The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) Read Free

do!
    ‘Arrest those conjurers!’ suddenly said the King, in an awful voice.
    Six soldiers at once ran up and clapped their hands on the brownies’ shoulders.
    ‘Now, unless you bring Peronel back
at once
,’ said the King, ‘you go straight to prison, and I’ll have your heads cut off in the morning!’
    ‘Oh, no, no!’ cried the brownies, very frightened indeed. ‘Please, please, we aren’t conjurers! Only just brownies!’
    ‘Nonsense!’ stormed the King. ‘Ordinary brownies can’t do tricks like that! Now then, are you going to bring Peronel back again?’
    ‘I can’t, I can’t,’ wailed Hop, big tears beginning to pour down his cheeks. ‘I’m only a naughty brownie dressed up like a conjurer, because you didn’t
ask me to your party!’
    Suddenly a watching brownie gave a shout of surprise. It was Gobo. He ran up to Hop and pulled off his peaked hat and red cloak.
    ‘Why, it’s Hop!’ he cried, in astonishment. ‘Your Majesty, these brownies are Hop, Skip and Jump, the three naughty brownies of our town.’
    ‘Goodness gracious!’ said the King, in a terribly upset voice. ‘This is more serious than I thought. If they are really brownies, then they cannot bring back Peronel. But where
did you get the basket from?’ he asked Hop sternly.
    Hop dried his eyes and told the King all about the witch’s visit, and how she had left the basket with them.
    ‘Oh, it’s Witch Green-eyes!’ groaned the King. ‘She’s often vowed to steal Peronel away and now she’s done it through you, you naughty, stupid little
brownies.’
    ‘My goodness!’ said Hop. ‘Do you think the witch has
really
stolen her for always?’
    ‘Yes!’ sobbed the Queen, who was terribly distressed. ‘We shall never get her back again, the darling!’
    ‘Oh my goodness!’ said Skip, in a frightened voice.
    ‘Oh my goodness!’ wailed Jump, in a miserable voice.
    ‘Oh your goodness!’ roared the King suddenly, in a temper. ‘What do you mean, oh your
goodness
  ! You ought to say, “Oh your badness,” you mischievous little
brownies! You haven’t a bit of goodness among the three of you. And now see what you’ve done! I’ve a good mind to cut off your heads!’
    ‘Oh my goodness!’ wept Hop again. He didn’t mean to say it, but he couldn’t think of anything else.
    The King grew angrier than ever.
    ‘Where
is
your goodness?’ he demanded.
    ‘Yes, where
is
it?’ shouted everybody.
    ‘We d-d-don’t know,’ stammered the brownies in dismay.
    ‘Well, go and find it!’ stormed the King. ‘Go along! Go right out of Fairyland, and don’t come back till you’ve found your goodness that you keep talking about!
Make haste before I cut off your heads!’
    ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ cried the three brownies in a great fright, and they all took to their heels and fled. Down the steps they went and down the drive, and out through the palace gates
past the astonished sentries.
    Even then they didn’t stop. They rushed down the road and into the Cuckoo Wood, as if a thousand soldiers were after them!
    At last, out of breath, tired and unhappy, they sat down under a big oak tree.
    ‘Oh my goodness!’ began Hop.
    ‘Don’t be silly!’ said Skip. ‘
Don’t
keep saying that. We’re in a terrible, terrible fix.’
    ‘To be turned out of Fairyland!’ wept Jump. ‘Oh, what a terrible punishment! And how can we find our goodness? Of course we never shall! People don’t have goodness they
can find!’
    ‘It’s just the King’s way of banishing us from Fairyland altogether,’ wept Hop. ‘He knows we’ll never be able to go back. And, oh dear, whatever’s
happened to poor little Peronel?’
    What indeed? None of the brownies knew, and they were very unhappy.
    ‘The only thing to do now is to go and see if we can find Peronel and rescue her,’ said Jump. ‘We’ll sleep here for the night, and start off in the morning, on our way to
Witchland.’
    So all night long they slept beneath the big oak tree,