“Aha!” said Winks, looking mysterious.
“What do you mean—aha!” said Chinky. “We're asking you a question, and 'aha' is no answer.”
“Aha-ha-ha!” said Winks. “I've got a secret.”
“What is it?” asked Chinky at once.
“Well, it won't be a secret if I tell it,” said Winks annoyingly.
“Don't be exasperating,” said Peter. “Tell us your secret. How did you get your hands the right colour?”
“Have you been to see Mr. Spells?” said Mollie.
“No. I went to see Witch Wendle,” said Winks. “I borrowed her wand—it's got very good magic in it.”
“Do you mean to say old Witch Wendle lent you her wand?” said Chinky disbelievingly. “Why, it was only last week you told me you put her chimney pot upside down so that her smoke blew down into her kitchen. I don't believe you!”
“All right, then—but here's the wand, see?” said Winks, and he suddenly produced the wand from under his coat. It was a small, neat wand, not long and slender like Chinky's. He waved it about.
Mollie and Peter stared in surprise—and Chinky jumped up in alarm.
“WINKS! You took it without asking? I know you did. Witch Wendle would never lend her wand to you—why, look, it's absolutely full of magic!”
So it was. All wands glitter and shine and gleam and shimmer when they are full of magic, and this one was quite dazzling.
“I just borrowed it for a little while,” said Winks. “The witch has gone to call on her sister. She won't miss it. I'll take it back soon. I wished my hands the right colour again—wasn't I pleased when they came all right!”
“You're a very bad, naughty brownie,” said Chinky. “You ought to go back to Mister Grim's school. We should never have rescued you from there. I've a good mind to make you go back!”
“Don't you talk like that to me, or I shall lose my temper,” said Winks, crossly, and he poked the wand at Chinky.
“Stop it,” said Chinky. “You should never poke people with wands. Surely you know that? And let me tell you this—I shall talk to you how I like. You take that wand back to Witch Wendle AT ONCE!”
“I don't like you, Chinky,” said Winks, looking suddenly cross. “I shall wish for a Maggle-Mig to chase you!”
He waved his wand in the air—and goodness gracious, whatever was this extraordinary creature running in at the door?
It was rather like a small giraffe, but it had feathers, and it wore shoes on its four feet. It galloped round the room after Chinky. The children fled to a cupboard. If this was a Maggle-Mig, they didn't like it! Winks sat down on the sofa and roared with laughter. Chinky was furious.
He rushed to the toy cupboard and felt about for his wand. He waved it in the air. “Maggle-Mig, change to a Snickeroo and chase Winks!” he cried. And at once the little giraffe-like creature changed to a thing like a small crocodile with horns. It ran at Winks, who leapt off the sofa in a hurry.
“Oh, stop it, you two!” cried Peter, who didn't want to spend the morning seeing Maggle-Migs and Snickeroos chasing round their playroom—and goodness knew what other extraordinary animals would appear.
Winks waved his wand at the Snickeroo and it ran into the fireplace and completely vanished. Winks pointed the wand at Chinky.
“Horrid Chinky! Grow a long nose!”
And poor Chinky did! It was so long that he almost fell over it! Winks took hold of it and pulled it. It was such a funny sight that the children really couldn't help laughing.
Chinky hit out at Winks with his own wand. “Grow a tail!” he yelled.
And, hey presto! Winks grew a tail—one like a cow's, with a tuft at the end. It swung to and fro, and Winks looked down at it in alarm. He tried to run away from the swinging tail, but you can't leave a tail that's growing on you, of course, and the tail followed him, swinging to and fro.
“Ha, ha!” said Chinky, twisting his long nose round his waist to keep it out of his way. “A brownie with a tail!”
Winks was crying now. He picked up his wand, which he had dropped. He and Chinky hit out at each other at the same moment.
“I'll change you into a puff of smoke!” shouted Winks. “I'll change you into a horrid smell!” cried Chinky.
