so powerful he can work nearly all the magic spells there are.’
‘Oh my!’ said the three brownies, feeling very upset indeed. ‘The red goblin! Oh my!’
‘It was he who came and frightened the wizard so much!’ said Hop. ‘Fancy having the bad luck to float to his island! We’d better sail away quickly!’
Then he turned to the little girl.
‘But how is it you’re here?’ he asked. ‘And what were you crying for?’
‘Well, I don’t belong here,’ she said sadly. ‘I’m a little mermaid really, and I used to have a tail. Then one day the red goblin caught me and changed my tail into these horrid feet, because he knew I wouldn’t be able to swim away then. And I’ve been here a whole year, keeping his red castle clean for him. Oh dear, oh dear!’
She began to cry again. Hop couldn’t bear it. He put his arm round her.
‘Never mind!’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you something lovely. We’ve got a boat on the beach near here, and we’ll take you away from this horrid island this very night!’
‘Oh! Oh! Oh! How lovely!’ cried the little mermaid, and clapped her hands so loudly that the brownies were afraid someone would hear.
‘Come along!’ said Skip, nervously. ‘The sun’s gone down, but the moon’s coming up and there’s quite enough light to set off on our voyage again. Do come on!’
‘Yes, quick!’ said Jump. And the three brownies and mermaid made their way through the trees to the shore. They looked along the beach for their boat – but, oh dear me – where was their boat?
It was gone. Quite gone.
‘Buttons and buttercups! Where’s the boat gone?’ whispered Hop, feeling his heart beat very fast.
‘Look!’ said Skip in dismay. ‘The tide’s taken it out to sea again! There it is, ever so far out!’
Sure enough it was. The three brownies stared at the table bobbing far away in the moonlight.
‘We can swim out to it!’ said Jump.
‘But the mermaid can’t swim now she hasn’t got a tail,’ said Hop, ‘and we can’t leave her alone here.’
‘No, we can’t!’ said Skip and Jump decidedly.
‘But whatever shall we do!’ wondered Hop.
‘Come back to my cottage for the night,’ said the mermaid. ‘And in the morning perhaps we shall think of something.’
She led them through the trees to a little tumble-down hut and gave them dry bracken to lie on for a bed. Then she made some bread-and-milk, and they all ate it and tried to think of a plan.
But soon they felt so sleepy that their eyes closed, and they slept on their bracken beds until morning.
No one had thought of a plan. Hop frowned and wondered what to do. At last he made up his mind.
‘There’s nothing for it but boldness,’ he said. ‘We must just march up to the castle, and demand a boat to take us away.’
‘That would never do,’ said the mermaid. ‘The red goblin would laugh at you and turn you into beetles or something. He’s only polite to wizards, and that’s because he thinks they know a magic spell that he doesn’t know!’
‘Very well then,’ said Hop, an idea coming into his head. ‘If he’s only polite to wizards, we’ll pretend to be wizards, and trust to luck to get away somehow. Don’t talk to me for a minute, and I’ll think of a plan.’
Everybody was very quiet whilst Hop thought hard.
‘Listen,’ he said. ‘We’ll all go up to the castle with the mermaid. She must hide you two somewhere in the castle. I’ll meet the red goblin alone, and if he’s nasty, I’ll clap my hands three times, and you must come running in. He’ll think then I’ve called you by magic, for he won’t know where you’ve come from – and perhaps he’ll be polite then and hope to get some new spells from me!’
So it was arranged. The mermaid led them up to the back door of the castle by a secret way through the woods. Then she went to see what the red goblin was doing.
Their Adventure in the Castle of the Red Goblin
‘It’s all right,’ she whispered, when she came back. ‘He’s having a bath. I’ll take Skip and Jump into the big hall, and hide them each in a chest there. The goblin will be surprised when they jump out! You go round to the castle door and ring the big bell in ten minutes’ time, Hop!’
Skip and Jump crept off with the mermaid, feeling very nervous indeed. She put them safely into two chests and closed the lids.
Then Hop went boldly round to the castle door. He saw a great bell-rope hanging by the side. He took hold of it and pulled it sharply three times.
Jangle-jangle-jangle, it went. Hop waited.
‘Who’s there?’ came the angry voice of the red goblin, and the great castle door slid open, to show the goblin standing in the doorway.
‘A wizard come to see you!’ said Hop, bowing low.
‘Come in,’ growled the gobl
in, and led the way into the great hall.
‘Who are you?’ he asked.
‘Ah, that is a secret,’ answered Hop.
