The Wishing-Chair Again by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online

before they did.
    As they sat playing together they felt a welcome draught. “Oh, lovely! A breeze at last!” said Mollie thankfully. “I do really think this is just about the hottest day we've had these holidays!”
    “The wind must have got up a bit at last,” said Peter. “Blow, wind, blow—you are making us lovely and cool.”
    “Funny that the leaves on the trees aren't moving, isn't it? “ said Chinky, shaking the dice in the thrower. “I hope I throw a six—I do so badly want one.”
    Mollie looked out of the open door at the trees in the garden. They were perfectly still! “But there isn't a breeze,” she said, and then a sudden thought struck her. She looked round at the Wishing-Chair, which was standing just behind them.
    “Look!” she cried. “How silly we are! It isn't the wind—it's the Wishing-Chair that has grown its wings again. They are flapping like anything!”
    So they were. The children and Chinky sprang up in delight. “Good! We could just do with a lovely cool ride up in the air today,” said Peter. “Wishing-Chair, we are very pleased with you!”
    The Wishing-Chair flapped its wings very strongly again and gave a creak. Then Chinky noticed something.
    “I say, look—it's only grown three wings instead of four. What's happened? It's never done that before.”
    They all stared at the chair. One of its front legs hadn't grown a wing. It looked rather queer without it.
    Chinky looked at the chair rather doubtfully. “Do you think it can fly with only three wings?” he said. “This is rather a peculiar thing to happen, really. I wonder if we ought to fly off in the chair if it's only got three wings instead of four.”
    “I don't see why not,” said Mollie. “After all, an aeroplane can fly with three engines, if the fourth one stops.”
    The chair gave a little hop up in the air as if to say it could fly perfectly well. “Oh, come along! “ said Chinky. “We'll try. I'm sure it will be all right. But I wish I knew what to do to get the fourth wing to grow. Something has gone wrong, it's plain.”
    They got into the chair, Chinky as usual sitting on the back, holding on to their shoulders. The chair flew to the door.
    “Where shall we go?” said Chinky.
    “Well—we never did get to the Land of Goodness Knows Where after all,” said Mollie. “Shall we try to get there again? We know it's a good way away, so it should be a nice long flight, very cool and windy high up in the air.”
    “We may as well,” said Chinky. “Fly to the Land of Goodness Knows Where, Chair. We saw it on the map—it's due east from here, straight towards where the sun rises—you go over the Tiptop Mountains, past the Crazy Valley and then down by the Zigzag Coast.”
    “It sounds exciting,” said Mollie. “Oh, isn't it lovely to be cool again? It's so very hot today.”
    They were now high up in the air, and a lovely breeze blew past them as they flew. Little clouds, like puffs of cotton wool, floated below them. Mollie leaned out to get hold of one as they passed.
    “This is fun,” she said. “I think we're very, very lucky to have a Wishing-Chair of our own, that will take us anywhere we wish to go. Chinky, is there a land of ice-creams? If so, I'd like to go there sometime!”
    “I don't know. I've never heard of one,” said Chinky. “There's a Land of Goodies though, I know that. It once came to the top of the Faraway Tree, and I went there. It was lovely—biscuits growing on trees, and chocolates sprouting on bushes.”
    “Oh—did you see Moon-Face and Silky and the old Saucepan Man?” asked Mollie, in excitement. “I've read the books about the Faraway Tree, and I've always wished I could climb it.”
    “Yes, I saw them all,” said Chinky. “Silky is sweet, you'd love her. But Moon-Face was cross because somebody had taken all his slippery-slip cushions—you know, the cushions he keeps in his room at the top of the tree for people to sit on when they slide down from the