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

have a good look at him.
    The brownies dodged their great fingers as best they could. They hid behind glasses and under the edges of the plates, and Hop even jumped into the salt-cellar, and covered himself with salt
– but it was no good. They were caught and held, and passed from one giant to another.
    They hated it, for the giants held them so tightly, and seemed to enjoy giving them a poke now and again, just to see them roll head over heels.
    ‘I shall break my neck soon,’ panted Hop. ‘That’s twice I’ve been poked over.’
    ‘Let’s pretend we’re hurt,’ said Skip, ‘perhaps they’ll stop then.’
    So Hop lay down on the table and groaned, Skip walked about with a limp and Jump held his head as if it hurt him.
    The giantess, who had quite a kind heart, was most upset.
    ‘You’ve hurt the poor little mites,’ she cried. ‘Look at them! Leave them alone now, do, or you’ll kill them, and I want to keep them for pets, and give them to my
children when they come back from their aunt’s.’
    ‘Oh!’ groaned Hop. ‘Did you hear what she said? Goodness knows what giant children would do with us! What a terrible fix we are in!’
    The giantess brought their thimble filled with lemonade, and put some cake crumbs on a cotton-reel.
    ‘Here you are,’ she said, giving them lumps of sugar to sit on. ‘Sit down at this cotton-reel table, and have your tea, while we watch you.’
    The brownies sat down and took the cake crumbs. They were as large as cakes and very nice. When they wanted a drink they went to the thimble and sipped the lemonade.
    The giants soon grew tired of watching them, and fell silent. The giantess rose and began clearing away the dishes into the kitchen. Then, one by one, the giants fell asleep.
    Hop looked round at them.
    SNORE, SNORE, SNORE, went the giants, sleepy after their big meal. They breathed so heavily that they nearly blew the brownies off the table.
    ‘I say,’ shouted Hop, trying to make himself heard over the snoring, ‘let’s escape!’
    ‘How?’ shouted Skip. ‘If one of the giants wakes whilst we are slipping away he’ll wake the others, and they’ll all come thundering after us and kill us.’
    ‘Think of an idea, Hop,’ shouted Jump.
    Hop thought – then he grinned.
    ‘What about the ointment?’ he shouted back. ‘Shall we use that on the giants whilst they’re asleep?’
    ‘Yes, yes!’ shrieked Skip and Jump, nearly deafened by the snores of the giants. ‘Get it out quickly, Hop.’
    Hop got out the boxes of ointment and opened them.
    ‘There isn’t very much left of either of them,’ he shouted. ‘We’ll use both and see what happens. Here, Skip, take the purple ointment, and I’ll take the
yellow. Jump, you keep a watch for the giantess.’
    Hop and Skip ran across the table, and each climbed up a giant’s arm on to his shoulder. They couldn’t reach his forehead, so they rubbed the ointment on to his chin, and hoped it
would act just as well.
    Then down they clambered, and up on to two more giants’ shoulders. Hop was nearly blown away by one tremendous giant, who puffed him nearly off his arm.
    At last all the sleeping giants had the magic ointment rubbed on to their chins.
    ‘Now listen!’ shouted Hop, whose voice was getting quite hoarse. ‘I’m going to say the magic words. The giants will grow smaller and bigger, and they’ll wake up in
a terrible fright. We’ve got to escape whilst they’re in a muddle. Climb off the table first.’
    The brownies clambered down the table-cloth, slid down the table-legs, and landed bump on to the floor. They ran to the door.
    Then Hop called out the magic words.
    At once three of the giants grew so much smaller that they were only about three times as big as the brownies. The other four grew so much bigger that their heads bumped against the ceiling,
their chairs broke with their weight, and they fell on to the floor with yells of fright.
    ‘OH! OH! OH!’ they shouted in