Stopping for a Spell by Diana Wynne Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

colored hair every time she came.
    Granny Four was a saint. She was gentle and quavery and wrinkled. If Erg and Emily quarreled in front of her, or even spoke loudly, Granny Four promptly came over faint and had to have a doctor.
    Granny Four was the one Erg and Emily chose to look after them. If you could avoid making Granny Four feel faint, she usually let you do what you wanted. But, when Emily’s mum rang Granny Four to ask her, Granny Four was faint already. She had been let down over a Save the Children Bazaar and was too ill to come.
    So, despite the shrill groans of Erg and the huge moans of Emily, Emily’s mum phoned Granny One. To Erg’s relief, Granny One was going on holiday and could not come either. So that left Granny Two, because Granny Three had never been known to look after anyone but herself. But Erg’s dad phoned Granny Three, all the same, hoping she might pay for someone to look after Erg and Emily. Granny Three said she thought it was an excellent idea for Emily and Erg to look after themselves.
    Erg’s dad phoned Granny Two. “What!” exclaimed Granny Two, hushed and worried. “Leave dear Erg and poor little Emily all alone, for all that time!”
    â€œBut we’re only going to Scotland for four days,” Erg’s dad protested.
    â€œI know, dear,” said Granny Two. “But I’m thinking of you . Scotland is covered with oil these days and so dangerous!”
    Erg and Emily were not looking forward to Granny Two. They waved their parents off gloomily, and sat about waiting for Granny Two to arrive. She was a long time coming. Emily fidgeted round the living room like an impatient horse, knocking things over right and left. Erg felt an idea coming on. He wandered away to the kitchen to see what he could find.
    All the food was wrapped up and carefully labeled so that Granny Two could find it, but Erg found a cookie tin. It had holes in the lid from the time he had started a caterpillar farm. Inside were the works of a clock he had once borrowed. It seemed a good beginning for an invention. He collected other things: an eggbeater, the blades off the mixer, a sardine tin opener, and a skewer. He took them all back to the living room and began fitting them together. The invention was already looking quite promising when the phone rang. Emily bounced up to answer it, and, quite naturally, she trod on the invention as she went and squashed it flat. Erg roared with rage.
    It was Granny Two on the phone. “I’m terribly sorry, dear. I’d got halfway when I thought I’d left my kitchen tap on. I’m just setting out again now.”
    â€œ Was your tap on?” asked Emily.
    â€œNo, dear. But just suppose it had been.”
    Emily went back to the living room to find Erg still roaring with rage. “Look what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my invention!”
    Emily looked at the invention. It looked like a squashed cookie tin with eggbeaters sticking out of it. “It’s only a squashed cookie tin,” she said. “And you ought to put those eggbeaters back.”
    But Erg had just discovered that the hand beater fitted beautifully into a split in the side of the cookie tin.
    â€œYou’re not supposed to have any of them,” said Emily. But Erg took no notice. He wound the handle of the eggbeater. The battered metal of the tin went in and out as if it were breathing, and the pieces of clock inside made a most interesting noise. Emily got annoyed at the way Erg had forgotten her. “Put those things back, you horrible little boy !” she roared.
    She was trampling toward Erg to take the invention apart when a shocked voice said, “Emily! Children! ”
    They looked around to find Granny Four in the doorway. She was pale and quavery and threatening to faint.

2
    More Grannies Arrive
    Erg and Emily tried to stop Granny Four fainting by smiling politely. “I thought you weren’t