Mr Majeika Read Free Page B

answer.’
    Class Three went home rather gloomily that day. They had all begun to feel sorry for Hamish Bigmore. ‘He’s staying with his friends again,’ Thomas and Pete told their mother.
    The next day was Friday. Hamish Bigmore’s parents were due to come home that evening.
    Half-way through morning school, Jody suddenly put up her hand and said: ‘Mr Magic?’
    ‘Yes, Jody?’
    ‘Mr Magic, I’ve got an idea. You said that things
sometimes
happen like they do in fairy stories. I mean, like Cinderella’s coach turning back into a pumpkin.’
    ‘Yes, sometimes,’ said Mr Majeika, ‘but as you’ve seen with Hamish, not always.’
    ‘Well,’ said Jody, ‘there is something that I wondered about. You see, in fairy stories people are often turned into frogs. And they always get turned back again in the end, don’t they? And I’ve been trying to remember
how
.’
    Jody paused. ‘Go on,’ said Mr Majeika.
    ‘Well,’ said Jody, ‘I
did
remember. Frogs turn back into princes when they get kissed by a princess.’
    Mr Majeika’s eyes lit up. ‘Goodness!’ he said. ‘You’re absolutely right! Why didn’t I think of that? We must try it at once!’
    ‘Try what, Mr Magic?’ asked Pandora Green.
    ‘Why, have Hamish Bigmore kissed by a princess. And then I do believe there’s a very good chance he will change back.’
    ‘But please, Mr Magic,’ said Thomas, ‘how are you going to manage it? I mean, there’s not so very many princesses around these days. Not as many as in fairy stories.’
    ‘There’s some at Buckingham Palace,’ said Pandora.
    ‘But they don’t go around kissing frogs,’ said Thomas.
    ‘You bet they don’t,’ said Pete. ‘You see pictures of them in the newspapers doing all sorts of things, opening new hospitals, and naming ships, and that sort of thing. But not kissing frogs.’
    ‘Are you sure, my young friend?’ said Mr Majeika gloomily.
    ‘Quite sure,’ said Thomas. ‘Unless they do it when nobody’s looking. I mean, it’s not the sort of thing they’d get much fun out of, is it? Frog-kissing, I mean.’
    ‘I bet,’ said Pete, ‘that a real live princess wouldn’t do it if you paid her a thousand pounds.’
    ‘Just imagine,’ said Thomas, ‘going to Buckingham Palace, and ringing the doorbell, and saying: “Please, have you got any princesses in today, and would they mind kissing a frog for us?” They’d probably fetch the police.’
    ‘Oh dear,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘I’m afraid you’re right.’
    Nobody spoke for a long time. Then Mr Majeika said gloomily: ‘It seems that Hamish Bigmore will have to remain a frog. I wonder what his parents will say.’
    ‘Please,’ said Jody, ‘I’ve got an idea again. It may be silly, but it
might
work. What I think is this. If we can’t get a real princess, we might
pretend
to have one. Make a kind of play, I mean. Dress up somebody like aprincess. Do you think that’s silly?’ She looked hopefully at Mr Majeika.
    ‘Not at all,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘We’ve nothing to lose by trying it!’
    Which was how Class Three came to spend a good deal of the morning trying to make the room look like a royal palace in a fairy story. They found the school caretaker and persuaded him to lend them some old blue curtains that were used for the play at the end of term. And Mrs Honey who taught the nursery class agreed to give them a box of dressing-up clothes that the little children used. In this were several crowns and robes and other things that could be made to look royal.
    Then there was a dreadful argument about who was to play the princess.
    Jody said she ought to, because it had all been her idea. Pandora Green said
she
should, because she looked pretty, and princesses always look pretty. Mr Majeika tried to settle it by saying that Melanie should do it, as she was the only girl in the class who hadn’t asked to. But Melanie, who hated the idea of kissing a frog, started to cry. So in the end Mr Majeika said