Winkle-Pip Walks Out

Once upon a time Winkle-Pip the gnome did a good turn to the Tappetty Witch, and she was very grateful.

   ‘I will give you something,’ she said. ‘Would you like a wishing-suit?’

    ‘Ooh, yes!’ cried Winkle-Pip, delighted. ‘That would be lovely’.

   So the Tappetty Witch gave Winkle-pip a wishing-suit. It was made of yellow silk, spotted with red, and had big pockets in it.

   ‘Now,’ said the witch to Winkle-Pip, ‘whenever you wear this suit, your wishes will come true – but there is one thing you must do, Winkle.’

   ‘What’s that?’ asked Winkle-Pip

   ‘Once a year you must go out into the world of boys and girls and grant wishes to six of them,’ said the witch. ‘Now don’t forget that, Winkle, or the magic will go out of your wishing-suit.’

   Winkle-Pip promised not to forget, and off he went home, with the wishing-suit wrapped up in brown paper, tucked safely under his arm.

   Now, the next day Winkle-Pip’s old Aunt Maria was coming to see him. She always liked a very good tea, and often grumbled because Winkle-Pip who was not a very good cook, sometimes gave her burnt cakes, or jam sandwich that hadn’t risen well, and was all wet and heavy.

   So the gnome decided to use his wishing-suit the next day, and give his aunt a wonderful surprise. He put it on in the morning and looked at himself in the glass – and he looked very nice indeed. He thought he would try the wish-magic, so he put his hands in his pockets and spoke aloud.

   ‘I wish for a fine feathered cap to go with my suit!’ he said.

   Hey presto! A yellow hat with a red feather came from nowhere, and landed with a thud on his big head.

   ‘Ho!’ said Winkle-Pip, pleased. ‘That’s a real beauty.’

   He looked around his kitchen. It was not very clean, and none of the breakfast dishes had been washed up. The curtains looked dirty too, and Winkle-Pip remembered that his Aunt Maria had said he really should wash them.

   ‘Now for a bit of fun!’ said Winkle, and he put his hands in his pockets again.

   'Kitchen, tidy yourself, for that is my wish!' he said, loudly.

   At once things began to stir and hum. The tap ran water, and the dishes jumped about in the bowl and washed themselves. The cloth jumped out of the pail under the sink, and rubbed itself hard on the soap. Then it began to wash the kitchen floor far more quickly than Winkle-Pip had ever been able to do.

 The brush leapt out of its corner and swept the rugs, which were really very dirty indeed. The pan held itself ready for the sweepings, and when it was full it ran outside to the dustbin, and emptied itself there.

   You should have seen the kitchen when everything had quieted down again! How it shone and glittered! Even the saucepans had joined in and had let themselves be scrubbed well in the sink. It was marvelous.

   ‘Now for the curtains!’  Said Winkle-Pip, and he put his hands in his pockets again. ‘I wish you to make yourselves clean!’ he called.

   The curtains didn’t need to be told twice. They sprang off their hooks and rushed to the sink. The tap ran and filled the basin with hot water. The soap made a lather, and then those curtains jumped themselves up and down in the water until every speck of dirt had run from them and they were as white as snow! Then they flew to the mangle, which squeezed the water from them. Then out to the line in the yard they went, and the pegs pegged them there in the wind. The wind blew its hardest, and in a few minutes they flew back into the kitchen once more. The iron had already put itself on the stove to heat, and soon as the curtains appeared and laid themselves flat on the table, the iron jumped over to them and ironed them out beautifully.

   Then back to their hooks they flew, and hung themselves up at the windows. How lovely they looked!

   ‘Wonderful!’ cried Winkle-Pip in delight. ‘My, I wonder what my old Aunt Maria will say!’

   Then he began to think about food.

   ‘I think I’ll have a big chocolate cake, a jelly with sliced pears in it, a dozen little ginger cakes, some ham sandwiches, some fresh lettuce and radishes, and some raspberries and cream,’ decided Winkle. ‘That would make a simple glorious tea!’

   So he wished for all those – and you should just have seen his kitchen coming to live again. It didn’t take the magic very long to make all the cakes and sandwiches he wanted, and to wash the lettuce and radishes that suddenly flew from the garden.

