Read Online Enid Blyton by MR. PINK-WHISTLE INTERFERES - Free Book Online Page B

shorts!
    Pink-Whistle set out along the street, carrying a big teddy-bear, which had appeared at the same time as the jersey and shorts. He met one or two grown-ups who didn't take any notice of him at all.
    He turned down another road where there was not a soul to be seen. He had gone about half-way when he came to an empty house and garden—and out of the gate darted a big boy, about fourteen, with a horrid, spiteful face.
    "Stop," said the big boy, and Pink-Whistle stopped. "Give me that bear!'* said the boy.
    "No," said Pink-Whistle. But the boy snatched the bear roughly from his hands and ran off with it.
    He didn't run far, because something very queer happened. The bear bit him!
    The bad boy felt the nip in his hand and looked down in astonishment. He thought something had stung him. The bear bit him again, and the boy cried out in alarm. He tried to drop the teddy bear, but the bear hung on to him for all it was worth, biting and nipping whenever it could find a bit of flesh.
    "Ooooh!" said the boy in great alarm. "Are you alive? Stop it! That hurt!"
    But the bear climbed all over him, biting and snapping, having a perfectly lovely time. Then it slipped down the boy's leg and ran all the way back to Pink-Whistle. The little man whispered to it and it disappeared into thin air. So did Pink-Whistle.
    He followed the bad boy, then slipped ahead of him, made himself visible and turned back to meet him again. There was no one else about at all.
    As Pink-Whistle, who had now changed himself into a little girl, came near the bad boy, he jingled some money in his hand. The bad boy stopped at once.
    "Give me that money!"
    "No," said Pink-Whistle, and pretended to cry in fright, like a little girl. The bad boy caught hold of his hand, forced it open roughly and took out the pennies Pink-Whistle was holding. He ran off with them.
    Pink-Whistle stood and watched. Presently the bad boy stopped and looked down at the money in his hand. The pennies seemed to be awfully hot! 
    "Funny!" said the boy. "They are almost burning my hand, they're so hot! Ow! I'll put them into my pocket!"
    So he did—but they got hotter and hotter and hotter, and the boy could feel them burning a hole and hurting him! Then, to his horror, he saw smoke coming from his pockets! He turned them inside out and the pennies rolled away. But oh, what holes they had burnt!
    The bad boy went on, puzzled. He didn't hear Pink-Whistle coming past him, invisible, his feet making no noise at all.
    And when he met the little man again, he did not look like Mr. Pink-Whistle, but like a sturdy little boy, carrying a small bag in which were some fine glass marbles.
    The bad boy stopped and looked at the bag. "What's in there?" he said roughly.
    "My marbles," said Pink-Whistle, in a little-boy voice.
    "Let me see them," said the bad boy.
    "No," said Pink-Whistle.
    "You let me see them!" roared the bad boy, and Pink-Whistle meekly opened the bag. In a trice the big boy snatched it away, marbles and all, for he could see what fine ones they were.
    Then off he ran. Pink-Whistle stood and watched him.
    The bag felt very heavy after a bit. The boy looked down at it. It seemed bigger than he thought—almost a little sack. He decided to put it over his shoulder. It would be easier to carry that way.
    So he put it over his left shoulder and set off again. But with every step he took the sack felt heavier and heavier and heavier. It weighed the boy down. He tried to take it off his shoulder, but he couldn't. He panted and puffed, and at last stopped, almost squashed to bits under the enormous weight.
    Some children came running by and they stopped in surprise to see the bad boy weighed down by the enormous sack. They all knew him. He had taken things from each one of them at some time or other.
    "What a horrid smell the sack has!" said one child. "What's in it?"
    "Help me to get it off my shoulder!" begged the bad boy. One of the children slit a hole in the sack—and out came a