Magic Faraway Tree

Magic Faraway Tree, The - Blyton, Enid.

 

   
I.

 

   
Dick Comes to Stay.

 

   
Once upon a time there were three children, Jo, Bessie and Fanny. They lived with
their mother and father in a little cottage deep in the country. The girls had
to help their mother in the house, and Jo helped his father in the garden.

 

   
Now, one day their mother had a letter. She didn't very often have letters, so
the children wondered what it was about.

 

   
"Listen!" she said. "This is something quite exciting for you.
Your cousin Dick is coming to stay with us!"
"Ooh!" said all the children, pleased. Dick was about the same age as
Jo. He was a merry boy, rather naughty, and it would be such fun to have him.

 

   
"He can sleep with me in my little bedroom!" said Jo. "Oh, Mother,
what fun! When is he coming?"
"To-morrow," said Mother. "You girls can put up a little bed for
him in Jo's room, and, Jo, you must make room for Dick's things in your cupboard.
He is going to stay quite a long time, because his mother is ill and can't look
after him."
The three children flew upstairs to get Jo's room ready for Dick as well.

 

   
"I say! What will Dick say when we tell him about the Enchanted Wood and
the Faraway Tree?" cried Jo.

 

   
"And what will he say when we show him our friends there-Silky, and old Moon-Face,
and the dear old deaf Saucepan Man, and everyone!" said Bessie.

 

   
"He will get a surprise!" said Fanny.

 

   
They got everything ready for their cousin. They put up a little camp-bed for
him, and found some blankets. They put a cushion for a pillow. They made room
in Jo's cupboard and chest of drawers for Dick's things. Then they looked out
of the window. It looked on to a dark, thick wood, whose trees waved in the wind,
not far from the bottom of the garden.

 

   
"The Enchanted Wood!" said Bessie softly. "What marvellous adventures
we have had there. Maybe Dick will have some, too."
Dick arrived the next day. He came in the carrier's cart, with a small bag of
clothes. He jumped down and hugged the children's mother.

 

   
"Hallo, Aunt Polly!" he said. "It's good of you to have me. Hallo,
Jo! I say, aren't Bessie and Fanny big now? It's lovely to be with you all again."
The children took him up to his room. The girls unpacked his bag and put his things
neatly away in the cupboard and the chest. They showed him the bed he was to sleep
on.

 

   
"I expect I shall find it rather dull here after living in London,"
said "Dick, putting his hairbrushes on the little dressing-table. "It
seems so quiet. I shall miss the noise of buses and trams."
"You won't find it dull!" said Jo. "My word,
Dick, we've had more adventures since we've been here than ever we had when we
lived in a big town."
"What sort of adventures?" asked Dick in surprise. "It seems such
a quiet place that I shouldn't have thought there was even a small adventure to
be found!"
The children took Dick to the window. "Look, Dick," said Jo. "Do
you see that thick, dark wood over there, backing on to the lane at the bottom
of our garden?"
"Yes," said Dick. "It seems quite ordinary to me, except that the
leaves of the trees seem a darker green than usual."
"Well, listen, Dick-that's the Enchanted Wood!" said Bessie.

 

   
Dick's eyes opened wide. He stared at the wood, "You're making fun of me!"
he said at last.

 

   
"No, we're not," said Fanny, "We mean what we say. Its name is
the Enchanted Wood-and it is enchanted. Arid oh, Dick, in the middle of it is
the most wonderful tree in the world!"
"What sort of tree?" asked Dick, feeling quite excited.

 

   
"It's a simply enormous tree," said Jo. "Its top goes right up
to the clouds-and oh, Dick, at the top of it is always some strange land. You
can go there by climbing up the top branch of the Faraway Tree, going up a little
ladder through a hole in the big cloud that always lies on the top of the tree
-and there you are in some peculiar land!"
"I don't think I believe you," said Dick. "You are making it all
up."
"Dick! We'll take you there and show you what we mean," said Bessie.
"It's all quite true. Oh, Dick, we've had such exciting adventures at the
top of the Faraway Tree. We've been to the Rocking Land, and the Birthday Land."
"And the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of the Snowman," said
Fanny. "You just can't think how exciting it all is."
"And, Dick, all kinds of queer folk live in the trunk of the Faraway Tree,"
said Jo. "We've lots of good friends there. We'll take you to them one day.
There's a dear little fairy called Silky, because
she has such a mass of silky gold hair."
"And there's Moon-Face, with a big round face like the moon! He's a darling!"
said Bessie.

