Wet Magic E. Nesbit (interesting books to read for teens txt) đ
- Author: E. Nesbit
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âYou mean,â said Bernard, âyou feel that it wouldnât work, so you didnât try.â
A rattling, ripping sound outside, beginning softly, waxed louder and louder so as almost to drown their voices. It was the drum, and it announced the beginning of the circus. The Spangled Child put his head in and said, âHurry up or youâll miss my Infant Prodigious Act on the Horse with the Tambourines,â and took his head out again.
âOh, dear,â said Mavis, âand we havenât arranged a single thing about rescuing you.â
âNo more you have,â said the Mermaid carelessly.
âLook here,â said Francis, âyou do want to be rescued, donât you?â
âOf course I do,â replied the Mermaid impatiently, ânow I know about the llama rope. But I canât walk even if theyâd let me, and you couldnât carry me. Couldnât you come at dead of night with a chariotâ âI could lift myself into it with your aidâ âthen you could drive swiftly hence, and driving into the sea I could drop from the chariot and escape while you swam ashore.â
âI donât believe we couldâ âany of it,â said Bernard, âlet alone swimming ashore with horses and chariots. Why, Pharaoh himself couldnât do that, you know.â And even Mavis and Francis added helplessly, âI donât see how weâre to get a chariot,â and âdo you think of some other way.â
âI shall await you,â said the lady in the tank with perfect calmness, âat dead of night.â
With that she twisted the seaweed closely around her head and shoulders and sank slowly to the bottom of the tank. And the children were left staring blankly at each other, while in the circus tent music sounded and the soft heavy pad-pad of hoofs on sawdust.
âWhat shall we do?â Francis broke the silence.
âGo and see the circus, of course,â said Bernard.
âOf course we can talk about the chariot afterward,â Mavis admitted.
âThereâll be lots of time to talk between now and dead of night,â said Kathleen. âCome on, Bear.â
And they went.
There is nothing like a circus for making you forget your anxieties. It is impossible to dwell on your troubles and difficulties when performing dogs are displaying their accomplishments, and wolves dancing their celebrated dance with the flags of all nations, and the engaging lady who jumps through the paper hoops and comes down miraculously on the flat back of the white horse, cannot but drive dull care away, especially from the minds of the young. So that for an hour and a halfâ âit really was a good circus, and I canât think how it happened to be at Beachfield Fair at allâ âa solid slab of breathless enjoyment was wedged in between the interview with the Mermaid and the difficult task of procuring for her the chariot she wanted. But when it was all over and they were part of a hot, tightly packed crowd pouring out of the dusty tent into the sunshine, their responsibilities came upon them with renewed force.
âWasnât the clown ripping?â said Bernard, as they got free of the crowd.
âI liked the riding-habit lady best, and the horse that went like that, best,â said Kathleen, trying with small pale hands and brown shod legs to give an example of a horseâs conduct during an exhibition of the haute Ă©cole.
âDidnât you think the elephantâ ââ Mavis was beginning, when Francis interrupted her.
âAbout that chariot,â he said, and after that they talked of nothing else. And whatever they said it always came to this in the end, that they hadnât got a chariot, and couldnât get a chariot, and that anyhow they didnât suppose there was a chariot to be got, at any rate in Beachfield.
âIt wouldnât be any good, I suppose,â said Kathleenâs last and most helpful suggestionâ ââbe the slightest good saying âSabrina fairâ to a pumpkin?â
âWe havenât got even a pumpkin,â Bernard reminded her, âlet alone the rats and mice and lizards that Cinderella had. No, thatâs no good. But Iâll tell you what.â He stopped short. They were near home nowâ âit was late afternoon, in the road where the talkative yellowhammer lived. âWhat about a wheelbarrow?â
âNot big enough,â said Francis.
âThereâs an extra big one in the mill,â said Bernard. âNow, look here. Iâm not any good at magic. But Uncle Tom said I was a born general. If I tell you exactly what to do, will you two do it, and let Cathay and me off going?â
âGoing to sneak out of it?â Francis asked bitterly.
âIt isnât. Itâs not my game at all, and I donât want to play. And if I do, the whole thing will be muffedâ âyou know it will. Iâm so unlucky. Youâd never get out at dead of night without me dropping a boot on the stairs or sneezingâ âyou know you wouldnât.â
Bernard took a sort of melancholy pride in being the kind of boy who always gets caught. If you are that sort of boy, perhaps thatâs the best way to take it. And Francis could not deny that there was something in what he said. He went on: âThen Kathleenâs my special sister and Iâm not going to have her dragged into a row.â (âI want to,â Kathleen put in ungratefully.) âSo will you and Mavis do it on your own or not?â
After some discussion, in which Kathleen was tactfully dealt with, it was agreed that they would. Then Bernard unfolded his plan of campaign.
âDirectly we get home,â he said, âweâll begin larking about with that old wheelbarrowâ âgiving each other rides, and so on, and when itâs time to go in weâll leave it at the far end of the field behind the old sheep hut near the gate. Then itâll be handy for you at dead of night. You must take towels or something and tie around the wheel so that it doesnât make a row. You can sleep with my toy alarm under your pillow and it wonât wake anyone but you. You get out through the dining room window and in the same way.
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