Read Online The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online Page B

chuckled.
    ‘That just serves him right!’ said Skip. ‘He won’t be so keen on scolding now!’

Their Adventure on the Green Railway
    The brownies looked around. They were in a bare, open country, with the walls of the Land of the Clever People behind them.
    ‘We’d better see you safely back to your country first,’ said Hop to the little girl, who was dancing about and clapping her hands for joy at having escaped.
    ‘Oh, we’ll all travel on the Green Railway,’ said the little girl. ‘I’ll get out at Giggleswick – that’s my station – and you can go on to
Fiddlestick Field if you like, or come and stay with me at my home.’
    ‘I think we’d better not do that,’ said Hop, who was beginning to feel that it was far easier to get
into
a strange land than
out
of it. ‘We might not
giggle enough.’
    ‘Besides, we want to find out the way to Witchland as soon as we can,’ said Skip, ‘so that we can rescue poor little Princess Peronel.’
    ‘Well, first of all, where’s the Green Railway?’ asked Jump.
    ‘Oh, it runs beneath the ground just here,’ explained the little girl. ‘I’ll show you how to get to it. Look for a big yellow mushroom, all of you.’
    The brownies began hunting all around.
    ‘I’ve found a beauty!’ cried Hop.
    ‘So have I!’ called Skip.
    ‘So have we,’ said the little girl, running up with Jump. ‘Bring them here and set them down in a circle.’
    They all brought their mushrooms. They were very big ones, quite as large as stools, and the brownies were able to stand them up straight, and then sit on the tops.
    ‘Hold tight to your mushrooms,’ said the little girl, ‘while I say a magic rhyme.’
    The brownies held tight.
     
    ‘Mushrooms, take us down below;
    One, two, three, and off we go.
    Rikky, tikky, tolly vo!’
    cried the little girl.
    Whizz-whizz-whizz! The mushrooms suddenly sank down through the ground at a terrific pace. The brownies gasped for breath and held on as tightly as ever they could.
    Then bump-bump-bump-bump – the four mushrooms all came to a sudden stop and tipped the brownies off their seats. They rolled on the ground.
    ‘Ha, ha!’ laughed the little girl, who was still sitting on her mushroom. ‘Anyone can see you’re not used to riding mushrooms. Come along, and we’ll see if a train
is due now.’
    The brownies picked themselves up and followed the little girl, who was scampering through a cave lit by one star-shaped lamp.
    When she came to the end of it she stopped, and the brownies saw a little door let into the wall. It opened, and the little girl ran through it. The brownies followed her and, to their
astonishment, found themselves on a tiny little platform.
    A solemn grey rabbit sat there with piles of tickets in front of him.
    ‘One to Giggleswick and three to Fiddlestick Field,’ said the little girl.
    ‘One silver coin each,’ said the grey rabbit, handing out the four tickets. ‘Next train in five minutes.’
    Sure enough, in five minutes there came the rattle and clank of a train, and the funniest little engine ran into the station, dragging behind it a long row of higgledy-piggledy carriages. They
had no roof and no seats – only just cushions on the floor.
    It was a very crowded train. One carriage was full of velvety moles, who talked about the best way to catch beetles. Another carriage was full of giggling people, who seemed to be making jokes
and laughing at them as fast as they could.
    ‘Oh, there are some of my own people!’ cried the little girl gladly. ‘They’re going to Giggleswick, I expect. Let’s get in with them.’
    So they all jumped in with the laughing people, though the brownies would really rather have got into an empty carriage.
    The train went off when the guard waved his flag and blew his whistle. It ran clanking through dark tunnels, and big and little caves. The brownies were very much interested in all they saw and
would have liked to talk about it – but the other