by Enid Blyton
He called the others in, and they began to hunt. Mr Candle saw the thimble first and he sat down at once to show the others that he had seen it. He thought it would be a good idea to offer his friends a piece of the cut-up coconut on the window-ledge as soon as they had found the thimble too.
He got up to get the plate – and my goodness me, whatever do you think? There were hardly any pieces left! Somebody had taken them!
Who could it be? It must be Mr Crinkle. He had been a long, long time hiding the thimble when all the others were outside the door. Mr Candle was cross and upset.
‘Did you eat my pieces of coconut?’ he suddenly said to Mr Crinkle. ‘There’s hardly any left. You must have eaten them when you were supposed to be hiding the thimble.’
Mr Crinkle went very red.
‘No, I didn’t, Mr Candle,’ he said, in a very hurt voice. ‘I don’t eat other people’s bits of coconut unless they offer them to me. I hope I know my manners. I shan’t stay and play with you any more. I shall go home.’
He put on his little red hat and walked out of the door. The others watched him go. Mr Candle felt very worried.
‘He must have eaten the pieces of coconut,’ said Squiddle the Pixie. ‘He was the only one alone in the room.’
Suddenly there was a little noise at the window. Squiddle, Mr Candle and Mrs Popoff all turned round quickly. And what do you think they saw? I’ll give you three guesses!
They saw three little birds there, blue-tits, dressed in pretty blue and yellow feathers – and they all picked up a piece of the white coconut and flew off out of the window in delight; for tits, as you know, love nuts, especially coconuts. I expect you have often hung up a coconut for them and watched them swinging upside down on it, pecking away as hard as they can.
‘It’s the tits!’ cried Mr Candle. ‘Look! The naughty little birds! They’ve taken away three more bits! They must have taken the other pieces too, but I expect Mr Crinkle was so busy trying to think of a good place to hide the thimble that he didn’t notice the naughty little robbers.’
‘I haven’t found the thimble yet,’ said Mrs Popoff, looking all round.
‘How dreadful to tell Crinkle he had eaten the coconut when he hadn’t!’ said Squiddle the Pixie, looking worried. ‘He was really very hurt about it.’
‘I’ll call him back and say I’m sorry,’ said Mr Candle, shutting the window so that the blue-tits couldn’t come in again. He ran to the door and looked up the street.
‘Hi, Crinkle!’ he shouted. ‘Crinkle! Come back! You didn’t eat the coconut – and we know who did.’
Mr Crinkle walked back, still looking rather cross and upset.
‘It was the blue-tits who ate that coconut,’ explained Mr Candle, taking his friend by the arm. ‘Do forgive us for being horrid, Crinkle. There’s just one piece left and you shall have that.’
Mr Crinkle was a very good-natured little fellow, and he at once forgave Mr Candle and the others for saying he had done something he hadn’t. He ate the last piece of coconut, and then said: ‘What about a game of Blind Man’s Buff?’
So they all played at Blind Man and had a lovely time together. And when they said good-bye Mr Crinkle said: ‘I think a story ought to be written about how the blue-tits came and stole your coconut pieces, Mr Candle. Then it would warn people not to leave them near the window, if the blue-tits are about. Don’t you think so?’
Mr Candle did think so – and that is why he told me to write this story!
Chipperdee’s Scent
Once upon a time the Queen of Fairyland emptied her big scent-bottle, and asked the King for some new scent.
‘I don’t want any I’ve ever had before,’ she said. ‘Get me something strange and lovely, something quite different from anything I’ve ever had.’
So the King sent out his messengers all over the place – to the topmost clouds and to the lowest caves, begging anyone who knew of a strange and lovely scent to bring it to the Queen. For reward he would give a palace set on a sunny hill, and twelve hard-working pixies to keep it beautiful.
Palaces were hard to get in those days, so anyone who had a lovely scent in bottle or jar journeyed to the Queen with it. But she didn’t like any of them. She was really very hard to please.
