Read Online Five Are Together Again by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online Page B

seemed very dark outside the ring. They went over the field to where a large fire was burning, cleverly set about with stones. An enormous cooking-pot was hung over it, and a very, very nice smell came to their noses as they went near.
    Old Grandma was there, of course, and she began stirring the pot when she saw them.
    „You"ve been a long time in the ring," she grumbled to Grandad. „Anything gone wrong?"
    „No," said Grandad, and sniffed the air. „I"m hungry. That smel s good. Jeremy, help your Grandma."
    „Yes, Grandad," said Jeremy, and took a pile of plates to the old lady, who at once began ladling out pieces of meat and potatoes and vegetables from the steaming pot.
    Old Grandad turned to Julian.
    „Well - did you like our little rehearsal?" he asked.
    „Oh yes!" said Julian. „I"m only sorry you didn"t rehearse all the turns. I badly wanted to see the acrobats and the clowns. Are they here? I can"t see them."
    „Oh yes - there"s one clown over there - look - with Madelon, who had the horses," said Grandad.
    The children looked - and were very disappointed. „Is he a clown?" said Dick, disbelievingly. „He doesn"t look a bit funny. He looks miserable."
    „That"s Monty all right," said Grandad. „He always looks like that out of the ring. He"l make you double up with laughter when the circus is on, he"s a born clown - but a lot of clowns are like Monty when they"re not performing - not much to say for themselves, and looking miserable. Winks is a bit livelier - that"s him, pul ing Madelon"s hair. He"l get a smacked face in a minute, he"s a real tease. There - I knew he"d get a clip on the ear!"
    Winks went howling over to the children, boo-hooing most realistical y. „She smacked me!"
    he said. „And she"s got such p-p-p-pretty hair!"
    The children couldn"t help laughing. Mischief ran to the clown, jumped up on his shoulder and chattered comforting monkey-words into his ear. Charlie the Chimp let himself out of his cage, and came to put his great paw into Winks"s hand. They both thought that Winks real y was hurt.
    „That"s enough, Winks," said Grandad. „You"l have the horses comforting you next! You do that in the ring tomorrow when we open, and you"l bring the house down. Sit down, and have your supper."
    „Mr Tapper," said Julian. „There"s one member of your circus we didn"t see at the rehearsal
    - and that"s Mr Wooh, the Wonder Magician. Why wasn"t he there?"
    „Oh, he never rehearses," said Mr Tapper. „He keeps himself to himself, does Mr Wooh. He may come and join us for supper, and he may not. As we"re opening the circus tomorrow night, maybe he"ll turn up tonight. I"m a bit scared of him, to tell you the truth."
    „But he"s not a real wizard, is he?" asked Tinker.
    „Well, when I talk to Mr Wooh I feel as if he is," said Mr Tapper. „There isn"t a thing he doesn"t know about figures, there isn"t a thing he can"t do with them. Ask him to multiply any number by any other number, running into dozens of figures, and he"ll tell you in a second. He shouldn"t be in a circus. He should be an inventor of some sort - an inventor whose invention needs pages and pages of figures. He"d be happy then."

    „He sounds a bit like my father," said Tinker. „He"s an inventor, you know, and sometimes when I creep into his study I see papers FULL of mil ions of tiny figures and plans and diagrams with tiny figures al over them too."
    „Very interesting," said Grandad. „Your father and Mr Wooh ought to meet. They would probably talk figures all day long! My word - what"s that you"re handing round, young lady?"
    „Some of the food we brought," said Anne. „Have a sausage or two, Mr Tapper - and a roll
    - and a tomato."
    „Well, thanks," said Mr Tapper, pleased. „Very kind of you. Nice to have met you all. You might be able to teach Jeremy a few manners!"
    „Grandad - here"s Mr Wooh!" said Jeremy, suddenly, and got up. Everyone turned round.
    So this was Mr Wooh the Wonder Magician. Well, he