CHAPTER VI

NOW WE COME TO THE LITTLE OLD LADY AND JINGLE’S MAGIC WHISTLE

The wind howled, and the lightning popped and cracked, and everything grew as black as ink. The rain came down in torrents and the house in which they had taken shelter rocked and shook.

“I wonder if anyone lives here!” Gran’ma said, as she felt around the walls and turned on a light.

The room was flooded with brightness, and the Beautiful Girl saw a paper lying on a table and picked it up.

“Oh dear me!” she cried, as she sat down on a chair and buried her face in her hands.

Gran’ma ran to her and put her arms around her. “What is the matter, my dear?” she asked.

“Look at the date on this paper!” wept the Beautiful Girl. Gran’ma read, “July 24, 339,780.”

“I don’t understand!” said Gran’ma as the others came and stood around the Beautiful Girl.

“It was in the year 339,700 that I talked to the Queer Horse and the Strange Man put me in the jar! Oh dear! I have been in that jar for eighty years!”

“There’s one consolation,” said Gran’pa, gallantly, “you do not look it!”

“I know it!” the Beautiful Girl replied, “We never change much here. I did not tell you before, you see, that I am Princess Nidia of Nite, and that there has been no one to rule the City of Nite in all this time!”

“Oh, yes, there has!” Gran’ma cried. “For the Faun Boys told us there was an old Witch who ruled things in the City of Nite!”

“Then I am lost!” the Beautiful Girl cried. “For she will never let me have my throne back again!”

“We will take it away from her!” said Johnny. “It belongs to you and we will help you get it back! And we shall call you The Princess from now on!”

“I hope you can get my throne back,” the Princess said, as Gran’ma wiped the tears from her eyes. “I cannot imagine who this Witch can be!”

“The Faun Boys told us that the Witch was an enemy of old Jingles, the wicked Magician,” said Janey, “so perhaps the Witch has just been holding your throne for you until you return!”

While they had been talking the storm had increased in fury so that the windows rattled as if they would fall out.

A leak started in the roof and water dripped to the floor, where it spread on the carpet and made a black spot.

“It is one of our ink rains!” said the Princess.

Gran’ma ran to the kitchen and got a large tub which she placed where it would catch the ink and save the carpet.

“Thank you very much for doing that!” said a voice from the other side of the room. “I feel sure anyone kind enough to do and act like that would not harm a poor Little Old Lady!”

“Indeed we wouldn’t harm you!” Gran’pa said. “But where are you hiding?”

“Up here!” said the Little Old Lady, as she looked out from behind a picture which covered a window.

“There is a door behind the cabinet there, and if you press the little button at the side you will see a stairway! Perhaps you would be more comfortable up here!”

“Shall we go up?” asked Gran’ma.

“Yes, let’s go up and see her,” the children replied.

So Johnny hunted until he found the tiny button, and the cabinet swung out from the wall, disclosing the thoroughly scoured stairway.

When they were all on the inside the cabinet swung back into place, and the little doorway was hidden.

They went up the stairs and came into a very pretty little room with soft chairs and couches standing about.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” said the Little Old Lady, “while I get you a bite to eat and a cup of tea!”

From the coziness of the little room the storm could hardly be heard, and the visitors were happy, watching the Little Old Lady as she worked.

She wore a tiny little poke bonnet and a tight waist with an enormous overskirt of flowered material. Two cheery eyes full of twinkles looked out through shiny eyeglasses, and a stray white curl peeped out from beneath the back of her bonnet.

“When I heard you come running up the path, I hid,” the Little Old Lady said when the tea was ready, “for no one would suspect that I had a room up here and nothing would disturb me in my retreat.”

When all had eaten and Gran’ma had cleaned up the crumbs and started to wash the dishes, they were all startled by a loud thumping down stairs.

“Sh!” whispered the Little Old Lady. “Sit still while I take a peek!” She turned out the light and went to the picture and peeped through. Then she closed the picture window and turned on the light.

“Sh!” she whispered again. “Didn’t I hear you talking of a wicked man? Come and see if it is he; but remember, do not make the slightest noise or he will discover us!”

When all had peeped through the picture window, and the kind old lady had closed it again the Princess said, “It is indeed the wicked Strange Man who put me in the jar!”

“It is old Jingles, the Magician!” whispered the others.

Yes, it was old Jingles, the Magician, but he was a very sorry sight. His clothes were covered with black mud and the ink rain had soaked through his hat and had run down over his face so that it was as black as coal.

He stamped his feet to shake the ink from his clothes, and wiped his face with his handkerchief; but the more he wiped it the blacker it grew.

The Little Old Lady again motioned the rest to the window and turned out the light so that they could watch old Jingles.

“Just wait until I catch them!” he muttered to himself. “I will change all of them into pigs and never let them see a mud puddle! I should have been all right if Gran’ma and Gran’pa had not come along! It’s all their fault, and it was they who rescued the Princess from the Green Jar! Oh, just wait until I catch them! Then they will be sorry they ever came to the Magical Land of Noom!”

