Free The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) by Enid Blyton Page B

who didn’t look as if they belonged to anywhere.
    They all scrambled out of the pond after the brownies and chased them. Down the lane went the three, followed by all the passengers.
    ‘Stop them! Stop them!’ they cried.
    The brownies raced on. Soon they came to a strange little village, built entirely of large mushrooms and toadstools. They had doors in the stalks, and windows and chimneys in the top part.
    Little people came to the doors and looked out when they heard all the noise. They stared in astonishment at the sight of the three running brownies, followed by all the other people.
    At the end of the village ran a stream. It was too wide and too deep for the brownies to cross, and they didn’t know
what
to do.
    ‘Quick, quick! Think of something!’ cried Skip.
    Hop looked round despairingly. The passengers were almost on them. Then a clever thought came to him.
    He ran to a toadstool, snapped it off, put it upside down on the stream, and jumped into it. Skip and Jump sprang in just in time, pushed off from the bank, and left the passengers staring at
them in dismay.
    ‘Ha, ha!’ called Hop, feeling very relieved. ‘You didn’t get us
that
time!’
    ‘No, but someone else will get you! Look behind you!’ yelled the rabbit whose whiskers had been blown off.
    The brownies looked on to the other bank, and who do you think stood there? Why, three wooden-looking soldiers, all waiting for the toadstool boat to land!
    Bump! The toadstool reached the shore. The soldiers sprang forward, caught hold of each of the brownies and marched them off.
    ‘Now, quick march!’ said the soldiers sternly. ‘You’ll go to prison till tomorrow morning, and then be brought before the judge for frightening our ducks, and for using
one of our houses for a boat.’
    The brownies wriggled and struggled, but it was no good. They were marched into a toad-stool marked PRISON, and there they were locked in for the night.
    ‘Oh dear, dear, dear!’ wept Jump. ‘I’m wet and cold and hungry. Hop, you’ve got us into trouble
again
  !’
    ‘Be quiet!’ said Hop, who was feeling very much ashamed of himself and of his doings in the train.
    ‘Goodnight,’ said Skip sadly. ‘I’m going to sleep to see if I can’t find something to eat in my dreams.’
    And in two minutes the bad brownies were fast asleep.

Their Adventure in Toadstool Town
    In the morning the brownies were awakened by someone opening their door. It was one of the soldiers. He gave them each a cup of water and some dry bread.
    ‘In ten minutes you will be taken before the judge,’ he said.
    The brownies shivered and shook. Whatever would happen to them?
    ‘If only we’d waited for the engine-driver to finish his tea!’ sighed Jump. ‘We’d be at Fiddlestick Field now, and the Saucepan Man would tell us the way to
Witchland.’
    They all ate their bread and drank their water. Just as they had finished, in came three soldiers.
    They marched the brownies out of the toad-stool, took them across the stream by a bridge, and into Toadstool Town. Everybody was staring at them and saying they were the bad brownies.
    In the middle of the town a round space was cleared. At one end sat the Judge, in an enormous wig. Just in front of him sat a lot of other people in wigs, all writing very fast indeed. All round
sat the people of Toadstool Town, and the passengers who had come on the train with Hop, Skip and Jump the day before.
    The brownies trembled when they saw them. They all looked so very cross.
    ‘Prisoners,’ said the judge in a very loud voice, ‘stand up straight and answer my questions. Did you, or did you not, frighten our ducks yesterday?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Hop. ‘I frightened myself more than I frightened the ducks, I think!’
    ‘That is no answer,’ said the judge, though Hop thought it was really rather a good answer. ‘Did you, or did you not, frighten our ducks?’ he said again, turning to
Skip.
    ‘I didn’t see any ducks, so