Read Online The Giants and the Joneses by Julia Donaldson - Free Book Online Page B

gave Colette an idea. Jumbeelia always put down a saucer of milk for it when she went to bed.
    ‘We can’t get into the garden yet, but I will get us a drink. I’ll get it tonight,’ she promised Poppy.
    That night a full moon shone through the gap in Jumbeelia’s curtains. The girl giant was asleep, and the kitten purred on her bed.
    In the doll’s house, Colette whispered to Poppy:‘Keep very still while I tie this end of the cotton round your wrist.’
    The thread of cotton led out of the doll’s-house window and across the piles of clutter on Jumbeelia’s floor. The other end of it was tied around the feathery robin from the Christmas-tree collection, who now sat in a nest made of tinsel and scraps of paperchain. These would make a good rustle if the thread was pulled.
    ‘Now, remember, Poppy,’ said Colette. ‘you must keep very still – stiller than you’ve ever been in your life, probably – but don’t go to sleep whatever you do. And remember what to do if I call you.’
    ‘Pull string,’ said Poppy.
    Slowly and carefully Colette opened the front door of the doll’s house.
    She stood for a minute or so in the doorway. Pinned to her front and back were two of the giant badges. In her hand was a saucepan from the doll’s-house kitchen.
    Colette listened. The kitten’s purr was still loud and strong. Jumbeelia wasn’t snoring but Colette was pretty sure from the sound of her deep regular breathing that she was fast asleep.
    ‘You can do it,’ she told herself.
    Jumbeelia’s floor was more of an obstacle course than ever. Colette had to go slowly and be careful not to bump into anything. By the moonlight she could just about make out the different objects.
    She came to the plastic cows that she had tried to milk on the first day. They looked quite real in the dim light, and Colette wished they wouldn’t stare at her like that.
    Just then her foot caught in something. She stumbled and fell.
    The kitten stopped purring. Colette kept very still, and it started up again. She counted silently to a hundred, uncoiled the lace from one of Jumbeelia’s trainers which had tripped her up, and set off once more.
    The purring sounded much louder now. She was getting nearer to Jumbeelia’s bed. She rounded a mountain of giant egg boxes. Beyond them she could see the white saucer of milk.
    She crossed the last stretch of mossy carpet.
    Would there be any milk left in the saucer?
    ‘Please let there be some – please!’ she prayed.
    She peered down into the white saucer and saw whiteness. Was it just the bottom of the saucer? In the dim light she couldn’t tell. She blew gently and the white surface dimpled and rippled – it was milk!
    She leaned over and dipped the saucepan into it. Tilting it carefully she filled it almost to the brim.
    The full saucepan was heavy and she had to concentrate on keeping her balance as she lifted it out again.
    Greedily she gulped some of the milk. Then she stood still, listening to the kitten’s purring and to the thumping of her own heart.
    Holding the saucepan steadily, she began the return journey.
    She rounded the egg boxes and followed the same route back until she saw the cows.
    That’s where I tripped over the shoelace, she remembered. I’d better go a different way.
    She edged round some giant dominoes and came to a pile of grass and leaves – more food for the snails, she supposed.
    Was it her imagination, or was one of the leavesmoving slightly? Colette stood still and stared at it.
    From behind the leaf a face appeared – a slimy greenish face with two probing glistening horns.
    Colette gasped and took a step backwards, then told herself firmly, ‘It’s only a big snail – it can’t hurt me.’ She leant against an upright domino and took a few deep breaths.
    The domino collapsed.
    Colette staggered and managed not to fall. But what was this terrible noise? This series of deafening clacks that sounded like a wooden house collapsing?
    Frozen with fear,