Now there lived in a cave at the foot of a mountain a clever little pixie called Chipperdee. He spent all his days in making sweet perfumes, and he made them from the strangest things. And just about this time he finished making the strangest and loveliest perfume he had ever thought of.
He had taken twenty drops of clearest dew and imprisoned in them a beam of sunlight and a little starlight. He had taken the smell of the earth after rain and by his magic he had squeezed that into the bottle too. Then he had climbed up a rainbow and cut out a big piece of it. He heated this over a candle-flame and when it melted he let it drop into this bottle.
Then he asked a two-year-old baby to breathe her sweet breath into the full bottle – and lo and behold, the perfume was made! It smelt glorious – deep, delicious, and so sweet that whoever smelt it had to close his eyes for joy.
Now although he lived in a cave, the smell of this new perfume rose through the air and everyone who lived near smelt it. An old wizard sniffed it and thought: ‘Aha! That is the scent that would please the Queen mightily! I will go and seek it.’
So off he went and soon arrived at the cave where Chipperdee sat working.
‘Let me buy some of that new perfume of yours to take to the Queen,’ said the wizard.
‘No,’ said Chipperdee. ‘I am going to take it myself. I shall get a palace for it and twelve hard-working servants.’
‘What do you want with a palace?’ asked the wizard. ‘Why not let me give you a sack of gold for that bottle of scent? The Queen may not like it at all – and you will still have the sack of gold! I will not ask for it back.’
‘You know perfectly well that the Queen will love this new perfume,’ said Chipperdee. ‘Go away, wizard. I don’t like you, and you won’t get any scent from me! I start tomorrow to journey to the Queen.’
The wizard scowled all over his ugly face and went away. But he made up his mind to follow Chipperdee and steal the scent from him if he could. So when he saw the pixie starting off, he made himself invisible and followed him closely all day long.
Chipperdee felt quite sure that he was being followed. He kept looking round but he could see no one at all. But he could hear someone breathing! It was very strange.
‘It must be that wizard,’ he thought to himself. ‘He’s made himself invisible. He’s going to steal my bottle of scent when I sleep under a hedge tonight, Ho ho! I’ll teach him to steal it!’
When it was dark the pixie found a nice sheltered dell. He felt all around until he found some little flowers with their heads almost hidden under heart-shaped leaves. He took out his bottle in the darkness, and emptied a little of the scent into each flower, whispering to them to hold it safely for him.
Then he filled the bottle with dew and set it beside him, curling up to go to sleep beneath a bush. He pretended to snore loudly, and almost at once he heard a rustling noise beside him, and felt a hand searching about his clothes.
The hand found the bottle and then Chipperdee heard quick footsteps going away. He sat up and grinned. Ho ho! The wizard thought he had got a fine bottle of scent – but all he had was a bottle of plain dew!
The pixie lay down again and slept soundly. In the morning he woke up, and looked round at the little flowers near him. They were small purple flowers, so shy that they hid their heads beneath their leaves. The pixie jumped up and picked a bunch. He smelt them. Ah! His scent was in the flowers now, and it was really wonderful.
Off he went to the court, and there he saw the wizard just presenting the Queen with the bottle of plain dew that he had stolen from the pixie. How Chipperdee laughed when the Queen threw it to the ground and scolded the wizard for playing what she thought was a stupid trick on her!
The pixie
stepped forward and told the Queen how the wizard had followed him and tried to steal his rare perfume. ‘But, Your Majesty,’ he said, ‘I poured the scent into these little purple flowers, and if you will smell them, you will know whether or not you like the scent I have made.’
The Queen smelt the flowers – and when she sniffed up that deep, sweet, delicious scent she closed her eyes in joy.
‘Yes!’ she cried. ‘I will have this scent for mine! Can you make me some, Chipperdee? Oh, you shall certainly have a palace set on a sunny hill and twelve hard-working servants to keep it for you! This is the loveliest perfume I have ever known.’
Chipperdee danced all the way back to his cave and there he made six bottles of the strange and lovely scent for the Queen. The King built him his palace on a sunny hill, and he went to live there with a little wife, and twelve hard-working servants to keep everything clean and shining.
