Glubbslyme Read Free Page A

hopped up to her, showing himself off, bouncing about like a ball. He bounced nearer and nearer, bobbing right up in Rebecca’s face and back again. She hoped very hard that he wouldn’t land on her head. He reached out in mid-air and she flinched, but he was simply deftly extracting something from her hair. A green ribbon of pondweed.
    ‘Oh dear,’ said Rebecca. She felt in her hair herself, combing it with her fingers. And then there was her dress.
    ‘My dress !’ Rebecca cried.
    She had been so involved with Glubbslyme that she’d forgotten all about her best dress. She’d been dimly aware that she was shivering but she hadn’t quite worked out why. Her dress was soaked. She stood up and it clung to her limply, little trickles of water dribbling down her legs onto her toes.
    ‘What am I going to do?’ Rebecca said, and she started to cry.
    Glubbslyme blinked up at her, stretching his own watertight limbs thoughtfully.
    ‘I have always considered clothing an encumbrance. My own Rebecca cast off her garments on the night of a full moon. Perhaps you might care to do likewise?’
    ‘I can’t go home without any clothes!’ Rebecca sobbed. Then she looked down at her soaked dress. ‘But I can’t go home like this either. Oh what am I going to do? I look such a sight and I’ve ruined my best dress and my Dad’s going to be so cross.’ Rebecca cried harder.
    ‘Desist!’ said Glubbslyme. ‘There is no need for all this wailing and gnashing of teeth. I will solve your trivial problem. Kindly remember I am Glubbslyme, ex magical familiar to the great Rebecca Cockgoldde.’
    ‘Can you really do magic?’ said Rebecca. ‘Can you make my dress as good as new?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Glubbslyme. ‘If you utter the correct magical command.’
    ‘And what’s that?’ Rebecca asked eagerly.
    ‘Repeat my illustrious name seven times.’
    ‘Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme—’ Rebecca began.
    ‘Desist!’ said Glubbslyme, sighing irritably. ‘It is not quite that simple.’
    ‘I didn’t think you could,’ said Rebecca.
    ‘You dare to doubt me?’ said Glubbslyme.
    ‘Well,’ said Rebecca. She took hold of her sodden hem and squeezed. The trickles merged and became a minor waterfall. ‘I don’t see how anyone could dry my dress just like that.’
    ‘I can. In my own way. Magic is a science as well as an art. One must work it out logically. Now, your strange shift-like garment is soaking wet, agreed? So we have to find a magical means of drying it. Well, that is easy enough. The sun shall come out.’
    Rebecca looked up at the grey clouds overhead.
    ‘Have a little faith, please!’ said Glubbslyme. ‘Utter the magical command.’
    Rebecca took a deep breath and then said, ‘Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme, Glubbslyme,’ counting on her fingers to make sure she’d got it right.
    Glubbslyme settled himself on the bank, looking up at the sky. His bulbous eyes protruded until they looked as if they might pop out altogether. Then they started revolving. They turned slowly round and round in an anti-clockwise direction, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times.
    And then the sun came out. The clouds parted. There were grey clouds to the left and grey clouds to the right, but there was a brilliant blue patch of sky directly overhead. The sun shone down fiercely.
    ‘You did it, Glubbslyme! You made the sun come out!’ Rebecca shrieked.
    ‘Of course I did it. Manipulation of weather. A mere apprentice task. Now stand still and hold out your garments.’

    Rebecca did as she was told. The sun shone down, so hot that Rebecca went red in the face.
    ‘Mmm, I think I might partake of a nap,’ said Glubbslyme. ‘Do not disturb me until you are dry.’
    He stretched out and soaked up the sun, his eyes closed. Rebecca stood still, holding out her frock. It was getting hotter and hotter. Steam rose from her dress. She started to feel very sticky. But she wasn’t