 

   
"And there's funny old Mister Watzisname," said Fanny.

 

   
"What's his real name?" asked Dick in surprise.

 

   
"Nobody knows, not even himself," said Jo. "So everyone calls him
Mister Watzisname. Oh, and there is the old Saucepan Man. He's always hung around
with kettles and saucepans and things, and he's so deaf that he always hears everything
wrong."
Dick's eyes began to shine. "Take me there," he begged. "Quick,
take me! I can't wait to see all these exciting people."
"We can't go till Mother says she doesn't need us in the house," said
Bessie. "But we will take you-of course we will."
"And, Dick, there's a slippery slip, a slide that goes right down the inside
of the tree from the top to the bottom," said Fanny. "It belongs to
Moon-Face. He lends people cushions to slide down
on."
"I do want to go down that slide," said Dick, getting terribly impatient.
"Why do you tell me all these things if you can't take me to see them now?
I'll never be able to sleep to-night! Good gracious! My head feels in a whirl
already to think of the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face and Silky and the slippery-slip."
"Dick, we'll take you as soon as ever we can," promised Jo. "There's
no hurry. The Faraway
Tree is always there. We never, never know what land is going to be at the top.
We have to be very careful sometimes because there might be a dangerous land -one
that we couldn't get away from!"
A voice came from downstairs. "Children! Are you going to stay up all the
day? I suppose you don't want any tea? What a pity -because I have made some scones
for you and put out some strawberry jam!"
Four children raced down the stairs. Scones and strawberry jam! Gracious, they
weren't going to miss those. Good old Mother -she was always thinking of some
nice little treat for them.

 

   
"Jo, Father wants you to dig up some potatoes for him after tea," said
Mother. "Dick can help you. And, Bessie and Fanny, I want you to finish my
ironing for me, because I have to take some mended clothes to Mrs. Harris, and
she lives such a long way away."
The children had been rather hoping to go out and take Dick to the Enchanted Wood.
They looked disappointed. But they said nothing, because they knew that in a family
everyone had to help when they could.

 

   
Mother saw their disappointed faces and smiled. "I suppose you want to take
Dick to see those peculiar friends of yours," she said. "Well now, listen-if
you are good children to-day, and do the jobs you have to do, I'll give you a
whole day's holiday to-morrow! Then you may take your dinner and your tea and
go to visit any friends
you like. How would you like that?"
"Oh, Mother, thank you!" cried the children in delight,
"A whole day!" said Bessie. "Why, Dick, we can show you everything!"
"And maybe let you peep into whatever land is at the top of the Faraway Tree,"
whispered Fanny. "Oh, what fun!"
So they did their work well after tea and looked forward to the next day. Dick
dug hard, and Jo was pleased with him. It was going to be fun to have a cousin
with them, able to work and play and enjoy everything, too!
When they went to bed that night they left the doors of their rooms open so that
they might call to one another.

 

   
"Sleep well, Dick!" called Bessie. "I hope it's fine to-morrow!
What fun we shall have!"
"Good night, Bessie!" called back Dick. "I can't tell you how I'm
longing for to-morrow. I know I shan't be able to sleep to-night!"
But he did -and so did all the others. When Mother came up at ten o'clock she
peeped in at the children, and not one was awake.

 

   
Jo woke first next day. He sat up and looked out of the window. The sun streamed
in, warm and bright. Jo's heart jumped for joy. He leaned over to Dick's bed and
shook him.

 

   
"Wake up!" he said. "It's to-morrow now-and we're going to the
Enchanted Wood!"
2.

