The Witch Family (9 page)

Little Witch Girl stood up. A happy glow was on her face.

"Gammer?" she said.

"Eh?" croaked Old Witch.

"You don't know it, of course. But you know what I wished for on my birthday candles that I blew out in one blow? And if you blow out all the candles in one blow, it means your wish will come true."

"No," said Old Witch.

"Well, I wished for a baby sister. That's what I wished for. And now. Listen to this. Just listen." Little Witch Girl read the letter aloud. When she finished she said, "Oh, Gammer! Isn't that wonderful?"

Old Witch was not as pleased. "Baby witch!" she said. "Oh, to glory be!" Old Witch did not want any weeny witch around. Weeny rabbits, fat and juicy, that she could pop into her mouth and eat up were what she wanted. Let Little Witch Girl try and get a baby witch herself with her own abracadabra—heh-heh!—for Old Witch knew that she wouldn't do the getting.

"Just think! A baby sister!" said Little Witch Girl. She could not imagine Old Witch not being as pleased as she was.

"A baby sister, now!" said Old Witch, as though her mind had not already been made up that she did not want any baby witch around.

"Yes," said Little Witch Girl. "Then I would never be lonesome."

"Well, you don't have one, heh-heh!" Old Witch said with a rasping croak.

"Couldn't you get me one? You're the real, right, regular Head Old Witch. You know the abracadabra, don't you? It says here in this important letter that you do," pleaded Little Witch Girl. "Oh, please, dear old gammer Old Witchie! Please!"

"I could. But I won't. No!" said Old Witch with a terrible croak.

"Well, I'm going to get one myself, you'll see," said Little Witch Girl with a sob. "And right this very minute, too."

So, Little Witch Girl piped this chant. Her voice was pretty and high when she was excited.

"Abracadabra
A B C
Flying through the air to me
Hotch
Cotch
In the Potch
A weeny witchie baby
Do I see?"

Apparently this was not the right abracadabra for getting a witch baby. Nothing came flying through the air. Disconsolately, Little Witch Girl sat down on her heels, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed silently.

In spite of herself Old Witch began to feel sorry for the little witch girl. (She must be getting good, willy-nilly.) And she reasoned in this way. "After all,
I
got
her
—that's Little Witch Girl—with abracadabras when I was lonesome. Now, maybe I should get
her
a baby sister, now that
she
is lonesome. I don't know. I don't know," she muttered with a witch sigh, which is on the order of a cold blast of wind.

A loud sob escaped from Little Witch Girl who rarely wept even when she bumped her nose.

This decided Old Witch. "Yes, I suppose I should. And yes, I suppose I shall," she said.

Having made the important decision, Old Witch lost no time in doing something about it. She bent over and got into the position for uttering great abracadabras. Wiggling back and forth and waving her arms about with strange and frightening movements, she chanted this chant:

"Abracadabra
Cadabra
Cadee
C B A and
A B C
Flying through the air to WE
Fiddly
Widdly
Biddly
BEE
Here's a weeny witchie just for
SHE!"

Of course this was a much more powerful abracadabra than Little Witch Girl's had been. To learn to say it properly, Old Witch had probably had to go to the witch and wizard school for centuries. It should, therefore, work. And, it did work!

Flying through the air, strapped to a miniature broomstick, there came a weeny witch baby. She came complete with little witch hat, loose-flowing, soft little black witch clothes, and with a tiny, scrawny black kitten miaowing fiercely and clinging to the broomstick, sometimes right side up, sometimes wrong side up.

"
HERE BE BABY,
" spelled the voice of Malachi.

Little Witch Girl took her hands off her tear-streaked face. Awestricken, she sat back on her haunches. "0-o-oh!" she gasped as she watched the weeny witch baby come to a neat landing on the little brass bed. "Oh! Isn't she cute!"

Old Witch was surprised herself. "Oh, to glory be!" she muttered. "Who ever would have thought that I could do anything as smart as that? Up on this bare and bleak place of banishment my magic is rusty. Yet see what I did!" She felt quite proud. Witch babies are very rare. Giving an amiable, not an awful, heh-heh, she too sat back on her haunches. It is quite exhausting to do great magic.