   ‘Splendid!’ cried the gnome, clapping his hands with joy. ‘Won’t my Aunt Maria stare to see all this?’

   In the afternoon his old aunt came – and as soon as she opened the kitchen door, how she stared! She looked at the snowy sink, she looked at the spotless floor. She stared at the clean curtains, and she stared at the shining saucepans. Then she gazed at the lovely tea spread out on the table.

   ‘Well!’ she cried in astonishment. ‘What a marvelous change, Winkle-Pip. How hard you must have worked! I am really very, very pleased with you.’

   She gave the gnome a loud kiss, and he blushed very red.

   ‘It’s my wishing-suit, Aunt,’ he said, for he was a truthful little gnome. He told her all about it and she was full of surprise.

   ‘Well, you be sure to take great care of it,’ she said, eating a big piece of chocolate cake. ‘And whatever you do, Winkle-Pip, don’t forget to go out to the world  of boys and girls and find six of them to grant wishes to – or you’ll lose the wishing-suit as sure as eggs are eggs.’

   Winkle-Pip did enjoy his wishing-suit! He granted wishes to all his friends – and you may be sure that everyone wanted to be his friend when they knew about his new magic suit! Then a time came when he knew that he must go out into our world, for the magic in his suit began to weaken.

   So one day, Winkle-Pip put on his suit of yellow silk and his fine feathered cap, and walked to the end of Fairyland.

   ‘How pleased all the boys and girl s will be to see me!’ he said. ‘And how glad they will be to have their wishes granted. I am sure they don’t see fairy folk very often, and they will go mad with joy to find me walking up to them.’

   ‘Don’t be too sure,’ said his friend, the green pixie, who had walked to the gates of Fairyland with him. ‘I have heard that boys and girls nowadays don’t believe in fairies, and are much too busy with their wireless-sets and their Meccanos to want to listen to tales about us. They might not believe in you!’

   ‘Rubbish!’ said Winkle. He shook hands with the green pixie and walked out into our world. He looked all around him and wondered which way to go.

   ‘I’ll go eastwards,’ he thought ‘It looks as if there might be a town over there.’

   So off he went, and after a few miles he came to a little market town. He went along, peeping into the windows of the houses as he passed by, and at last he saw a nursery. A little boy and girl were playing with a beautiful dolls’ house, and they were talking about it.

   ‘You know, this dolls’ house is very old-fashioned,’ said the little boy. ‘It’s got oil lamps, instead of electric light. It’s a silly dolls’ house, I think.’

   ‘Well, I’m sure Grandpa won’t have electric light put into it for us,’ said the little girl. ‘I do so wish he would. That would be fine!’

   ‘Ha!’ thought Winkle-Pip. ‘Here’s a chance for me to give them a wish.’

   So he jumped into the window, and walked quietly up behind the children. ‘Would you like electric light in that dolls’ house?’ he asked. ‘You have only to wish for it, whilst I am here, and you shall have it.’

   The children looked around in surprise.

   ‘Of course I’d like it,’ said the girl. ‘I wish I could have electric light all over the house!’

   In a second the magic had worked, and the dolls’ house was lit up with tiny electric lights from top to bottom! How the children gasped to see such a wonderful sight. They found that there were tiny switches beside each door, and when they snapped these on and off the lights went on or out. They began to play with them in great excitement.

   Meanwhile the gnome stood behind them, waiting for a word of thanks. The children seemed quite to have forgotten him. He was terribly hurt, and at last he crept out of the window, without even saying good-bye.

   ‘Fancy not thanking me for granting their wish!’ he thought, mournfully. ‘Well, that was a nasty surprise for me! I thought the children would be delighted to talk to me too.’

   Winkle-Pip went on again, and after a while he came across two boys hunting in the grass for something they had lost.

   ‘Where can that shilling have gone?’ he heard one of them say. ‘Oh, I do wish we could find it, for we shall get into such trouble for losing it, when we get home.’

   Up went Winkle-Pip to them. ‘I can grant you your wish,’ he said. ‘I am a gnome, and have my wishing-suit on.’

   The two boys looked at him.

   ‘Don’t be silly,’ said one. ‘You know quite well that there are no such things as gnomes – and as for their wishing-suits, well, you must think us stupid to believe in things like that! You couldn’t possibly grant us a wish!’

