by Enid Blyton
The children flew on and on through the air until at last they were over their own garden once more. They flew down—and right through the open door of their playroom at the bottom of the garden. They were just going to shout and jump off—when they saw someone there!
It was their mother. She had come to look for them. The children sat perfectly still on the chair. They knew they were invisible and couldn't be seen. If Mother heard their voices, she would get such a shock, for she wouldn't be able to see them! Chinky sat still too. He had always made the children promise that they would never, never say a word about him to any grown-up.
Mother looked round the playroom. “I wonder where those children are,” she said. Then she walked out, almost, but not quite, bumping into the wishing-chair as she went.
“My goodness! That was a narrow escape!” said Peter, when Mother had gone. He jumped out of the chair. “What a good thing the chair and all of us couldn't be seen today! Mother would have got a fright if she had suddenly seen a chair come flying through the doorway with us in it!”
“She certainly would,” said Chinky, grinning. “So would anyone! Now, I'll just send for that paint.”
He ran out. In a few minutes he was back and said that a friend of his had flown off to Witch Snippit's at once.
“Let's play a game of ludo whilst we're waiting,” he said. “I haven't played since you went away to school. I've forgotten what a lovely feeling it is to throw a six!”
It was rather peculiar to play with people you couldn't see. It was even funnier to see counters moving by themselves, as the children pushed them round the board. They just had time to play one game, when there came a knock at the door.
“The paint!” said Chinky. He opened the door. On the step stood a large tin of Witch Snippit's magic paint. “Good!” said Chinky. “Now, what about brushes?”
“There are some in our paint-boxes,” said Mollie, and she fetched them. “They are very small—it will take us ages to paint ourselves right again!”
They began. They each had a paint-brush and they set to work. Chinky painted the wishing-chair back first. Mollie began to paint herself back. Wherever she ran her brush full of paint a bit of her appeared! It was funny.
Mollie ran her brush over her left hand. At once it appeared. It was nice to see her fingers again!
“You haven't painted that little nail on your fingers,” said Peter. “Look!”
“And you've painted all your face back except your left eyebrow,” laughed Mollie. “You look funny!”
The wishing-chair was soon back again. Then Chinky began to paint himself back. They all had to help each other when they came to bits of themselves that they couldn't reach. They had great fun.
“We're quite done except that Peter hasn't got his feet yet,” said Chinky, and he stepped back to look at him—and do you know, he stepped right on to the tin of paint and upset it. It ran all over the floor and the floor disappeared! The paint always acted both ways—it made things disappear, or it made them come back if they had vanished.
“Chinky! You are clumsy!” cried Mollie, in horror. “We shan't be able to do Peter's feet! Whatever will Mother say?”
Peter caught up a rag and mopped up the spilt paint as fast as he could. He squeezed it from the rag into the tin, and then looked at the little bit there anxiously.
“Do you think there's enough for my feet?” he said. Chinky, who had gone very red, nodded his head, and took up his paint-brush again. Without a word he began to paint in Peter's feet, being very careful not to waste a drop of the precious paint. Mollie was very glad to see that there was enough.
“What about that hole in the floor?” said Peter. “Is there enough paint left to paint it back again?”
“Just!” said Chinky—and there was! My goodness, there wasn't a single drop over.
“Well,” said Mollie, as she heard a bell ring to call them indoors, “we always seem to have narrow escapes and exciting times when we begin going off in the wishing-chair. I did enjoy this adventure, now it's all over and we're safely back again, looking like ourselves!”
“Goodbye,” said Chinky. “See you tomorrow, I hope! It's been lovely to go adventuring again!”
The End.
Original Illustrations