‘Oh!’ said the goblin, wondering who he could be. ‘How did you get here?’
‘That is also a secret!’ answered Hop. ‘I do not give my magic spells away for nothing!’
‘Ho,’ said the goblin again, thinking this must be a very clever wizard. ‘Will you stay here for a day or two, and perhaps we can exchange spells?’
‘Certainly!’ answered Hop. ‘Allow me to call my servants to wait on me!’
He clapped his hands three times and, to the goblin’s tremendous astonishment, up popped the lids of two chests nearby, and out jumped two brownies. They ran up to Hop and bowed.
‘Master, we come from the ends of the earth to greet you,’ they said.
‘How did they come into those chests then?’ demanded the astonished goblin.
‘That is a secret,’ smiled Hop.
The goblin thought there were a great deal too many secrets about this peculiar wizard. He was quite determined to find them all out.
‘Come to breakfast,’ he said, and invited Hop to a big table on which were set all kinds of food. Hop sat down. He was very hungry, and he knew Skip and Jump were too. How could he manage to get them food?
‘Servants, get under the table,’ he said suddenly. ‘Take off my shoes and tickle my feet whilst I eat.’
The goblin stared in surprise.
‘I enjoy my food better when my feet are tickled,’ explained Hop.
The goblin said nothing, but he thought this wizard was one of the most peculiar he had ever met. He was astonished, too, at the way he ate. No sooner was his plate full than it was empty! He didn’t know that half of it was dropped down to Skip and Jump under the table.
‘Dear me!’ he said at last, when Hop had taken three apples and apparently eaten them in one minute. ‘Tickling your feet seems to give you a great appetite, Sir Wizard.’
‘You should try it too,’ answered Hop. ‘Take off his boots, servants, and tickle him!’
In a second Skip and Jump slipped off the goblin’s shoes and began tickling his feet. The goblin gave one yell, and fell off his chair.
‘Don’t, I can’t bear it!’ he shouted, rolling about on the floor. Skip and Jump giggled, and tickled him all the more.
Suddenly, to Hop’s horror, the red goblin gave a yell of rage and shouted some magic words. Immediately Skip and Jump disappeared, and in their places were two brown mice!
‘How dare you let your servants do that!’ raged the goblin. ‘See how I have punished them!’
Hop went pale with fear. Poor Skip and Jump changed into mice! Then he faced the goblin.
‘Change my servants back at once,’ he commanded in his biggest voice.
The goblin laughed.
‘Change them back yourself, if you’re such a wonderful wizard,’ he grinned.
Hop looked round wildly for something to help him. Then he quickly put his hand into his pocket – yes, the little bottle with the wizard in it was still there.
‘Do you know what I do to people who annoy me ?’ he asked the goblin. ‘I don’t change them into mice – that’s a very ordinary trick – I put them into bottles like this!’
And he drew out the bottle, and showed it to the goblin. The goblin looked at it and saw the wizard sitting inside.
‘Ow!’ he cried. ‘It’s the wizard I visited yesterday! Good gracious! Look at him! As small as a beetle, sitting in one of his own bottles. Oh, what a wonderful wizard you must be to have done that to him!’
‘Yes, I am,’ said Hop, ‘and I’ll put you into a smaller bottle if you don’t do what I say! Change my servants back to their own form!’
The goblin muttered some magic words, and the two mice disappeared. In their place stood Skip and Jump again, looking as frightened as could be!
‘Thank you,’ said Hop. ‘I’m glad I didn’t have to bottle you up. You’d have made the fifty-fifth bottled person in my cupboard at home, if I had!’
The goblin trembled.
‘Of course I don’t wonder that you bottled up that wizard,’ he said. ‘He’s a nasty little person! Not a bit truthful and very stupid!’
The wizard inside the bottle heard what he said, and was as angry as anything. He jumped about in his bottle, and kicked and struggled, and shook his tiny fist at the goblin.
‘Ha, ha!’ said the goblin ‘You can’t get at me, you tiny little thing! I always thought you were silly and stupid, but I really didn’t think you were stupid enough to get put into a bottle !’
The tiny wizard grew so angry that Hop began to be afraid he would break the bottle, so he hastily slipped him into his pocket again.
‘Now,’ said the goblin, ‘let me show you round my castle. I collect all sorts of magic things, and they may interest you.’
Hop thought they certainly would, and he went with the goblin.
He was shown all kinds of things.
‘This,’ said the goblin, ‘is a witch’s cauldron. I can make powerful magic in it. And this is a fairy’s wand. I stole it from a sleeping fairy one day.’
