The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) (10 page)

‘I don’t like the people of this town very much,’ said Hop. ‘They stare so, and whisper to each other; I think someone ought to teach them manners.’

‘Ding-dong,’ struck a nearby clock.

‘Two o’clock,’ said Skip. ‘Not much longer to wait, thank goodness! I’m longing to get out of this toadstool!’

At half-past two the soldiers came and took the brownies outside. They marched them through the town, with crowds of people following, all talking excitedly.

‘
I
don’t believe they can drive,’ said one.

‘Nor do I,’ said another.

‘They won’t know how to start the engine!’ cried a third.

‘Then they’ll soon be in prison again!’ laughed a fourth.

Hop, Skip and Jump began to feel rather nervous. Supposing they
couldn’t
start the engine? How awful it would be! Oh dear, oh dear, how they wished they had never had to leave
Brownie Town.

‘Here’s the station,’ said one of the soldiers, leading the brownies up some steps on to a little wooden platform.

All the people ran along beside the lines, and looked to see if the train was coming.

‘I can see some smoke in the distance!’ cried someone. ‘It will soon be here.’

Puff-puff-puff-puff
 
! Soon the little train came steaming up and stopped at Toadstool Town Station. The passengers got out, and stared in astonishment at the crowds all round.

The soldiers went up to the engine.

‘Hey, you!’ they called to the driver. ‘Get down a minute, please.’

The surprised driver hopped out, and the soldiers explained to him about Hop, Skip and Jump.

‘But look here,’ said the driver, ‘suppose they go and smash up my engine?’

The soldiers looked taken aback! No one had thought of that.

‘Here comes the judge,’ they said. ‘You ask him.’

The driver bowed to the judge, and repeated his question.

‘You should have thought of that before,’ answered the judge crossly. ‘We’ve got to go on with this now.’

‘Why, I only heard of this plan of yours just this minute,’ cried the driver indignantly. ‘How
could
I have thought of it before?’

‘Don’t answer back,’ snapped the judge, and turned to the brownies. ‘Now then,’ he said, ‘the time has come to show us whether you can drive or not. Get into
the engine-cab.’

The brownies jumped in.

‘Drive to that bend,’ ordered the judge, ‘then reverse the engine and come back. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, thank you,’ answered Hop, taking a good look at the wheels in the engine. ‘Hurrah!’ he thought ‘There’s a “STOP ENGINE” wheel this time.
I’ll be all right, I think!’

He twisted the ‘START ENGINE’ wheel, and puff-puff-puff, off went the little engine by itself, for it had been uncoupled from the carriages.

‘Not so fast!’ shouted the judge.

Hop laughed, and twisted the ‘GO FAST’ wheel. Off shot the engine faster than ever, past the rows of astonished people who were watching all along the lines.

‘STOP! STOP! GO BACK!’ shouted the crowds at the bend of the line, where Hop was supposed to go back.

‘GOODBYE, GOODBYE,’ shouted the brownies, waving their hands in delight. ‘THANKS SO MUCH FOR LETTING US HAVE THIS ENGINE!’

They passed the last person by the line, and went tearing round the bend. They heard shouts and yells behind them, but they didn’t even bother to look round.

‘Hurrah! Hurrah!’ shouted Skip. ‘We’ve got away! Good old Hop!’

Hop grinned. He was being very careful, for he didn’t want to run any risks of being taken back to Toadstool Town. The engine went racing on, and passed one station after another. Jump
read them out loud as they passed.

‘We ought to be getting near Fiddlestick Field,’ said Skip at last. ‘Keep a good look out, Jump. Hadn’t you better go a bit slower, Hop, so that we don’t go rushing
past the station!’

Hop twisted a wheel marked ‘GO SLOW’, and the engine slowed down.

Two more stations were passed, and then Jump gave a squeak of delight, as the engine went up a steep hill.

‘Fiddlestick Field!’ he shouted. ‘Pull up, Hop, quick! We’re really here!’

Hop stopped the engine and the three brownies jumped out. No one was about at all. Evidently no train was expected at that time.

‘Good for us!’ grinned Hop. ‘We shan’t have any questions asked!’

‘I wonder what the people of Toadstool Town are thinking!’ chucked Skip. ‘They’ll know we can drive all right
now
 
!’

‘Come on,’ said Jump, running out of the station. ‘Let’s find someone to ask where the Saucepan Man lives.’

They went down a little winding lane, with honey-suckle hedges on each side. They hadn’t gone far when they heard a most curious noise. It was a clanging and a clanking, a jingling and a
jangling.

