The Further Adventures Of Gobbolino And The Little Wooden Horse

13 THE BOOK OF SPELLS

As DAYLIGHT FADED and the stars came out, the witch’s spirits rose and she became more and more vigorous and cheerful. She showed great kindness to Gobbolino and the little wooden horse, and tried to tempt them with all kinds of tasty food which she dished out of her cauldron, and which immediately turned into anything she asked for.

"A piece of fish, Gobbolino?" and there was a delicious piece of fried fish in the middle of a plate.

"No thank you, ma’am. I am not hungry!"

"Some hay, little horse? Or a juicy carrot? Look! Here it is!"

The little wooden horse turned away from the tempting bowl and wished he did not feel so empty inside.

"A piece of sweet cake, Gobbolino? Some corn, or green grass, Dobbin? A little piece of meat dipped in gravy? Look how good it is! I don’t like to see you going hungry, my little friends," the witch said, "but if you do not want it I shall eat it all myself!"

And she did: fish, corn, hay, meat, cake, grass and carrots, which made Gobbolino certain that there was something very odd in the food that would not have agreed with them at all.

"I am going out for the night on my broomstick!" she told them when her meal was finished. "I can take either one of you with me. Which of you would like to come?"

But the two friends explained that, since it was their first night on the mountain, whichever of them was left behind in the cavern would be lonely and frightened. Rather reluctantly the witch allowed them to stay together and set out without them.

The moment she was gone Gobbolino seized the milk jug and galloped up the mountain in the moonlight to find the goats, with the little wooden horse close on his heels.

The goats were sleeping. They were not at all ready to give any of their milk at that hour of night, but when they understood that the two friends had nothing else that they dared eat, and were on the point of starving, they kindly agreed to fill the milk jug, and this time Gobbolino milked them very nicely indeed.

His paws were soft and kind. The goats liked him, and asked him to come back in the morning. They also promised to show him a fine patch of bilberries to eat, and a wild apple tree sticking out of a rock, with sweet yellow apples hanging on its branches.

When Gobbolino and the little wooden horse had both drunk their fill of goats’ milk they returned to the cave. The witch was still absent, flying round and round the stars on her broomstick.

Her book of spells was lying under her bed, and Gobbolino dragged it to a rock, where the moonlight fell on its pages.

Many of the spells looked very disagreeable indeed. There was one which made a heart as cold as ice, for ever and ever. Another caused fingertips to paint every object they touched a horrid shade of green, and a third was a weeping spell, that made a person cry without ceasing until a fourth spell set him or her laughing again, when they laughed and laughed until they died of exhaustion.

There was a spell for causing the most appalling dreams, and one for creating a voice that croaked like a raven, or hair that stood straight up on end and would never lie down. There were spells that made fingers double their numbers up to ten on each hand, or feet twist and turn so that the owner could only proceed by spinning in giddy circles.

Shocked as they were by these nasty tricks Gobbolino and the little wooden horse were fascinated by the horrid collection, and found themselves unable to put down the book until they had finished it. They could well believe that the witch had the power to encircle the mountain so that no one could escape from it, and before long they arrived at the very page that described the way to do it. She must have known the spell off by heart.

Many of the spells looked very disagreeable indeed.

Their own hearts were very heavy, knowing that they were prisoners until the witch chose to let them go. And perhaps she will never let us go at all, thought Gobbolino.

He was about to close the book when some small print at the bottom of the very last page caught his eye. The lines were very narrow and compressed, as if someone had copied them out quite rapidly, without attaching much importance to the message. Even the proper capital letters were missing. The directions read:

"to undo a spell

use clean spring water 8 parts

and clean fresh fruit juice 4 parts

and clean new milk 8 parts

mix all together and stir with a clean left hand

together with the blessing of a good man and

five tears of true sorrow.

splash this on the spell and it shall be broken

pour over the victim and he shall be free."

The little wooden horse skipped for joy.

"Why! We can make it in a moment and go home directly!" he cried happily.

"Wait! Wait! Don’t go so fast!" Gobbolino warned him. "How are we to collect enough spring water and enough fruit juice, and enough milk to wash away the spell that lies all round the bottom of the mountain? And what about the good man’s blessing? And the tears of sorrow, even when we have done all that?"

"Not the whole mountain!" said the little wooden horse. "We only need to break a small part of the circle so that we can escape through it. We had better begin directly!"

"But the blessing! The blessing!" cried Gobbolino. "There’s nobody but ourselves on the whole of this mountain, and there is no way that anybody can come in without being frizzled to bits as he crosses the spell. How can you possibly say we can make it in a minute?"

"I think," said the little wooden horse seriously, "that we had better go and ask the bats. You must stay here, since the witch is likely to need you, and I will go down the mountain and see what I can do."

He set off alone, while Gobbolino set the jug underneath the spring to catch as many drops as he could for the making of the spell-breaker.

The witch came in thirsty and tired, about dawn. She did not notice the absence of the little wooden horse, but drank all the water in the jug, flung her broomstick into one corner and her shoes into another, sat down on her stool and went to sleep.