The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) Read Online Free PDF Page A

ring the big bell in ten minutes’ time, Hop!’
    Skip and Jump crept off with the mermaid, feeling very nervous indeed. She put them safely into two chests and closed the lids.
    Then Hop went boldly round to the castle door. He saw a great bell-rope hanging by the side. He took hold of it and pulled it sharply three times.
    Jangle-jangle-jangle, it went. Hop waited.
    ‘Who’s there?’ came the angry voice of the red goblin, and the great castle door slid open, to show the goblin standing in the doorway.
    ‘A wizard come to see you!’ said Hop, bowing low.
    ‘Come in,’ growled the goblin, and led the way into the great hall.
    ‘Who are you?’ he asked.
    ‘Ah, that is a secret,’ answered Hop.
    ‘Oh!’ said the goblin, wondering who he could be. ‘How did you get here?’
    ‘That is also a secret!’ answered Hop. ‘I do not give my magic spells away for nothing!’
    ‘Ho,’ said the goblin again, thinking this must be a very clever wizard. ‘Will you stay here for a day or two, and perhaps we can exchange spells?’
    ‘Certainly!’ answered Hop. ‘Allow me to call my servants to wait on me!’
    He clapped his hands three times and, to the goblin’s tremendous astonishment, up popped the lids of two chests nearby, and out jumped two brownies. They ran up to Hop and bowed.
    ‘Master, we come from the ends of the earth to greet you,’ they said.
    ‘How did they come into those chests then?’ demanded the astonished goblin.
    ‘That is a secret,’ smiled Hop.
    The goblin thought there were a great deal too many secrets about this peculiar wizard. He was quite determined to find them all out.
    ‘Come to breakfast,’ he said, and invited Hop to a big table on which were set all kinds of food. Hop sat down. He was very hungry, and he knew Skip and Jump were too. How could he
manage to get them food?
    ‘Servants, get under the table,’ he said suddenly. ‘Take off my shoes and tickle my feet whilst I eat.’
    The goblin stared in surprise.
    ‘I enjoy my food better when my feet are tickled,’ explained Hop.
    The goblin said nothing, but he thought this wizard was one of the most peculiar he had ever met. He was astonished, too, at the way he ate. No sooner was his plate full than it was empty! He
didn’t know that half of it was dropped down to Skip and Jump under the table.
    ‘Dear me!’ he said at last, when Hop had taken three apples and apparently eaten them in one minute. ‘Tickling your feet seems to give you a great appetite, Sir
Wizard.’
    ‘You should try it too,’ answered Hop. ‘Take off his boots, servants, and tickle him!’
    In a second Skip and Jump slipped off the goblin’s shoes and began tickling his feet. The goblin gave one yell, and fell off his chair.
    ‘Don’t, I can’t bear it!’ he shouted, rolling about on the floor. Skip and Jump giggled, and tickled him all the more.
    Suddenly, to Hop’s horror, the red goblin gave a yell of rage and shouted some magic words. Immediately Skip and Jump disappeared, and in their places were two brown mice!
    ‘How dare you let your servants do that!’ raged the goblin. ‘See how I have punished them!’
    Hop went pale with fear. Poor Skip and Jump changed into mice! Then he faced the goblin.
    ‘Change my servants back at once,’ he commanded in his biggest voice.
    The goblin laughed.
    ‘Change them back yourself, if you’re such a wonderful wizard,’ he grinned.
    Hop looked round wildly for something to help him. Then he quickly put his hand into his pocket – yes, the little bottle with the wizard in it was still there.
    ‘Do you know what I do to people who annoy
me
  ?’ he asked the goblin. ‘I don’t change them into mice – that’s a
very
ordinary trick – I
put them into bottles like this!’
    And he drew out the bottle, and showed it to the goblin. The goblin looked at it and saw the wizard sitting inside.
    ‘Ow!’ he cried. ‘It’s the wizard I visited yesterday! Good gracious! Look at him! As