 

   
Off to the Enchanted Wood.

 

   
The children ate their breakfast quickly. Mother told Bessie and Fanny to cut
sandwiches for themselves and to take a small chocolate cake from the larder.

 

   
"You can take a packet of biscuits, too," she said, "and there
are apples in that dish over there. If you are hungry when you come home to-night
I will bake you some potatoes in the oven, and you can eat them in their skins
with salt and butter."
"Oooh, Mother-we shall be hungry!" said Jo at once. "Hurry up with
those sandwiches, Bessie and Fanny. We want to start off as soon as possible."
"Now don't be too late home, or I shall worry," said Mother. "Look
after your cousin, Jo."
"Yes, I will," promised Jo.

 

   
At last everything was ready. Jo packed the food into a leather bag and slung
it over his shoulder. Then the four of them set off to the Enchanted Wood.

 

   
It didn't take them long to get there. A narrow ditch was between the lane and
the wood.

 

   
"You've got to jump over the ditch, Dick," said Jo. They all jumped
over. Dick stood still when he was in the wood.

 

   
"What a strange noise the leaves of the trees make," he said. "It's
as if they were talking to one another-telling secrets."
"Wisha, wisha, wisha, wisha," whispered the trees.

 

   
"They are talking secrets," said Bessie. "And do you know, Dick
-if the trees have any message for us, we can hear it by pressing our left ears
to the trunks of the trees! Then we really hear what they say."
"Wisha-wisha-wisha-wisha," said the trees.

 

   
"Come on," said Jo impatiently. "Let's go to the Faraway Tree."
They all went on -and soon came to the queer magic tree. Dick stared at it in
the greatest astonishment.

 

   
"Why, it's simply ENORMOUS!" he said. "I've never seen such a big
tree in my life. And you can't possibly see the top. Goodness gracious! What kind
of tree is it? It's got oak leaves, and yet it doesn't really seem like an oak."
"It's a funny tree," said Bessie. "It may grow acorns and oak leaves
for a little way -and then suddenly you notice that it's growing plums. Then another
day it may grow apples or pears. You just never know. But it's all very exciting."
"How do you climb it?" asked Dick. "In the ordinary way?"
"Well, we will to-day," said Jo, "because we want to show you our
friends who live inside the tree. But sometimes there's a rope that is let down
the tree, and we can go up quickly with the help of that. Or sometimes Moon-Face
lets down a cushion on the end of a rope and then pulls us up one by one."
He swung himself up into the tree, and the others followed. After a bit Dick gave
a shout. "I say! It's most extraordinary! This tree is growing nuts now!
Look!"
Sure enough it was. Dick picked some and cracked them. They were hazel nuts, ripe
and sweet. Everyone had some and enjoyed them.

 

   
Now when they had all got very high up indeed, Dick was most surprised to see
a little window in the trunk of the Faraway Tree.

 

   
"Goodness-does somebody live just here?" he called to the others. "Look-there's
a window here. I'm going to peep in."
"You'd better not!" shouted Jo. "The Angry Pixie lives there, and
he hates people peeping in."
But Dick felt so curious that he just had to peep in. The Angry Pixie was at home.
He was filling his kettle with water, when he looked up and saw Dick's surprised
face at his window. Nothing made the pixie so angry as to see people looking at
him. He rushed to the window at once and flung it open.

 

   
"Peeping again!" he shouted. "It's too bad! All day and night people
come peeping. Take that!"
He emptied the kettle of water all over poor Dick. Then he slammed his window
and drew the curtains across. Jo, Bessie and Fanny couldn't help laughing.

 

   
"I told you not to peep in at the Angry Pixie," said Jo, wiping Dick
with his hanky. "He's nearly always in a bad temper. Oh, and by the way,
Dick, 18
I must warn you about something else. There's an old woman who lives high up in
the tree who is always washing. She empties the water down the tree, and it comes
slish-sloshing down. You'll have to look out for that or you'll get wet."
Dick looked up the tree as if he half expected the water to come tumbling down
at once.