The wicked creature tried saying some of his magic rhymes to clean the ink from himself, but he did not succeed.

“I should have had all of them in my power by this time if the ink rain had not soaked my little Magic Whistle so that I cannot blow it!” And he took something from out of his pocket and wiped it with his handkerchief.

It was a Magic Whistle made of pig-skin and had little tassels hanging from it. Now the pig-skin was soaking wet and the tassels dripping ink. The more the Magician wiped the whistle, the wetter it seemed to become.

The storm had slackened by this time and old Jingles went to the window. “They cannot have gone far!” he said as he shook his fist at the black clouds disappearing in the distance, “and no matter how far they have gone, I will catch up with them when my Magic Whistle dries! And then they had better be careful!”

As the rain of ink had now ceased, the Magician went to the door and looked out. “I hope it will dry up soon,” he said, “so that I can catch up with them!” And he walked out of the house.

“What had we better do?” Gran’ma asked.

“We had best stay where we are for a while,” Gran’pa replied, “for evidently the ink rain has covered our tracks and he will not be able to find us, so he will go on and we can follow him.”

“I must hasten to the City of Nite,” cried the Princess, “and try to regain my throne. My subjects were so happy when I was there—oh, dear, I wonder how it will all turn out!”

“Perhaps the Little Old Lady can suggest something for us to do,” Janey said.

The Little Old Lady thought a while and then said, “I believe it will be as well for all of you to stay here for a time. That will throw Jingles off the track. I will run over to my brothers and ask their advice. I think it would be as well for all of you to stay in this room, meanwhile, in case the Magician should return!”

Then the Little Old Lady went down a back stairway and out of the door.

“If I had known what trouble we should get into, I should never have built the Flying Machine!” said Johnny.

“Do not take all the blame, Johnny,” said his sister, “for it was I who thought of most of it and then we really did not know it would fly!”

The Little Old Lady was gone for quite a while and as the others sat talking in the cozy secret room, they again heard stamping downstairs.

Gran’ma went to the picture window and peeped through. Old Jingles had returned. “I can not find their trail beyond this house!” he cried as he kicked over a chair. “If my Magic Whistle would only dry so that I could blow it and discover where they are, I could easily catch up with them and punish them!”

“Dear me!” Gran’ma whispered to the others who had gathered around the picture window to listen. “The wicked Magician seems to think we have done something very mean to him, when we are only trying to escape his clutches!”

“That is always the case,” said the Princess. “Those who do the most harm always think they are the most abused when things do not go just as they wish!”

“I hope his Magic Whistle warps out of shape so that when it blows it will turn his magic right back on himself!” Johnny whispered.

The more the Magician thought of our friends escaping him the more injured he felt, and he knocked the furniture about in his anger.

At last he kicked the cabinet and loosened the little button which opened the door. “Hello!” he cried. “Here is a secret stairway!”

“Quick!” cried Gran’ma. “He has discovered the stairway! He is coming up! Run down the back way quick!”

They all ran down the back stairs as fast as they could, and of course they made a lot of noise running. The more quietly they tried to run the more they tripped and stumbled. The Magician, hearing them, knew in a moment who it was and sprang up the front stairway in pursuit. Then down the back stairs he ran too.

As Gran’pa, Gran’ma, the Princess and Janey ran down the street they saw the Little Old Lady running towards them with her three brothers.

Johnny, bracing himself at the back door, was trying to hold it so the Magician could not get out and he did succeed in holding him back until the others got a good start.

When the Magician finally forced the door open, Johnny took to his heels with the long-legged Magician close behind him. Johnny dodged this way and that until he almost caught up with the others, who, when they met the Little Old Lady and her brothers had stood still.

Just as the Magician was reaching out his hand to catch hold of Johnny’s collar, Johnny remembered a trick he had learned with other boys and dropped to his knees, right in front of the Magician.

This tripped up Old Jingles and he went sprawling head over heels. As he rolled over the three brothers of the Little Old Lady pounced upon him and held him so he could not move.

The Magician rolled his eyes and started to say a rhyme, but one of the brothers clapped his hand over Jingles’ mouth.

Then while two of the brothers held the Magician down, the other ran to the house and came back with ropes. Soon the Magician was tied so that he could not move a muscle and a handkerchief was tied across his mouth.

By this time many people had gathered about and it was suggested that Old Jingles be given a seat in the ducking pool.

“Now,” said the Little Old Lady, “you folks had better be on your way! We will keep the Magician here as long as possible.”

So Gran’pa, Gran’ma, Johnny, Janey and the Princess stayed only long enough to see the Magician soused up and down in the water two or three times and then they hastened out of town.

The brothers ducked the wicked Magician up and down in the pond until they grew tired, then others took their places and they kept this up for two hours. Then the Magician was placed in the stocks and his hands and feet firmly padlocked so that he could not get away.