And then they both disappeared! Mollie and Peter stared in the utmost dismay. A little puff of green smoke blew across the room and disappeared out of the door. A horrid smell drifted about the room for a minute—a smell of bad fish—and then that went, too.
Mollie burst into tears. “Now look what's happened!” she sobbed. “We've lost both Chinky and Winks. One's just a drift of smoke, and the other's only a horrid smell. We'll never be able to play with them again.”
Peter saw that the two wands were on the floor. He picked up Chinky's and put it into the toy cupboard. Then he picked up the one Winks had taken from Witch Wendle's and looked at it. Mollie gave a cry.
“Don't meddle with it, Peter. Don't!”
“I'm not going to,” said Peter. “I'm just wondering what to do about all this. It's very serious. I think we ought to take this wand back to Witch Wendle, or else she may come hunting for it— and I don't want to be turned into a bad smell or a drift of smoke by an angry witch.”
This was a very alarming idea indeed. “Oh, let's take it back quickly then,” said Mollie. “And perhaps if we do she'll tell us what to do about Chinky and Winks. How shall we find the way?”
“We might ask Mr. Spells,” began Peter, and then suddenly stopped in delight. He pointed behind Mollie.
She turned and saw that the Wishing-Chair was growing its wings again! The buds on its four legs burst into feathers, and soon the big green and yellow wings were waving gently in the air.
“Oh! What a bit of luck!” cried Mollie. “Now we can get in the Wishing-Chair and just tell it to go to Witch Wendle's! It's sure to know the way!”
Peter went and sat in the chair and pulled Mollie down beside him. He had the witch's wand in his hand.
“Wishing-Chair, we want to go to Witch Wendle's,” he said. “Go at once!”
The chair rose into the air, and made for the door. Out it went and up into the cloudy sky. It made for an opening in the clouds and shot through it. Now the children were in the sunshine above.
They flew for a long way, and then Mollie shouted in surprise, and pointed. “Look! What's that? It's a castle in the clouds!”
Both children stared. It was a very surprising sight indeed. A big purple cloud loomed ahead, thick and gloomy. Set in its depths was what looked exactly like a castle, with towers and turrets. The chair flew straight to the cloud and stopped. It hovered just above the cloud, and the children couldn't get down.
“Go lower, chair! “ cried Peter. But the chair didn't. A head popped out of a window of the castle.
“Wait! I'll get you cloud-shoes! If you walk on the cloud without them you'll fall.”
The head disappeared. Then out of the castle came Witch Wendle, a bright star glinting at the top of her pointed hat. She carried what looked like snowshoes, big flat things, to fasten to their feet.
“Here you are!” she said. “Put these on your feet and you will be able to walk easily on the clouds. That's why your Wishing-Chair wouldn't land—it knew it would be dangerous for you without cloud shoes.”
“Oh, thank you,” said Mollie. She liked Witch Wendle very much, because her face smiled and her eyes twinkled. The children put on the cloud-shoes and then stepped down on the cloud. Ah, they could get along quite well now—it felt rather as if they were sliding on very, very soft snow.
“What a strange home you have, set high in the clouds,” said Peter.
“Oh, people often build these,” said the witch. “Have you never heard of people building castles in the air? Well, this is one of them. They don't last very long, but they are very comfortable. I've had this one about two months now.”
She led the way to her curious castle. “We've come to bring you your wand,” said Peter. “I m
ust tell you all that happened.”
So he did, and the witch listened in silence. “That tiresome Winks!” she said. “He should never have left Mister Grim's school.”
“What can we do about Chinky and Winks,” said Mollie, “now that they are a puff of smoke and a horrid smell? Where have they gone?”
“To the Land of Spells,” said the witch. “We'll have to get your Wishing-Chair to go there—come along!”
What Happened in the Land of Spells
THE witch led the way to where the Wishing-Chair stood waiting patiently on the edge of the cloud, its wings flapping gently.
“That's a really wonderful chair of yours,” she said. “I only wish I had one like it!”
They all sat in it. “To the Land of Spells!” commanded the witch, and the chair at once rose into the air. It left the cloud and the curious castle built in the air, and flew steadily to the north.