But that isn’t quite the end of the story – no, there is a little more to tell. We can smell Chipperdee’s scent in the early springtime, for the little purple flowers he emptied his bottle into still smell of his rare and lovely perfume. Do you know what they are? Guess! Yes – violets! That’s why they smell so beautiful – because Chipperdee once upon a time emptied the Queen’s scent into their little purple hearts!
The Quarrelsome Tin Soldiers
Once upon a time there lived on a low wooden shelf two boxes of soldiers. One army was dressed in green and the other in red. The green army had horses to ride on, brown, black and white, but the red army had none. They carried guns, and the green horse-soldiers carried swords.
All the soldiers belonged to Kenneth. He liked them very much and often took them out to play games with him. He had a fine wooden fort, and he loved making his toy soldiers march up and down the drawbridge, and stand looking over the parapet of the fort.
The soldiers were very quarrelsome. The green horsemen hated the red foot-soldiers, and the red soldiers jeered at the green ones.
‘You’ve only got stupid little swords,’ said the captain of the red army to the green captain. ‘We have fine guns. You wouldn’t be much use against an enemy!’
‘Ho, wouldn’t we, then!’ cried the green captain in a temper. ‘Well, let me tell you this – we ride horses. You have to walk everywhere.’
‘We don’t mind that,’ said the red captain, stoutly. ‘We like marching. Anyway, it’s silly to have horses you can’t get off. You’re stuck on to your horses, and even if you wanted to march you couldn’t!’
Every night the two armies quarrelled and one night there was a battle. Kenneth’s teddy-bear and a doll did their best to stop the fight, but it wasn’t a bit of good.
‘You’ll only end in being broken to bits, said the doll. ‘Then what will be the use of you? Kenneth won’t want to play with you any more.’
‘Hold your tongue, you stupid doll!’ said the green captain, galloping over the doll’s toes and making her yell. ‘Now, men, follow me! We’ll go to the toy fort and we won’t let the red soldiers in. We’ll keep them out and show them what poor fellows they are.’
All the horsemen followed their captain, and the green army galloped over the floor to the gay wooden fort. It was painted red and yellow and had four wooden towers and a drawbridge. Over the bridge galloped the soldiers and, as soon as they were in, one of them pulled up the drawbridge by its little chain. Now no one else could get into the fort, except by climbing up the walls.
The red soldiers had no horses so they could not go so fast as the green army. But they made haste and marched at top speed across the floor to the fort. By the time they reached it the green horse-soldiers were all in their places, looking over the top of the parapet, or cantering up and down the yard in the middle of the fort, shouting orders and feeling very important.
The red captain lined his men up in a row in front of the fort and told them to fire. Pop! Pop! Pop! The little guns went off and tiny bullets like seeds flew over the walls of the fort. Some of the green soldiers were hit and little holes were made in their tin uniforms.
They were very much upset. They shouted with rage, and galloped about, making quite a noise on the wooden floors of the fort. Then suddenly the green captain ordered the drawbridge to be let down and commanded six of his men to ride out and make a surprise attack on the enemy soldiers outside.
The red soldiers were so astonished that some of them were ridden down before they knew what was happening. One of them had an arm broken off and another one had his leg twisted the wrong way round. A third one lost his fine helmet, and cried bitterly because he couldn’t find it.
‘Courage, my men!’ said the captain of the red soldiers when the green men had ridden back to the fort again. ‘I am going to get the little cannon out of the nursery toy cupboard. With that we can shell down the walls of the fort, and rush in to attack the enemy.’
But the toy cannon was too heavy for the little tin soldiers to drag along. It shot peas, so it could have knocked over a great many of the green soldiers in the fort.
‘Well, never mind if it’s too heavy,’ said the red captain. ‘Look, we’ll use a battering-ram instead. Here’s one that will do.’
The battering-ram was really a big hoop-stick of Kenneth’s. Seven soldiers picked it up and carried it to the fort. Then twelve red soldiers took hold of it, six on each side, and waited for their captain’s word.