Hop thought he was an even nastier goblin than he had thought before. But he said nothing. He just looked, and wondered if he would be shown anything that might help them to escape.
The goblin showed him his magic books, which read themselves out loud – magic seeds that grew shoots, leaves, flowers and fruit, whilst you watched – magic table-cloths that spread themselves with food. Hop began to feel quite dizzy with all the wonders shown him.
Then he saw something that made his heart beat fast.
‘This,’ said the goblin proudly, ‘is a witch’s broomstick!’
‘Will it fly?’ asked Hop.
‘Oh yes,’ said the goblin. ‘But it only flies when you say the magic words – and that’s a secret – ho, ho!’
‘Pooh!’ said Hop. ‘You only say it’s a secret because you can’t make it fly, or you don’t want me to know you can’t! You don’t know the magic rhyme!’
‘I do, then!’ cried the goblin, in a temper. ‘Listen:
Onaby O
Away we go,
Onaby Eye
Up in the sky!’
Immediately the broom rose in the air, and flew towards the window. The goblin clapped his hands. It flew back again, and stood still in its place.
‘There you are,’ said the goblin. ‘Did I know the magic rhyme or didn’t I?’
‘You did!’ said Hop, grinning to himself to think that he and Skip and Jump now knew it too. ‘I beg your pardon. You are more clever than I thought.’
That pleased the goblin, and he became quite friendly. After dinner he went away by himself to practise magic, and Hop, Skip, Jump and the mermaid went to the kitchen to make their plans.
‘We’ll creep tonight into the room where the broomstick is,’ planned Hop, ‘and jump on it. We’ll say the magic rhyme, and off we’ll go.’
They wandered about the castle till night fell. Then, when the goblin had shown them their room and bade them goodnight, they crept to the kitchen again to fetch the mermaid. Then Hop went to see if the way was clear.
He tiptoed into the room where the broom was kept – but, oh my! There was a light there, and the red goblin was sitting at the table, reading a magic book.
‘He may be there all night,’ sighed the mermaid.
‘Well, we must go tonight,’ decided Hop, ‘because any minute tomorrow I might give myself away; I nearly did lots of times today.’
Just at that moment he felt the little bottle in his pocket jerking about. He took it out, and saw the tiny wizard knocking on the glass.
‘Let me out!’ he squeaked in a voice like a mouse. ‘Let me out! Let me get at that red goblin.’
‘Well now, that’s an idea!’ said Hop, staring at him.
He ran up into the room above the one in which the red goblin sat, and kicked and thumped on the floor, and mad
e a terrible noise. Then he loosened the cork in the wizard’s bottle, and set the bottle down in the middle of the floor. Then he ran and hid behind a curtain.
After a bit up came the red goblin, wondering whatever in the world all the bumping and thumping was. He was very much surprised to see the bottle on the floor. He went up and looked at it.
As soon as the wizard saw him, he began kicking and banging at the loosened cork. Then Pop! out it flew, and out came the wizard like a beetle on the floor. Immediately he grew bigger and bigger, until he reached his usual size.
And then, oh my! He went for the red goblin and gave him a big push. The goblin went over like a skittle.
Hop didn’t wait to see any more. He ran downstairs and called the others. Together they went into the broomstick room.
‘Now quickly!’ said Hop. ‘Jump on whilst those two up there are fighting. They’ve forgotten all about us!’
The mermaid jumped on. Skip jumped on, and so did Hop – but oh dear, there wasn’t any room for Jump! The broomstick only held three!
‘It’ll break if we have four!’ groaned Hop. ‘Now what are we to do?’
‘Leave me behind, of course!’ said the mermaid, and jumped off again.
‘Certainly not !’ said all the brownies at once, and pulled her on again.
Then Jump made a brave speech.
‘I’m not coming,’ he said. ‘It was my fault that we came to this island. I wanted to see what was on it. So I’m going to be the one to stay behind.
Well, there was no time to be lost in arguing, so poor Jump was left behind.
‘Onaby O,
Away we’ll go,
Onaby Eye
Up in the sky!’
said Hop. And off went the broomstick out of the window, while Jump stood on the ground, and watched them fly away from him, up into the moonlit sky.
Their Adventure in the Land of Giants
The broomstick went sailing away in the air, and Hop, Skip and the mermaid clung to it tightly. They were all very sad, thinking of poor Jump left behind. They didn’t know what might happen to him.
‘Poor Jump,’ said the mermaid.
‘Poor, poor Jump,’ said Skip.
‘Poor, poor, poor –,’ began Hop – then he stopped.