The Magic Faraway Tree

4.The Land of Spells

Rick shot round and down the inside of the Faraway Tree on his cushion. He came to the bottom. He shot out of the trapdoor there, and landed on a soft green moss. He sat there for a moment, out of breath.

"That's the loveliest slide I've ever had!" he thought to himself. "O-o-oh, wouldn't I like to do that again!"

He had just got up from the moss when the trapdoor at the bottom of the tree, opened once again, and Frannie shot out with a yellow cushion. Then came Beth, giggling, because she always thought it was a huge joke to slide down inside the tree like that.

"What do we do with the cushions?" asked Rick. "Does Moon-Face want them back?"

"Yes he does," said Frannie, picking them up. "The red squirrel always collects them and sends them back to him."

As she spoke, a red squirrel, dressed in a sweater, popped out of a hole in the trunk.

"Here are the cushions," said Frannie, and the squirrel took them. He looked up into the tree, and a rope came swinging down.

"Moon-Face always lets it down for his cushions," said Beth.

Rick watched the squirrel tie the three cushions to the rope end. then gave three gentle tugs at the rope, and at once the rope was pulled up, and the cushions went swinging up the tree to Moon-Face.

"I wish Joe was with us," said Rick, as they all went home. "Do you think aunt Polly will be worried about him?"

"Well, we'll have to tell mum the truth," said Frannie. "She is sure to ask where he is."

Mum did ask, of course, and the girls told her what happened. "I find all this very difficult to believe," said mum astonished. "I think Joe is just spending the night with Moon-face for a treat. I'll just trust moon-Face to take care of him tonight, but his must come back tomorrow."

Nobody said anymore. The girls and Rick felt very tired, and after some hot chocolate and baked potatoes for dinner, they all went to bed. Beth wondered how Joe was getting on at Moon-Face's.

He was getting on all right, though he was very tired of being upside down. It didn't matter how hard he tried to stand the right way up, he always swung back to Topsy-turvy again! The policeman put a very strong spell on him.

"You had better try to sleep in my bed," said Moon-Face. "I'll sleep on the sofa."

"I suppose I'll have to stand on by head all night," said poor Joe. And that's just what he did have to do. It was very uncomfortable.

Once he lost his balance when he was asleep, and tipped off the bed. He almost fell down the slippery-slip, but Moon-Face, who was awake, reached out a hand and caught his leg just in time.

"My goodness!" said Moon-Face. "Don't go doing things like this like this in the middle of the night, Joe. It's so disturbing.'

"Well, how can I help it? said Joe.

"I'll tie your feet to a nail on my wall," said Moon-Face. "Then you can't topple over when you are asleep." So he did that, and Joe didn't fall down anymore. When morning came he was surprised to find himself upside down, because at first he didn't remember what had happened.

"I'll just peep up through the hole in the cloud and see if by any chance the Land of Spells is there yet," said Moon-Face. "If it is, we'll go up and see what we can do for you."

So off he went up the little ladder and popped his head out of the hole in the cloud to see if the land of Topsy-Turvy was still there or if it had gone. There was nothing there at all, only a big white cloud, moving about like a thick mist. Moon-face slipped down the ladder again.