   Winkle-Pip went very red. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the two boys.

   ‘Do you really want to find that shilling?’ he asked.

   ‘Yes, rather!’ said the boys. ‘We wish we could, for we shall get whipped for coming home without it.’

   No sooner had they wished than the silver shilling rose from where it had been hidden in the grass and flew into Winkle-Pip’s hand.

   ‘Here it is,’ he said to the boys, and gave it to them. But were they pleased? No, not a bit of it!

   ‘You had it all the time!’ they cried, for they had not seen it fly into the gnome’s hand. ‘You have played a trick on us! We will beat you.’

   They set upon the poor gnome and he had to run for his life. He sat down on the first gate he came to and rubbed his bruises.

   ‘Well!’ he thought miserably. ‘That’s two wishes granted and not a word of thanks for either of them. What is the world coming to, I wonder? Is there any politeness or gratitude left?’

   After a while, he went on again, and soon he heard the sound of sobbing. He peeped round the corner and saw a little girl sitting on the steps of a small house, crying bitterly.

   ‘What’s the matter?’ asked Winkle-Pip, his kind heart touched by her loud sobs. At first the little girl didn’t answer, but just frowned at him. Then suddenly from the house came a voice.

   ‘Now stop that silly crying, Mary! You deserved to be smacked. It was very naughty of you to break your poor doll like that, just out of temper.’

   ‘I shall break her again is I like!’ shouted the naughty girl, jumping to her feet and stamping hard. The gnome was terribly shocked.

   ‘You shouldn’t talk like that,’ he said. ‘Why, do you know, I came to give you a wish, and –’

   ‘Silly creature, silly creature!’ screamed the bad-tempered child, making an ugly face at him. ‘I wish you’d go away, that’s what I wish!’ I wish you’d run to the other end of the town; then I wouldn’t see you anymore!’

   Well, of course, her wish had come true and poor Winkle-Pip found himself scurrying off to the other end of the town in a mighty hurry. He was soon very much out of breath, but not until he was right at the other end of the little town did his feet stop running.

   ‘My goodness!’ said Winkle-pip, sinking down on the grass by the road-side. ‘What a horrid day I’m having! What nasty children there are nowadays! Three more wishes to give away – and, dear me, I do wish I’d finished, for I’m not enjoying it at all.”

   “As Winkle-Pip sat there, two children came by, a boy and a girl.

   ‘Hallo, funny-face,’ said the boy, rudely.  ‘Wherever did you come from?’

   ‘I come from Fairyland,’ said the gnome. ‘I am a gnome, as I should think you could guess.’

   ‘Pooh!’ said the boy, ‘what a rubbish to talk like that! There are no gnomes or fairies.’

   ‘Of course not,’ said the little girl.

   ‘Well, there are,’ said Winkle-Pip, ‘and what’s more, I’m rather a special gnome. I’ve come into your world to-day to give wishes to six children. I’ve wasted three wishes, and I’m beginning to think there are no children worth bothering about nowadays.’

   ‘What, do you mean you can grant wishes to us?’ asked the boy. ‘I don’t believe it! Well, I’ll try, anyway, and we’ll see if what you say is true! I wish for a banana, a pear, and a pineapple to come and sit on your head!’

   Whee-ee-ee-ee-eesh! Through the air came flying a large banana, very ripe, a big pear, and a spiky pineapple. Plonk! They all fell on poor Winkle-Pip’s head and he groaned in dismay. The children stared and began to laugh. Then they looked rather scared.

   ‘Ooh!’ said the boy. ‘He must be a gnome, after all, because our wish came true!’

   Winkle-Pip was so angry that he couldn’t think what to say. The children gave him one more look and then took to their heels and fled, afraid of what the gnome might do to them in revenge.

   Poor Winkle-Pip! He was so distressed and so hurt to think that children could play him such a mean trick when he offered them a wish, that he hardly knew what to do. He tried his best to get the fruit off his head, but it was so firmly stuck there that it would not move.

   ‘Oh dear! Oh dear!’ wept the gnome. ‘I shall have to let it all stay there, because I can’t have any wishes for myself till I have given away the six wishes to boys and girls.’

   Presently there came a little girl carrying a heavy load of wood. She stopped when she saw the gnome, and looked at him in surprise.