“I'm very glad to have back my wand,” said Witch Wendle. “Luckily it is only my third best one. If it had been my best one, the magic would have been so powerful that it would have shrivelled Winks up as soon as he touched it.”
Mollie and Peter at once made up their minds that they would never, never touch any wand belonging to a witch or wizard. Goodness—what a blessing that it had been the witch's third best wand and not her best one!
The chair flew on for a long while and the witch pointed out the interesting places they passed—the Village of Stupids, the Country of No-Goods, the Land of Try-Again, and all kinds of places the children had never heard of before. They stared down at them in interest.
“What's the Land of Spells like?” asked Mollie.
“It's a strange land, really,” said the witch. “All kinds of spells wander about, and bump into you —Invisible Spells to make you invisible, Tall Spells to make you tall, Laughter Spells to make you laugh— they've only got to touch you to affect you at once.”
“Oh dear,” said Mollie in alarm. “I don't like the sound of that at all.”
“You needn't worry,” said Witch Wendle. “They only affect you whilst they bump into you—as soon as they drift away you're all right again. We shall have to look for a puff of smoke and a horrid smell—then we shall know we've got Winks and Chinky and I must do my best to put them right for you.”
The chair flew rapidly downwards, and landed in a very peculiar place. It was full of a blue-green mist and queer sounds went on all the time—sounds of rumbling, sounds of music, of bells, and of the wind blowing strongly.
They got off the chair. “Now take hands,” said the witch. “And keep together, please. You're all right so long as you're with me, because I am a mistress of all spells—but don't slip away for goodness sake, or you may get changed into a white butterfly or a blue beetle, and I would find it difficult to know you again.”
Mollie and Peter held hands very hard indeed, and Mollie took the witch's hand, too. And then all kinds of extraordinary things began to happen.
A little trail of yellow bubbles bumped into Mollie —and, to Peter's great alarm, Mollie's neck grew alarmingly long, and shot up almost as tall as a tree! She was very alarmed, too.
“It's all right,” said Witch Wendle. “It will pass as soon as the trail of bubbles goes.”
She was right. When the bubbles flew off in another direction Mollie's neck came down to its right size!” You did look queer, Mollie,” said Peter. “Don't do that again!”
As he was speaking the wind blew a dead leaf on to his head, and immediately his head disappeared. Mollie gave a yell.
“Where's Peter's head? I can't see it!”
The witch brushed away the leaf at once and Peter's head came back.
“Don't worry,” said the witch. “I told you that you never know what's going to happen in a place like this. It's a good place for a witch to come to, of course—there are plenty of good spells to pick up, as you can see!”
It was queer to think of spells wandering about like this. Mollie began to look out for them and try to dodge them. She dodged a silvery mist, but it wound itself round Witch Wendle—and she at once disappeared completely.
“Where's she gone?” cried Peter in fright.
“I've still got hold of her hand,” said Mollie. “I think she's only invisible—but she's here all right.”
“Yes, I'm here,” said the witch's voice. As soon as the silvery mist cleared away she became visible again and smiled down at the children. “I didn't see that spell coming or I would have dodged it,” she said. “Oh dear—here's an annoying one coming!”
Something that looked like a little shower of white snowflakes came dropping down on them. The witch changed into a big white bear, Peter changed into a white goat and Mollie into a white cat! That lasted about two minutes, and they were all very glad when they were back to their right shapes again.
“I kept trying to talk, but I could only mew,” said Mollie. “Oh dear—I don't much like this land. I wish we could find Winks and Chinky and go home. It must be horrid for them to be nothing but spells, drifting about.”
They went wandering through the queer misty land, listening to the queer noises around, trying to dodge the spells that came near them. The witch put out her hand and captured a tiny little spell floating through the air. It looked like a small white daisy.
“I've always wanted that spell,” she said to the children. “It's a good spell—if you put it under a baby's pillow it makes a child grow up as pretty as a flower.”
