Wet Magic E. Nesbit (interesting books to read for teens txt) đ
- Author: E. Nesbit
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âI hope itâs not ungrateful,â said Mavis at the station as they stood waiting by the luggage mound while Aunt Enid went to take the ticketsâ ââbut why couldnât she have bought them at Beachfield?â
âMakes us look such babies,â said Francis, who would not be above using a wooden spade at the proper time and place but did not care to be branded in the face of all Waterloo Junction as one of those kids off to the seaside with little spades and pails.
Kathleen and Bernard were, however, young enough to derive a certain pleasure from stroking the smooth, curved surface of the spades till Aunt Enid came fussing back with the tickets and told them to put their gloves on for goodnessâ sake and try not to look like street children.
I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they did not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.
There was a short, sharp struggle with the porter, a flustered passage along the platform and the children were safe in the carriage marked âReservedââ âthrown into it, as it were, with all that small fry of luggage which I have just described. Then Aunt Enid fussed off again to exchange a few last home truths with the porter, and the children were left.
âWe breathe again,â said Mavis.
âNot yet we donât,â said Francis, âthereâll be some more fuss as soon as she comes back. Iâd almost as soon not go to the sea as go with her.â
âBut youâve never seen the sea,â Mavis reminded him.
âI know,â said Francis, morosely, âbut look at all thisâ ââ he indicated the tangle of their possessions which littered seats and rackâ ââI do wishâ ââ
He stopped, for a head appeared in the open doorwayâ âin a round hat very like Aunt Enidâsâ âbut it was not Aunt Enidâs. The face under the hat was a much younger, kinder one.
âIâm afraid this carriage is reserved,â said the voice that belonged to the face.
âYes,â said Kathleen, âbut thereâs lots of room if you like to come too.â
âI donât know if the aunt weâre with would like it,â said the more cautious Mavis. âWe should, of course,â she added to meet the kind smiling eyes that looked from under the hat that was like Aunt Enidâs.
The lady said: âIâm an aunt tooâ âIâm going to meet my nephew at the junction. The trainâs frightfully crowded.â ââ ⊠If I were to talk to your auntâ ââ ⊠perhaps on the strength of our common aunthood. The train will start in a minute. I havenât any luggage to be a botherâ ânothing but one paper.ââ âshe had indeed a folded newspaper in her hands.
âOh, do get in,â said Kathleen, dancing with anxiety, âIâm sure Aunt Enid wonât mind,ââ âKathleen was always hopefulâ ââsuppose the train were to start or anything!â
âWell, if you think I may,â said the lady, and tossed her paper into the corner in a lighthearted way which the children found charming. Her pleasant face was rising in the oblong of the carriage doorway, her foot was on the carriage step, when suddenly she retreated back and down. It was almost as though someone pulled her off the carriage step.
âExcuse me,â said a voice, âthis carriage is reserved.â The pleasant face of the lady disappeared and theâ âwell, the face of Aunt Enid took its place. The lady vanished. Aunt Enid trod on Kathleenâs foot, pushed against Bernardâs waistcoat, sat down, partly on Mavis and partly on Francis and saidâ ââOf all the impertinence!â Then someone banged the doorâ âthe train shivered and trembled and pulled itself together in the way we all know so wellâ âgrunted, snorted, screamed, and was off. Aunt Enid stood up arranging things on the rack, so that the children could not even see if the nice lady had found a seat in the train.
âWellâ âI do thinkâ ââ Francis could not help saying.
âOhâ âdo you?â said Aunt Enid, âI should never have thought it of you.â
When she had arranged the things in the rack to her satisfaction she pointed out a few little faults that she had noticed in the children and settled down to read a book by Miss Marie Corelli. The children looked miserably at each other. They could not understand why Mother had placed them under the control of this most unpleasant mock aunt.
There was a reason for it, of course. If your parents, who are generally so kind and jolly, suddenly do a thing that you canât understand and can hardly bear, you may be quite sure they have a good reason for it. The reason in this case was that Aunt Enid was the only person who offered to take charge of the children at a time when all the nice people who usually did it were having influenza. Also she was an old friend of Grannyâs. Grannyâs taste in friends must have been very odd, Francis decided, or else Aunt Enid must have changed a good deal since she was young. And there she sat reading her dull book. The children also had been provided with booksâ âEric, or Little by Little; Elsie, or Like a Little Candle; Brave Bessie and Ingenious Isabel had been dealt out as though they were cards for a game, before leaving home. They had been a great bother to carry, and they were impossible to read. Kathleen and Bernard presently preferred looking out of the windows, and the two elder ones tried to read the paper left by the lady, âlooking over.â
Now, that is just where it was, and really what all that has been written before is about. If that lady hadnât happened to look in at their door, and if she hadnât happened to leave
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