"Now," she croaked. "We be quite a family, ben't we? All generations be represented here now."

"
THAT BE RIGHT,
" confirmed a solemn voice.

Feeling rather confused, Old Witch studied matters. She wondered if getting this weeny witch out of thin air meant that she was being a good or a bad witch, according to the rules and regulations laid down by Amy, the banquisher. Good or bad? Finally, she decided that, since the suggestion to get Witch Baby had come from Amy, she was being good. At the same time, she was also being a successful witch. Here was one occasion, she decided, when "good" applied both to witch and to Amy rules. "Oh, to glory be!" she said. "Here I be, pleasing everybody."

"We'll have to get her a cradle," said the little witch girl, staring at her little sister in love and admiration. "Oh!" she said. "See its hands, its tiny hands! Did you ever see such hands? I wonder about its feet. Could we see its feet?"

"Tcluck, tcluck, tcluck," said Old Witch, still quite pleased with herself. This clucking sound was like music to Weeny Witch's ears, and the baby flashed a sudden, endearing smile.

"Not right now," said Old Witch. She bent over the little witch baby. "She has to have her bottle now, doesn't she?"

"Cr-cr-cr," crooned the weeny witchie baby.

"O-o-oh!" breathed Little Witch Girl. She gasped with delight over every single thing that the baby did.

Old Witch busied herself right away, preparing the little witch baby's herb formula. And while Old Witch was not looking, the little witch girl could not resist taking a peek at the little witch baby's feet. She turned back the baby's robes, which were as soft as the silkiest black cobwebs, and she saw that the weeny witch's feet were encased in softest, thinnest, most transparent little black booties. Since she had kicked one of them off, Little Witch Girl gently tied it back on. The color of the ribbons was pale pink!

Again Little Witch Girl was astonished. She didn't know that weeny witch babies were allowed to have pink ribbons. She thought black, everything black, plain, regular, real, right witch black. "They must be a present from Amy," Little Witch Girl decided happily.

"She has to have a cradle right away," said the little witch girl again. "Look how she kicks. She might roll off my bed! I'll try to get her the cradle."

So, Little Witch Girl said an abracadabra, but it still did not work, despite the great wiggling around that she had done in imitation of Old Witch. However, she did get a rattle, and Old Witch got the cradle from thin air and by way of abracadabra. In the cradle were soft black blankets and a warm little black bunny suit for cold days. Now the witch baby had everything.

"Abr-abr-abr," she gurgled happily when she was settled in her cradle.

"She is trying to say abracadabra," said Little Witch Girl.

Little Witch Girl and old Gammer Old Witch marveled at the brightness of the little one.

"Very bright baby," observed Old Witch with a gentle croak. "What does the serpent say?" she asked the baby.

"Sss, sss," said Baby.

"And what does the hoppy say?" asked Old Witch.

Baby gave a trill like a tree toad.

"What'd I say?" said Old Witch. "Here's a bright one, all right."

Little Witch Girl was so entranced with the baby witch that she could do nothing but stand at the side of the cradle and watch her and watch her and watch her. Long and silently she stood there watching, with one hand on the cradle, gently rocking it. She refused to go to school because all she could do was stay beside the cradle and rock it and stare at the weeny witch and exclaim over her enchanting ways.

"Look at the darling little curled-down nose she has!" she exclaimed.

"Tcluck!" said Old Witch.

"And curled-up chin," added Little Witch Girl.

"Tcluck!" said Old Witch.

"And look," said Little Witch Girl. "She already knows me. She says cr-cr-cr to me whenever she looks at me."

"Trying to croak already, the smart little thing," said Old Witch with a fond heh-heh. This sound was music to Weeny Witchie's ears, and she clapped her hands together, making sparks fly.

"Tcluck!" said Old Witch. Making sparks fly from fingers is a talent limited to only a few witches. "Unusual, she is. Talented. Oh, to glory be!"

