Конкурс проводится с 1 октября по 17 ноября 2017 года.




Shuffle’s party

‘Ma’, said little Shuffle, ‘on Wednesday we shall have been here exactly a year – here in Tiptop Village. It’s been a good year, hasn’t it?’

‘It has,’ said Ma. ‘We’ve done good business, we’ve made good friends, and we’ll do a good deed to round off the year. We’ll give a party!’

‘Oooh, Ma!’ said little Shuffle, pleased. He liked parties. ‘Shall w have jellies – and will you make a cake?’

‘I will – and we’ll put one big red candle on it to mark the one year we’ve been here,’ said Ma.

Well, when Tiptop Village heard that Ma Shuffle was to give a party to celebrate their first year in the village, they decided to go shares.

‘We’d like to celebrate your coming, too,’ said Dame Scary. ‘Little Shuffle is a very fine cobbler, and many’s the kindness you’ve done in our village, Ma Shuffle!’

‘We’ll have a party in the village hall,’ said Mrs Tuck-In. ‘And we’ll ask everyone – yes, even Grabbit and Sniff, though goodness knows they don’t deserve a treat, the miseries!’

Now, when the day came everyone was there in their very best. Balloons hung down from the walls, tossing about as people walked below. There were crackers set out on the tables. There were sixteen different kinds of sandwiches, enormous jellies that wobbled excitedly in their dishes, and dishes piled high with Mrs Well-I-Never’s very nicest buns.

And right in very middle of the biggest table was Ma Shuffle’s cake, iced in pink and white, decorated with sugar violets, and with one enormous red candle in the very middle, waiting to be lit.

You should have heard the noise as everyone walked in! And then, when everyone was there. Somebody else came!

He hadn’t been invited. Nobody liked him. Nobody wanted him. He was the Enchanter Big-Brows from Frowning Hill, a perfect nuisance and a tiresome pest.

BUT – he knew so much magic and so many spells that everyone was very careful indeed not to offend him. He had once changed one of his servants into water, and poured him into a basin. It was very lucky indeed that the plug had been in, or that would have been the end of the servant.

And now here was Big-Brows, his wonderful silver cloak flowing round him, glowering at everyone.

‘Why didn’t you invite me?’ he thundered.

Shuffle shivered with fright. ‘Please, sir, you’re so grand, and so important, we didn’t like to,’ he stammered. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be the c-c-c-cleverest enchanter in the world?’

‘Of c-c-c-course I am,’ said Big-Brows, mocking poor little Shuffle. ‘Shall I show you some of my magic? See what happens to people who offend me!’

And to everyone’s horror he pointed at Ma Shuffle, Mrs Well-I-Never and Mrs Shifty – and they changed into cowering mice! If Tib, Tab, and Tubby, Ma Shuffle’s three cats, hadn’t known who the mice really were, that would certainly have been the end of them.

‘Ma! Ma!’ squealed Shuffle, Big-Brows laughed. He pointed at the mice again, and they turned back into the three old women.

‘Don’t you dare do that again,’ said Ma Shuffle fiercely to Big-Brows. ‘Ho, you think you’re clever, don’t you? Well, you’re not as clever as my grandad was! He always said it was easy to change others – but hard to change yourself! Aha – you couldn’t change yourself into a mouse!’

‘Madam, I am not so foolish, with three cats about,’ said Big-Brows, ‘but I’ll certainly do a little changing for you! Hey presto, wheeeee!’

And he suddenly changed himself into a wolf and went howling among the guests. They were just running away in fright when he changed into a horse and began to kick out at everyone. Then, hey presto, he was a green fire burning in the middle of the room.

‘Wonderful!’ cried Ma Shuffle. ‘But any clever enchanter can do those things. My grandad could do better than that! If I stood near by and called out different things, he could change himself as fast as I could shout!’

‘Call, then, call!’ said the enchanter, appearing as himself for a moment. ‘And when you’ve finished I shall call. What will you all change into then? Aha! A swarm of bees to make me honey? A flock of birds to sing to me? A copse of trees to give me wood for my fire?’

‘No, no!’ wailed everyone, really afraid.

‘Call!’ commanded Big-Brows and Ma Shuffle called: ‘A chair! A table! A rabbit! A fox! A cushion! A clock! A pencil! A cup! A teapot!’

Big-Brows had disappeared. In his place came all the things that Ma called, one by one.

‘I can find magic for everything!’ cried the enchanter’s mocking voice. ‘Call! Call!’

Little Shuffle caught sight of the big red candle in the middle of the iced cake. His eyes suddenly gleamed. ‘I’ll call, Ma, I’ll call!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll call something he can’t change into!’

‘Call then, call!’ cried Big-Brows.

‘Light the candle on the cake!’ shouted Shuffle, holding up the dish with the cake on it. ‘Make yourself the flame to light this candle! You can’t do that!’

But immediately there came a flame on the candle – the enchanter could even turn himself into that!

Phoooooooo! That was little Shuffle blowing out the flame. It was gone! There was a dead silence – and then what a clamour!

‘You’ve blown him out!’ He’s gone, he’s gone! Flames never come back once they’re blown out. He’s gone, he’s gone!’

So he had. Nobody ever saw Big-Brows again, and certainly nobody wanted to.

‘Hurrah!’ they all yelled.

They had a wonderful party – but do you know, nobody lit that candle again! They cut the cake and ate it – but they didn’t light the candle.

Well, I wouldn’t have either, if I’d been there! Would you?

Конкурс проводится с 1 октября по 17 ноября 2017 года.

Работы отправляются на адрес: detiikniga@yandex.ru

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