But she did not seem inclined to touch him. Instead, she got up and walked round and round him as Sootica had done.
“Wooden head! Wooden body! Four wooden legs and wooden wheels!” she chanted. “What a strange sight to be sure! And do you know my faithless cat, Sootica, my little wooden friend?”
“I met her for the first time last night, ma’am!” replied the little wooden horse quite truthfully.
“Well, well!” the witch repeated, shaking her grey head. “Kitchen cats and wooden horses in my cave! Here’s a pretty kettle of fish!”
The witch was no longer crying, neither did she seem revengeful or angry. She even seemed to welcome Gobbolino and the little wooden horse. She offered them food, but they were too nervous to eat it, after which she fanned the ashes of the fire under the cauldron into a warm blaze.
“Make yourselves at home!” she told them, agreeably. “I have to go out for an hour or two, round about the mountainside, but I shall be back before long. If I find my cat Sootica I shall give her the drubbing of her life, but you have been kind and good to me, little Gobbolino, in all my troubles, and I shall not harm you. You won’t be lonely with your friend to talk to, and by nightfall I shall be home.”
She tottered out of the cave into the twilight, dragging her broomstick behind her.
Even the little wooden horse was hesitant to leave after such trust and confidence, and the two of them were glad of the chance to talk together and make a plan for the future.
They lay down together beside the fire, very glad to have one another’s company.
“My sister has betrayedus tool” Gobbolino said sadly when the witch was gone. “For she told me for certain the witch would not wake up till sundown, but she did. Only, if I had escaped while she was asleep, as Sootica suggested, just think of the poor old lady waking up all alone! I really can’t bear to think of if! Wicked she may have been, but now she is past all that, and what is to become of her?”
“It is just as bad as I said,” the little wooden horse agreed. “For she brought up your sister, and taught her all she knew, and now Sootica has deserted her. I told her how wrong it was, and she wouldn’t listen. But what about your own happy home, Gobbolino? Have you thought about that?”
“Why yes, of course I have!” said Gobbolino. “And I don’t mean to stay here for ever. Just for a day or so, or even less. I must let the witch settle down and get over the shock. Then I will ask her permission to leave, and I will go to find my sister Sootica, who in my opinion is never likely to make a good kitchen cat at her age. She is quite likely to be tired of it already! And do you go home ahead of me first thing in the morning, my dear friend, and I promise to follow you as soon as I can!”
But when the witch came back she was no longer unhappy but chuckling with glee.
“Nobody can leave me now!” she gloated. “Nobody can come in or go out! I have painted a magic ring with my broomstick all the way round the foot of the mountain! Down there in the caves the bats are sealed in as tight as little bunnies! The goats on the crest are up there for good, not that the goats want to be anywhere but on the tops of the hills. And nobody can come up the mountain either, unless they have witch’s powers or can undo my spell! We will all live happily together, my dear little friends, and nobody shall disturb us ever again!”
“What will happen to anyone who tries to go through the magic ring?” asked Gobbolino, quite horrified.
“They will FRIZZLE!” said the witch dramatically “And nothing will ever be seen of them.. not ever again!”
13 THE BOOK OF SPELLS [Êàðòèíêà: i_026.jpg]
As DAYLIGHT FADED and the stars came out, the witch’s spirits rose and she became more and more vigorous and cheerful. She showed great kindness to Gobbolino and the little wooden horse, and tried to tempt them with all kinds of tasty food which she dished out of her cauldron, and which immediately turned into anything she asked for.
“A piece of fish, Gobbolino?” and there was a delicious piece of fried fish in the middle of a plate.
“No thank you, ma’am. I am not hungry!”
“Some hay, little horse? Or a juicy carrot? Look! Here it is!”
The little wooden horse turned away from the tempting bowl and wished he did not feel so empty inside.
“A piece of sweet cake, Gobbolino? Some corn, or green grass, Dobbin? A little piece of meat dipped in gravy? Look how good it is! I don’t like to see you going hungry, my little friends,” the witch said, “but if you do not want it I shall eat it all myself!”
And she did: fish, corn, hay, meat, cake, grass and carrots, which made Gobbolino certain that there was something very odd in the food that would not have agreed with them at all.
“I am going out for the night on my broomstick!” she told them when her meal was finished. “I can take either one of you with me. Which of you would like to come?”
But the two friends explained that, since it was their first night on the mountain, whichever of them was left behind in the cavern would be lonely and frightened. Rather reluctantly the witch allowed them to stay together and set out without them.
The moment she was gone Gobbolino seized the milk jug and galloped up the mountain in the moonlight to find the goats, with the little wooden horse close on his heels.
The goats were sleeping. They were not at all ready to give any of their milk at that hour of night, but when they understood that the two friends had nothing else that they dared eat, and were on the point of starving, they kindly agreed to fill the milk jug, and this time Gobbolino milked them very nicely indeed.
His paws were soft and kind. The goats liked him, and asked him to come back in the morning. They also promised to show him a fine patch of bilberries to eat, and a wild apple tree sticking out of a rock, with sweet yellow apples hanging on its branches.
When Gobbolino and the little wooden horse had both drunk their fill of goats’ milk they returned to the cave. The witch was still absent, flying round and round the stars on her broomstick.
Her book of spells was lying under her bed, and Gobbolino dragged it to a rock, where the moonlight fell on its pages.
Many of the spells looked very disagreeable indeed. There was one which made a heart as cold as ice, for ever and ever. Another caused fingertips to paint every object they touched a horrid shade of green, and a third was a weeping spell, that made a person cry without ceasing until a fourth spell set him or her laughing again, when they laughed and laughed until they died of exhaustion.
There was a spell for causing the most appalling dreams, and one for creating a voice that croaked like a raven, or hair that stood straight up on end and would never lie down. There were spells that made fingers double their numbers up to ten on each hand, or feet twist and turn so that the owner could only proceed by spinning in giddy circles.
Shocked as they were by these nasty tricks Gobbolino and the little wooden horse were fascinated by the horrid collection, and found themselves unable to put down the book until they had finished it. They could well believe that the witch had the power to encircle the mountain so that no one could escape from it, and before long they arrived at the very page that described the way to do it. She must have known the spell off by heart.
[Êàðòèíêà: i_027.jpg]
Many of the spells looked very disagreeable indeed.
Their own hearts were very heavy, knowing that they were prisoners until the witch chose to let them go. And perhaps she will never let us go at all, thought Gobbolino.
He was about to close the book when some small print at the bottom of the very last page caught his eye. The lines were very narrow and compressed, as if someone had copied them out quite rapidly, without attaching much importance to the message. Even the proper capital letters were missing. The directions read:
“to undo a spell