The Witch Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

Malachi.
    There the conversation ended. With these long words Malachi had outspelled himself. Being a spelling bee, Malachi ordinarily spoke in sentences of just one word. Instead of saying a word, he spelled it. This took longer, but it was more accurate. And he was an accurate bee. When he spelled " BEE, " you knew it was bee and not be.
    Although Malachi was a spelling bee, he could not cast spells. He, himself, was under a spell, and that was the important thing. The magic spell that he was under enabled him not to cast spells, but to spell. "Very important, this is, too," said Amy to Clarissa, still at the little yellow table, drawing.
    " YES ," said Clarissa, who knew how to spell, too.

4. The Witch School
    "Well, Amy," said Clarissa. "That little witch girl that lives on the glass hill, doesn't she go to school? Now that she lives with Old Witch, doesn't she have to go to school?"
    Clarissa was seated at one side of the little yellow table, drawing a witch picture. Amy, on the other side of the table, was drawing a witch picture, too. They were both drawing very large pictures, and they did not notice or mind these two large pictures getting in each other's way. They were such good friends, they almost never got cross with each other about anything.
    "What?" asked Amy, with her hand cupped behind her ear.
    Both Amy and Clarissa had colds, and whenever they had colds, they became a little deaf. "What'd you say?" shouted Amy more loudly.
    "School!" shouted back Clarissa. "Didn't she ever have to go to school?"
    "Of course she went to school," said Amy. "Of course she did. You didn't think she just rode her broomstick all day, did you? Growing up to be a nope, did you?" ("Nope" was Amy's word for "dope.") "Of course she went to school, to witch school."
    With her head turned almost upside down to see, Clarissa studied Amy's picture. There were a witch schoolroom, a witch schoolteacher, and some little witch schoolgirls in the picture. There were cobwebs, and cauldrons, and crystal gazing balls for all.
    "Which is our little witchie?" asked Clarissa.
    "She's late," said Amy. "She's going to come flying through the window when she comes. Then there will be seven little witches."
    "I see," said Clarissa, and they both went on with their drawings.
    Today was the little witch girl's first day of school. And she really was late. It is too bad to be late on the first day, but it was really the fault of Old Witch. Last night, as Old Witch and Little Witch sat rocking before the fire, Old Witch, delighted to have such an appreciative audience, had told the little witch story after story of old days when she was a real, right, regular, wicked old witch, before her exile to the glass hill. The stories all ended with, "and then
she
banquished me!"
    "Tell more, tell more," Little Witch Girl had begged after each story. "Begin. One night, I..."
    And so Old Witch had told one more and then one more. So, Little Witch Girl had gone to bed very late. And in the morning, naturally, she did not want to get up. "O-o-oh," she groaned. "Do I have to go to school today? Couldn't I begin tomorrow instead?"
    "No," said Old Witch with finality. "You see that red bird coming? Well, you follow that red bird. He goes your way. Good-bye, my dearie. Get good marks." And she shoved sleepy Little Witch Girl onto her broomstick and out the door.
    "Wait! Wait! Wait for me!" the little witch girl called to the cardinal bird. He was already almost out of sight. Trying to catch up with him, Little Witch Girl missed the right turnoff to the witch school, which is located on a pink cloud. Spurring her broomstick on, the next thing she knew she was far from the glass hill and from witch school. She was on some strange street in some strange city, and she was flying low past the window of a high brick house. Here, she became entangled in the branches of a ginkgo tree. Poised there for a moment, she found herself outside the window of a room where two girls (they