For a moment Little Witch Girl was ashamed of her lack of skill, for she could not make sparks fly from her fingers. Some witches happen to be born with this skill. Others are not. Naturally, if you are a witch, it comes in very handy to be able to shake out sparks. Little Witch Girl felt a little jealous of Weeny Witchie. She wished that someone would tell some cute thing that she had done when she was a baby. Then she managed to overcome her twinge of jealousy and awaited the next fireworks, as she called making sparks.

But that was all for now. The little witch baby had fallen asleep. Her deep breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the house of the witch family. Wonderful peace and quiet settled over them all, the sort of quiet that comes when there is a new little baby sleeping in the house.

Little Witch Girl could not take her eyes off Weeny Witchie even while she was sleeping. She got her red rocker and she rocked beside the baby's cradle, singing pretty witch lullabies. "Sleep, witchie, sleep," she sang. "Bye, baby bye," she sang, and other gentle tunes. Now and then, when Weeny Witchie waked up, she asked to hold her and to give her her bottle. This Old Witch graciously permitted. Then she rocked her and sang to her some more. It was the most wonderful day of Little Witch Girl's whole life.

Once she said, "Gammer?"

"Eh?" asked Old Witch who was peacefully reading her runes.

"What shall we name her?" asked Little Witch Girl.

"
BEEBEE
!" spelled the spelling voice.

"That's a very good name," said Little Witch Girl. And she thought, "It is almost like Babay." Then she added aloud, "Gammer. Malachi should be the baby's godfather, since he named her."

"
BYE, BEE BEE, BYE
," sang the spelling bee peacefully, "
SAIL ACROSS THE SKY.
"

Old Witch said nothing. She just did not like any reference to Malachi and she did not like the sound of his voice.

Little Witch Girl sometimes told the baby witchie stories about Amy and Clarissa, the banquishers of Old Witch and the befrienders of her. "Cr-cr-cr," the little witch baby would gurgle happily. She liked to hear songs and stories about these two brave girls.

As for Old Witch, she became very fond of Weeny Witchie. The baby seemed to bring out the best in her, and she was quite busy with preparing the formula and other work that had to do with Beebee. She had less time for searching out wicked runes, and Malachi, the bumblebee, Amy's representative, did not have to sting Old Witch for some days.

Unfortunately, however, the little black bunny suit that had come with the witch baby's cradle and which the baby Tommy kitten slept on, kneading it like bread, often reminded Old Witch of rabbits—rabbits to eat. It began to be that she could not get rabbits out of her mind.

So, Malachi became anxious and watchful again, and he kept himself in readiness for what might happen, "
BE PREPARED
!" seemed to be his motto.

Today, Amy and Clarissa were drawing pictures of the Easter Bunny and the eggs he was painting in the painting field. Old Witch happened to be in Amy's picture, too. She was up in the corner, sitting on the glass hill. She had her telescope in her hands and was looking down.

"Some people think," said Amy to Clarissa, "that, with Little Witch Girl and Weeny Witchie living with her, Old Witch never was wicked again."

"Yes," said Clarissa. "Except on Halloween."

"Well, Clarissa. She didn't stay good," said Amy ominously. "Look at her now. She can't forget about the—you know what—the rabbits. She's getting wicked all over again, I think."

Clarissa smiled approvingly. But, pretending despair, she clutched her head between her hands. "Oh, to glory be!" she said, imitating Old Witch. Ever since the witch birthday party, Amy and Clarissa both used a number of Old Witch's expressions, which they had picked up on that famous day. Amy's mother did not like the way Amy said, "Heh-heh!"

"You will ruin your voice," she said.

Both little girls laughed, and saying, "Heh-heh-heh!" they went on coloring.

Meanwhile, up on the glass hill, Old Witch sat rocking on the rickety porch. As she rocked, she peered intently down into the valley below. Her telescope was in her lap. Now and then she seized it excitedly and focused it on the painting field. She liked what she saw. She drooled, licked her chops, and said, "Yum, yum, yum."