‘What in the world is that?’ wondered Hop. ‘It sounds as if it’s coming towards us. Perhaps we shall find out what it is, round the next corner.’

Sure enough they did. They saw the most comical sight – it looked just like a walking mass of jingling-jangling saucepans!

‘Goodness gracious!’ said Hop in great astonishment. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s a whole heap of saucepans,’ said Skip, ‘and there are feet at the bottom. I can see them walking!’

When they got nearer they saw a tiny, bearded face peeping out of the crowd of saucepans, and discovered that it was a little man, hung from head to foot with saucepans of all sizes, shapes, and
colours.

‘It must be the Saucepan Man himself,’ said Hop, in delight. ‘What a bit of luck!’

Their Adventure with the Saucepan Man

The three brownies ran up to the jingling-jangling little man.

‘Hello!’ cried Hop. ‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’

The little man looked at him inquiringly.

‘Hey?’ he said. ‘What did you say?’

‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’ bawled Hop, over the jingling of scores of saucepans.

‘No I ain’t got a sausage-pan!’ answered the Saucepan Man, shaking his head so that the saucepans rattled tremendously.

‘Sausage-pan! I never said a
word
about a sausage-pan,’ said Hop in surprise. ‘I said, “Are you the Saucepan Man?”

‘I tell you I ain’t got a sausage-pan,’ said the little man crossly, ‘I only sell saucepans, I do.’

‘He’s deaf,’ said Skip, ‘and I don’t wonder, with all those saucepans jangling round him all day.’

Hop tried again. ‘Are you the Saucepan Man?’ he bawled. ‘Can you hear me when I shout?’

‘Yes, I think there’s rain about,’ said the Saucepan Man, looking up at the sky wisely. ‘Come before evening too, likely enough.’

‘
You
try, Skip,’ said Hop, quite out of breath.

‘WHERE ARE YOU GOING?’ shouted Skip.

‘Now don’t be silly,’ answered the Saucepan Man sharply. “Tain’t snowing, and you can see it ain’t. Don’t tell me any fairy-tales like that.’

‘CAN WE GO HOME WITH YOU?’ asked Jump in his most enormous voice.

‘No, my boots ain’t new, but what’s that to do with you, I’d like to know?’ said the little man, looking crosser and crosser.

‘Oh, buttons and buttercups!’ sighed Hop. ‘We’ll never make him hear, while he’s got all those saucepans jangling round him. Let’s follow him and see if
he’s going home. Then if he takes off his saucepans, we’ll try again then.’

So the three brownies trotted behind the Saucepan Man, back down the lane again, and round by the station. There they saw the station-master and the porter, staring in great astonishment at the
empty engine standing all by itself in the station.

‘Gracious!’ said Hop. ‘Let’s hope we don’t get asked any awkward questions!’

The station-master saw them coming and immediately rushed over to them.

‘Pretend we don’t understand,’ said Hop quickly to the others. ‘If we talk a lot of rubbish, he’ll soon let us go.’

‘Hi! Hi!’ called the station-master. ‘Do you know anything about this engine?’

Nobody answered anything.

‘Are you dumb?’ asked the station-master angrily. ‘Come now! Do you know anything about this engine, I say?’

‘Kalamma Koo, chickeree chee,’ answered Hop solemnly.

‘Krik-krik,’ said Skip.

‘Caw,’ said Jump.

‘
They
don’t know anything, that’s certain,’ said the station-master to the porter. ‘They’re foreigners.’

‘Tanee jug jug jug?’ said Hop, in an inquiring voice.

‘It’s all right,’ said the station-master. ‘I don’t understand you. I’ll have a word with this saucepan chap.’

‘Caw, caw,’ said Jump, and nearly made the others giggle.

The station-master poked the Saucepan Man in the ribs.

‘Hi!’ he cried. ‘Do you know anything about this engine?’

‘My name ain’t Benjamin, and kindly take your fingers out of my waistcoat,’ said the Saucepan Man huffily.

The station-master groaned.

‘Come on,’ he said to the porter. ‘They’re quite mad – too mad to know anything about an engine,
any
way!’

They went off to the station again, and the three brownies breathed freely once more.

‘That was a near squeak!’ said Hop. ‘Come on, and let’s follow the Saucepan Man.’

On they went again, until at last the Saucepan Man came to a little tumbledown cottage, called Saucepan Cottage. It had old saucepans for its chimneys, and looked the funniest little place the
brownies had ever seen. They followed the Saucepan Man inside. He looked at them in surprise.