   ‘Why are you carrying all those things on your head?’ she asked. ‘Aren’t they dreadfully heavy?’

   ‘Yes,’ said the gnome with a sigh. ‘But I can’t very well help it.’ Then he told the little girl all his story, and she was very sorry for him.

   ‘I do wish I could get it off for you,’ she said. ‘If I had a wish, I would wish that, and the fruit would fly away.’

   No sooner had she spoken these words than her wish came true! Off flew the banana, and off went the pear, and off jumped the pineapple. They all disappeared with a click, and the gnome shook his head about in joy.

   ‘Hurrah!’ he said. ‘They’ve gone. Oh, you nice little girl, I’m so glad you wished that wish. You’re the only unselfish child I have met in my journeys to-day.’

   ‘And you’re the first person who has ever called me unselfish,’ said the little girl, with a sigh. ‘I live with my stepmother, and she is always telling me I am lazy and selfish. I do try so hard not to be.’

   ‘Poor child,’ said Winkle-Pip, thinking it was a dreadful shame to make a little girl carry such a heavy load of wood. ‘Have you no kind father?’

   ‘No,’ said the little girl. ‘I have an aunt though, but since we moved she doesn’t know where my stepmother and I live. My stepmother didn’t like her because she was kind to me, and wanted me to live with her. She said I was nothing but a little servant to my stepmother, and so I am. I wouldn’t mind that a bit, if only she would love me and be kind to me.’

   Winkle-Pip was nearly in tears when he heard this sad story. ‘I do wish I could help you,’ he said. ‘What a pity your kind aunt isn’t here to take you to her home and love you.’

   ‘I do wish she was,’ said the little girl, lifting the bundle of wood on her shoulder again – and then she gave a loud cry of delight and dropped it. Winkle-Pip cried too, for, what do you think? – hurrying towards them was the kindest, plumpest woman you could possibly imagine!

   ‘Auntie! Auntie!’ cried the little girl. ‘I was just wishing you were here!’

   ‘Of course,’ said Winkle-Pip to himself with a smile, ‘that’s the sixth wish! I quite forgotten there was still another one to give. Well, I’m very, very glad that this little girl has got the last wish. She used up one wish to set me free from that banana, pear, and pineapple, and she deserves to have one for herself, bless her kind heart!’

   ‘Where have you come from, Auntie?’ asked the little girl, hugging the smiling woman round the neck. ‘Oh I have missed you so!’

   ‘I’ve come to fetch you home with me,’ said her aunt, kissing her. ‘I’ve had such a time trying to find out where your stepmother took you to. I don’t quite know how I got here, but still, here I am, and you’re coming straight home with me, and I’m going to look after you and love you.’

   ‘But what about my stepmother?’ asked the child.

   ‘Oh, I’ll go and see her for you,’ said the gnome, with a grin. ‘I’ll tell her what I think of her. You go home with your aunt and have a lovely time. I’ll take your wood back for you.’

   So the little girl went off happily, with her aunt holding her tightly by the hand. Winkle-Pip shouldered the bundle of wood and ran off to the little cottage that the child had pointed out to him.

   An ugly, bad-tempered looking woman opened the door, and frowned when she was Winkle-Pip.

   ‘I’ve brought you the wood that your little stepdaughter was bringing,’ said the gnome. ‘She has gone to live with her auntie.’

   ‘Oh, she has, has she?’ said the woman, picking up a broom. ‘Well, I’m sure you’ve had something to do with that, you interfering little creature! I’ll give you such a drubbing!’

   She ran at the little gnome, but he stuck his hands into his pockets, and wished quickly.

   ‘I’ve given away six wishes!’ he said. ‘Now my wishing-suit is full of magic for me again – so I wish myself back in Fairyland once more!’

   Whee-ee-ee-eesh! He was swept up into the air, and vanished before the angry woman’s eyes. She turned pale with fright, and ran inside her cottage and banged her door.  She was so terrified that she never once tried to find out where her stepdaughter had gone.

   As for Winkle-Pip, he was delighted to get home again.

   Over a cup of cocoa he told the green pixie all his adventures, and they both agreed that he had a most exciting day.

   It will soon be the time for Winkle-Pip to walk out into our world again – so be careful if you meet him, and do try to use your wish in the best way you can.

-Enid Blyton-