‘Charge!’ he cried, and fired off his little gun, making the doll nearly jump out of her skin, for she and the bear were almost asleep.
‘Just look at those soldiers!’ said the doll, sitting up. ‘The reds are breaking down one of the walls of the fort. Wouldn’t Kenneth be cross if he knew!’
‘Don’t you think we ought to wake him?’ said the bear anxiously. ‘I think he would be very sorry if the tin soldiers killed one another. He would never be able to play with them again.’
‘Let’s go and wake him,’ said the doll. So without telling the soldiers the two stole out of the day nursery into the night nursery, where Kenneth slept.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The hoop-stick battering-ram crashed against the wooden wall of the fort, and inside the green soldiers galloped about in a panic. What would they do if the wall gave way?
It did! It suddenly came away from the nails that held it and fell right down in the fort, knocking over two of the green soldiers as it fell. Then in poured the red soldiers, shouting in victory, shooting with their guns as they came.
The green soldiers soon pulled themselves together and they galloped at the enemy, slashing about with their swords, and that was how Kenneth found them when he came into the nursery with Doll and Teddy. He stood and stared in astonishment at his toy soldiers fighting one another so fiercely, slashing and shooting and yelling.
‘How dare you behave like this!’ he said suddenly. ‘You will end in being broken to bits, and I didn’t buy you to fight one another. I bought you to play with! Go back to your boxes and tomorrow I will come and talk to you.’
The soldiers had stopped fighting as soon as they heard Kenneth’s voice. They were frightened. They trooped out of the wooden fort and went silently back to their boxes – all but seven of them who were so battered that they couldn’t march or gallop.
The next day Kenneth lifted up the lids and looked at his toy soldiers. What a sight they were! Not one of them was whole.
‘You’re not fit to play soldiers with,’ he said. ‘You haven’t any arms – and you have only one leg – and you haven’t a helmet – and you have a horse that has lost its head. What a dreadful sight you all are! I don’t want you for soldiers any more. I shall have you for something else.’
So he took three of them for his railway station and made them porters. Four more he put on his toy farm to look after the hens and the sheep. Five of them he put to live in the dolls’ house, and one of them had to drive the little toy motor-car. The others he thought would do to act in his toy theatre. Then he threw the cardboard boxes into the waste-paper basket, emp
tied out his money-box and went out of the nursery.
He bought a great big box of cowboys, some with horses and some without. How the soldiers envied them when they saw Kenneth playing games with them!
‘You shouldn’t have been so quarrelsome!’ said the doll. ‘It’s your own fault that you’re stuck away in the farm and the dolls’ house, instead of being proper soldiers.’
‘We wish we could have another chance!’ said the red and the green soldiers, looking longingly at the cowboys prancing about the floor on their big horses. But it wasn’t any use wishing. They never did have another chance!
The Tall Pink Vase
Jill and Leslie lived in one of two cottages. The cottages were joined on to one another. One was called Buttercup Cottage and the other was called Daisy Cottage. Jill and Leslie lived in Buttercup Cottage, but Daisy Cottage was empty.
Then one day a furniture van arrived outside Daisy Cottage. The children were very much excited. Hurrah! Someone was coming to live in Daisy Cottage at last!
‘I wonder what the people will be like,’ said Jill. ‘I do hope there will be some children.’
But what a disappointment! There were no children at all. Only a plump little lady with merry, twinkling eyes called Miss Bustle.
‘Bother!’ said Jill. ‘I wish there had been a boy or a girl too.’
‘Look at that dreadful pink vase going in,’ said Leslie suddenly. ‘Oh, Jill! Isn’t it an ugly thing!’
Jill looked. It certainly was the ugliest vase she had ever seen. It was a bright pink, very tall and narrow, and had big yellow flowers here and there.
Jill’s mother loved flowers and had many lovely vases – green jars, blue bowls and yellow jugs, which the children loved. They had never seen such an ugly thing as the pink vase going into the cottage next door.