‘What do you want?’ he asked.

Hop suddenly saw that the table was very dusty. He quickly wrote on it with his finger.

‘We are three brownies who want to know the way to Witchland,’ he wrote. ‘The Very Wise Man told us to ask the Saucepan Man the way. Are you the Saucepan Man?’

‘Course I am,’ said the little man. ‘Can’t you
see
that? Anyway, I don’t know why you didn’t ask me that in the road, instead of talking about
sausage-pans and the weather.’

He took off his saucepans and clattered them into a corner.

‘I can tell you the way to Witchland all right,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m on my way there tomorrow. You’d better come with me, you’ll be safe then. Witches
don’t touch me, they don’t.’

‘Why not?’ asked Hop.

‘Feel hot, do you?’ said the little man. ‘Well, open the window then.’

Hop sighed. It really was
very
difficult to talk to the Saucepan Man. He tried again.

‘May we spend the night here?’ he asked in his loudest voice.

‘What’s the matter with my right ear?’ said the Saucepan Man, going to the looking-glass, and peering into it. ‘Nothing at all. Don’t you be saucy, young
man.’

‘I can’t stand this!’ groaned Hop to the others. ‘Haven’t you got a note-book that we can write in?’

‘Yes,
I
have!’ cried Skip, pulling out an old note-book and a stumpy pencil. ‘Here you are – write in this, Hop.’

Hop quickly wrote down his questions, and showed them to the Saucepan Man.

‘Yes, you can stay here for the night,’ said the little man, ‘and I’ll take you with me tomorrow. Find the cocoa tin now and make some cocoa, while I boil some eggs and
make some toast.’

The brownies hunted about for the cocoa, filled one of the many saucepans with milk and put it on the fire to boil.

Soon the four were enjoying boiled eggs, toast and cocoa, and the brownies began to think the Saucepan Man was a very jolly little man, for although he couldn’t hear very well, he could
tell lots of funny tales.

‘Now to bed, to bed!’ he said at last. ‘We’ve a long way to go tomorrow and we must be up early.’

He showed them a bedroom with a big bed in it, said goodnight, and shut the door.

‘Well, I really feel we’re on the way to find the Princess Peronel now,’ said Hop, as he got into bed.

‘Yes, if the Saucepan Man takes us to Witchland, we’ve only got to find out where Witch Green-eyes lives, and then make up a plan to rescue the Princess,’ said Skip
sleepily.

‘Well, goodnight,’ said Jump, yawning. All the brownies lay down and fell fast asleep.

In the morning the Saucepan Man woke them, and they started off on their journey. They walked for miles across the country, calling at little cottages on the way, and selling saucepans.

Soon Hop had a good idea. He took out his little note-book and wrote in it.

‘Let us carry your saucepans for you for a little while,’ Hop wrote. ‘You must be very tired, for the sun is hot.’

The Saucepan Man gladly took off all his saucepans and gave them to the three brownies. They divided the saucepans between them, and off they all went again, clinking and clanking for all the
world as if they were saucepan men themselves.

Suddenly, as they were going along, a great shadow came over them, and made everything dark.

The brownies looked up and saw an enormous yellow bird hovering over them. The Saucepan Man gave a frightened yell.

‘Run!’ he said ‘Run! It’s the Dragon-bird that belongs to the Golden Dwarf. Don’t let him get you!’

The brownies sped away to some trees. The Saucepan Man didn’t seem to know
where
to go. He ran forwards and backwards, and sideways, and all the time the Dragon-bird hovered
overhead like a great hawk.

Then zee-ee-ee! It swooped downwards so fast that its feathers made a singing noise. The brownies saw it get hold of the poor little Saucepan Man, and then the Dragon-bird rose into the air,
taking him in its talons.

‘Oh my! Oh my!’ cried Hop in despair. ‘It’s got him! It’s got him!’

‘Poor little Saucepan Man,’ sobbed Skip, tears pouring down his face.

‘Look! Look! It’s flying towards that hill over there,’ said Jump.

The brownies watched. On the top of the faraway hill was a castle. The Dragon-bird flew to the highest window there, landed, and disappeared into the castle.

‘
Now
what are we to do?’ said Hop mournfully.

‘We can’t go on and leave him,’ said Skip, drying his eyes. ‘Besides, we’ve got his saucepans.’

‘Oh, isn’t it bad luck that this should happen, just as we were really on our way to Witchland!’ sighed Jump. ‘Look at that signpost there. It says “THIS WAY TO
WITCHLAND” on it.’