Suddenly Peter stopped and sniffed. “Pooh! What a smell of bad fish!” he said. “I'm sure that must be Winks. Can you smell a horrid smell, Witch Wendle?”
“I should think I can,” said the witch. She took a small bottle out of her pocket and uncorked it.
“Come here to me, you bad little smell,
Into this bottle you'll fit very well!”
she sang. And the children saw a very faint purplish streak streaming into the bottle. The witch corked it up.
“Well, we've got Winks all right,” she said. “Now for Chinky. Look—here comes a puff of green smoke. Would that be him?”
“Yes!” said Peter. “I'm sure it is. He and Winks would be certain to keep together. How can you catch the smoke, Witch Wendle?”
The witch took a small pair of bellows from under her long, flowing cloak and held them out to the puff of green smoke, which was hovering near. She opened the bellows and drew in the puff of smoke! She hung the bellows at her belt again.
“And now we've got Chinky,” she said. “Good! We'd better get back home now, and see what we can do with them. It's so easy to change people into bad smells and green smoke—any beginner can do that— but it takes a powerful witch or wizard to change them back to their own shapes again.”
They walked back to find the Wishing-Chair, still bumping into curious spells every now and again. Mollie walked into a Too-Big spell and immediately towered over the witch and Peter. But she went back to her own size almost at once.
“That giant called Too-Small ought to come here,” she said to the witch. “He wanted a spell to make him much bigger, but he could never get one.”
The witch bumped into a train of bright bubbles that burst as they touched her. When they looked at her they saw that she had changed into a beautiful young girl, and they were amazed. But she was soon her old self again.
“That was a nice spell,” she said with a sigh. “I should like to have caught that spell and kept it.”
“Well, why didn't you?” asked Peter.
“Oh, didn't you see? The bubbles of the spell all burst when they touched me,” said the witch. “There was nothing to catch. You can never capture youth and loveliness once you're as old as I am. Ah, is that the Wishing-Chair?”
“Yes—but there's only half of it! “ said Mollie, in surprise. “Oh, I see—it's just been touched by an invisible spell—it's coming all right again now.”
Soon they were sitting in the chair. “To the children's playroom,” commanded the
witch. “And hurry! The puff of smoke in the bellows is trying to get out. We'll lose Chinky for ever if he puffs himself out, and gets lost on the wind.”
“Oh dear! “said Mollie. “Do hurry, Wishing-Chair!”
The Wishing-Chair hurried so much that the witch lost her hat in the wind and the chair had to go back for it. But at last they were flying down to the playroom, and in at the door. Thank goodness!
The witch got carefully out of the chair. She took the bellows from her waist. “Is there a suit of Chinky's anywhere?” she asked. Mollie got Chinky's second-best one from the cupboard. “Hold it up,” said the witch. “That's right. Now watch!”
Mollie held up the little suit. The witch took the bellows and blew with them. Green smoke came from them and filled the little suit, billowing it out, and—would you believe it?—it was Chinky himself filling it out, growing arms and legs and head— and there he was standing before them in his second-best suit, looking rather scared after his curious stay in the Land of Spells!
Then it was Winks' turn. The witch asked for the teapot and took off the lid. She uncorked the bottle in which she had put the bad smell, and emptied it into the teapot. She put on the lid.
Then she lifted up the teapot and poured something out of the spout, singing as she did so.
“Teapot, teapot, pour for me
A brownie naughty as can be,
He's not as clever as he thinks,
That wicked, willful little Winks!”
And before the children's astonished eyes the teapot poured out Winks! He came out in a kind of stream, which somehow built itself up into Winks himself! Mollie could hardly believe her eyes!
When Winks saw Witch Wendle he went very red and tried to hide behind the sofa. She pulled him out.
“Who stole my wand? Who changed Chinky into a puff of smoke?”
“Well, he changed me into a bad smell,” said Winks, beginning to sniff.
“He at least used his own wand to do it with,” said the witch. “Winks, I'm sending you back to Mister Grim's school. You've a lot to learn.”