The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) Read Free Page B

thought.
    He turned round to look at the stick. Yes, it was green, sure enough – but the wizard was holding it tightly in his hand.
    ‘But when he’s asleep, he’ll put it down!’ thought Hop, longing to tell Skip and Jump what he had discovered.
    That night he watched the wizard carefully – but oh, how disappointed he was to see that he went to bed with his stick still held in his hand.
    ‘I’d be sure to wake him if I tried to get his stick!’ thought Hop, and he whispered to Skip and Jump all that he had thought of during the day.
    They were most excited. ‘Oh, do let’s try to get his stick!’ whispered Skip. ‘If only we could get out of this horrid cottage!’
    ‘And if only we could go back to dear old Fairyland!’ whispered Jump, with tears in his eyes.
    Now Hop was the bravest of the brownies, and he couldn’t bear to see Jump crying.
    ‘I’ll go and see if I can possibly get the stick!’ he said. ‘Stay here and don’t make a sound.’
    Then the brave little brownie crept quietly across the floor till he reached the wizard’s bed.
    ‘Snore – snore!’ went the wizard. ‘Snore – snore!’
    Carefully, Hop put up his hand and felt in the bedclothes for the green stick. But oh my! No sooner did he catch hold of it, than what do you think happened?
    Why, that stick jumped straight out of bed by itself and began to chase Hop all round the room. Poor Hop began to yell in fright. That woke the wizard up. He sat up in bed and chuckled.
    ‘He, he,’ he laughed, ‘so you were trying to steal my stick, were you! Well, well! You won’t do it again in a hurry!’
    Poor Hop was running all over the place trying to get out of the way of the stick, which gave him the biggest chase he’d ever had in his life.
    ‘Come back, stick!’ at last said the wizard, and the stick jumped back into bed with him. Hop ran over to the others.
    ‘This all comes of our last naughty trick at the King’s Palace,’ he sobbed. ‘If only we could go back to Brownie Town, I’d never be bad again!’
    After that the brownies knew it was no good trying to get the stick away from the wizard. They were much too afraid of it.
    ‘We must think of something else,’ sighed Skip.
    Each night the brownies whispered together, but they couldn’t think of any plans at all. Then one day the wizard had a visitor.
    He was a red goblin, and the ugliest little fellow you could think of. He didn’t come in by the vanished door, nor by the window, so the brownies thought he must have jumped down the
chimney.
    ‘Good morning,’ he said to the wizard. ‘Have you those spells you were going to give me?’
    ‘They are not ready yet,’ answered the wizard, so humbly and politely that the brownies pricked up their ears.
    ‘Oh, ho,’ they thought, ‘this red goblin must be someone more powerful than the wizard, for the wizard seems quite frightened of him!’
    ‘Not ready!’ growled the goblin. ‘Well, see that they are ready by tomorrow, or I’ll spirit you away to the highest mountain in the world.’
    The wizard shivered and shook, and told the goblin he would be sure to have the spells ready by the next day.
    ‘Mind you do,’ said the goblin, and jumped straight up the chimney.
    The brownies stared open-mouthed. Then Hop had a wonderful idea. He turned to the wizard.
    ‘That goblin is much more clever than you, isn’t he?’ he said.
    ‘Pooh!’ growled the wizard, angrily. ‘I can do things he can’t do.’
    ‘Can you really?’ asked Hop, opening his eyes very wide. ‘What can you do?’
    ‘Well, I can make myself as big as a giant!’ said the wizard.
    ‘That’s a wonderful thing,’ said Hop. ‘Let’s see you do it!’
    ‘Yes, let’s,’ said Skip and Jump, seeing that Hop was following out an idea he had suddenly thought of.
    The wizard muttered a few words, and rubbed his forehead with some ointment out of a purple box. All at once he began to grow enormously big. Bump! His head touched the ceiling,