Magic Faraway Tree Read Online Free PDF Page A

you use up the car's singing!" he cried. "You wait till
I tell the witch. She'll be after you. And you won't sing if she catches you!"
"Quick! Run!" said Moon-Face. "If he does fetch the witch we'll
get into trouble."
So they ran away fast, and were soon out of
sight of the cat and the servant. They sank down under a tree, laughing.
     
   
"Oh, dear! That cat did sing a funny song!" said Jo, wiping his eyes.
"And what a lovely deep voice it had. Do you suppose its whiskers really
did grow very long?"
Just then the three heard a loud noise coming along: "Clankily-clank, rattle,
bang, crash!"
"The Saucepan Man!" they all cried. "He's come up here, too!"
And sure enough, it was old Saucepan, grinning all over his funny face. He had
so many kettles and saucepans on that day that nothing could be seen of him except
his face and his feet.
     
   
"Hallo, hallo!" he said. "I guessed you were up here. Been having
fun?"
"Yes," said Jo. "I'm all right again-look! It's so nice to walk
the proper way up again. And oh, Saucepan, we've just heard a cat sing!"
Saucepan actually heard what Joe said but he couldn't believe that he had heard
right, so he put his hand behind his ear and said, "What did you say? I thought
you said you'd heard a cat sing -but I heard wrong, I know."
"No, you heard right," said Moon-Face. "We did hear a cat sing!"
"Let's go and explore a bit more," said Jo. So up they got and off they
went.
     
   
A witch was selling a spell to make ordinary broomsticks fly through the air.
The four watched in amazement as they saw her rubbing a pink ointment on to a
broomhandle belonging to an elf.
"Now get on it, say 'Whizz away!' and you can fly home," said the witch.
The elf got astride the broomstick, a smile on her pretty face.
     
   
"Whizz away!" she said. And off whizzed the broomstick up into the air,
with the elf clinging tightly to it!
"I'd like to buy that spell," said Jo. "I wonder how much it is."
The witch heard him. "Three silver pieces," she said. Jo hadn't even
got one. But Moon-Face had. He took them out of his large purse and gave them
to the witch.
     
   
"Where's your broomstick?" she said.
     
   
"We haven't got one with us," said Jo. "But can't you give us the
ointment instead, please?"
"Well, I'll give you just a little," said the witch. She took a tiny
pink jar and put a dab of the pink ointment into it. Jo took it and put it into
his pocket. Now maybe his mother's broomstick would learn to fly!
At the next stall a goblin was selling a spell to make things big. The spell was
in big tins, and looked like paint.
     
   
"Just think what a useful spell this is!" yelled the goblin to the passers-by.
"Have you visitors coming to tea and only a small cake to offer them? A dab
of this spell and the cake swells to twice its size! Have you a suit you have
grown out of A dab of this spell and it will grow to the right size! Marvellous,
wonderful, amazing and astonishing! Buy, buy, buy, whilst you've got the chance!"
Saucepan heard all that the goblin said, for he was shouting at the top of his
voice. He began to look in all his kettles and saucepans.
     
   
"What do you want?" asked Jo.
     
   
"My money," said the Saucepan Man. "I always keep it in one of
my kettles or saucepans-but I never remember which. I simply must buy that spell.
Think how useful it would be to me. Sometimes when I go round selling my goods
a customer will say to me, 'Oh, you haven't a big enough kettle!' But now I shall
be able to make my kettles just as big as I like! And we can dab the Pop Biscuits
with the spell, too, and make them twice as big."
He found his money at last and paid it to the goblin, who handed him a tin of
the spell. Saucepan was very pleased. He longed to try' it on something. He took
the brush and dabbed a daisy nearby with the spell. The daisy at once grew to
twice its size. Then Saucepan dabbed a bumblebee and that grew enormous. It buzzed
around