THE LAST ADVENTURE
“I wish it wasn’t such a wet day,” said Peggy, lying full length in the
loft amongst the hay, and looking through the cobwebby little window at
the driving rain.
“Why, what does the rain matter?” asked the Giant, coming through the
roof, and lying down in the hay, too, with both legs dangling out of
the trap-door. And the sunshine poured through the hole he had made,
and a big patch of blue sky gleamed above it.
“Oh dear!” said Peggy, “I never noticed I had the Ring on! What waste
of a wish! The garden boy said it was going to clear in half an hour
anyway. Nannie thinks I’m in the garden,” she went on, “but I ran up
here out of the rain. Hadn’t we better go out again now it’s stopped?”
“Oh, _do_ let’s stop here for a bit,” said the Giant. “I’m so stiff
from yesterday’s digging. I stayed on and did a lot after you’d gone.
Look here,” and he pulled handfuls of glittering red and green stones
out of his pocket.
“I didn’t mean to go off suddenly like that,” said Peggy rather
shamefacedly. “I hope you thanked the Pixies for us both?”
“Oh yes, that was all right,” said the Giant, scooping together all
the hay within reach and making it into a pillow for his head. “By the
way,” he went on lazily, staring up at the dusty beams, “do you realise
this is our last adventure?”
“Why, so it is!” said Peggy with a gasp. “Oh, how _awful_! I can’t bear
to think I shan’t see you again,” and she caught hold of the Giant’s
little finger and hugged it hard. “What _shall_ I do without you?”
“Well, you must think of something very exciting indeed for our last
day,” said the Giant. “And don’t go wasting wishes like you’ve been
doing lately. It spoils all the fun.”
“The thing that puzzles me,” said Peggy, looking at her Ring as it
gleamed and sparkled in that dark place, “is how much the Ring does,
and how much you do? And why sometimes it doesn’t work till it’s
turned, and why you can’t always bring me back without my having to use
up a wish, and where you live when you’re not here, and----”
“Well, of all the inquisitive children you absolutely take the cake!”
said the Giant. “I don’t think I’ve been asked so many questions for
the last five hundred years at least. I haven’t the slightest intention
of answering one of them. Instead of being grateful for having so many
wishes at a time, you begin grumbling----”
“O Giant, darling, I didn’t _mean_ to grumble!” cried Peggy. “I was
only _wondering_. But I won’t ask any more questions, I promise you,
if you’ll only think of some lovely exciting adventure for to-day. You
think of such _beautiful_ things always,” she added.
“Oh, that’s all very well!” said the Giant, but his voice sounded
rather pleased. “Well now, let me see. This takes some thinking. What
_was_ it that that child and I did in 1350 or thereabouts? Oh yes, I
remember. She wished all her toys to come alive. How would you like
that?”
“_Perhaps_ it would be rather fun,” said Peggy--and she wished it, but
in rather a doubtful voice. “You’re sure it will be really exciting?”
she asked....
“Listen to all that trampling,” said the Giant in reply, nibbling at a
straw and blinking at the rafters.
Peggy raced to the loft door and looked down into the yard below, where
an extraordinary sight met her eyes. For the whole place had suddenly
become packed from end to end with every kind of animal, bird and
insect, all rushing to and fro in the greatest state of excitement.
“Oh, _do_ look down!” Peggy implored the Giant. “Where _can_ they all
have come from? There’s a camel, I’m sure. Oh, and there’s a lion going
right off into the rose bed! What _will_ John say? And there’s a funny
old man in a long coat running about amongst them all! Who _can_ he be?”
“Noah,” answered the Giant, “and it’s all the animals from your Noah’s
Ark, of course. My word, you’ll have a lively time getting ’em in
again! You’d better go down, I think.”
Peggy ran down the steps, and Noah at once bustled up to her in a great
state of mind.
“This coat of mine hampers me dreadfully,” he panted. “Do you think you
could restore any kind of order? The tigers have got into the kitchen
garden, and a dromedary and one, if not _both_, the leopards, have gone
down the high road towards the village!”
“Giant, Giant, come and help!” shouted Peggy, and the next moment the
Giant was standing by her side, shaking pieces of hay off himself,
which the few remaining animals immediately ate.
“He wants us to drive them up into the nursery again,” said Peggy. “You
go that way,” and she pointed through the open gate into the kitchen
garden, “and I’ll go round the house and get them out of the flower
beds. And you,” to Noah, “run down the road after them!”
“Chuck, chuck, chuck,” she went on to a pair of red storks strutting
to and fro in the perennial border, but they simply flew on to the top
of the house and stared down at her; whilst an elephant, standing in
the asparagus bed on the other side of the garden wall, chose at that
moment to trumpet loudly, and nearly startled Peggy out of her wits.
“I don’t know how we’re to manage it!” she said at last to Noah, who
reappeared driving a bright blue pig and a dromedary up the road. “It’s
_no_ fun, is it? I only wish we could all go for a ride or something
exciting! How about that animal there?” and she pointed at a Giraffe
engaged at the moment in licking a red creeper off one side of the
house....
“Hold me tight!” said Noah very nervously, as they all three found
themselves on the Giraffe’s back and going at a brisk trot down the
back drive. “_Do_ hold me tight! I haven’t ridden for years.”
“How lovely this is!” said Peggy, taking a firmer grip of Noah, who sat
in front, and looking back at the Giant. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“At present I am,” he answered carefully, “though I really ought to
have been in front for the weight, I suppose. Hulloa! What’s he doing
now?”
For the Giraffe had no sooner turned into the high road than he began
to proceed in a series of jumps, all four feet pressed close together,
and rising a good deal higher than the hedges at each effort.
“Tell him to _stop_, Noah!” gasped Peggy. “You’re in front. Hurry up!
I’m shaken to bits.”
“It’s no good,” moaned Noah. “I have, and he won’t listen. Oh, if we
only had some reins!”
“You must _wish_ him to go slower,” said the Giant to Peggy in a faint
voice. “I shall die if this goes on! It’s all your fault for saying
‘or something exciting’ after your wish. I forgot to tell you how very
risky that was. Ah, thank you! That’s better,” for Peggy had wished,
and the Giraffe at once quieted down into a walk--in fact into such a
slow walk that it almost might have been called standing still.
“Get on!” said Peggy, digging her heels into the Giraffe’s back--but he
went slower and slower still.
“Oh dear, you’ll have to get off and push, I’m afraid,” she said to the
Giant. “We shall never get anywhere at all if you don’t. I’m not going
to waste another wish on the horrid old thing!”
“All right,” said the Giant, getting off--but the more he pushed the
slower the Giraffe went.
“Why, here we are at the village!” cried Peggy, as after half an
hour’s steady pushing they turned a corner and saw a row of cottages
stretching down the road on either side. “Now get on again,” she said
to the hot and tired Giant, “and we’ll ride grandly down to the shop
and buy a pennyworth of sweets!”
“Who’s to buy them?” asked the Giant, wearily settling himself on the
Giraffe’s back again (it was quite easy to get on and off because the
creature really went so very slowly). “_I_ can’t. I only frighten
people.”
“Noah will--won’t you, Noah?” asked Peggy coaxingly. “_I_ can’t,
because I’ve no pennies left at all!”
“But I haven’t a farthing on me either,” said Noah uncomfortably.
“Oh, never mind, have it entered!” said Peggy, pushing him off the
Giraffe’s back. “Run along; we shan’t move far from here before you
come back--and get acid drops if you can,” she added.
Noah obediently crossed the road and walked into the shop; and about
one minute afterwards he reappeared, bearing two enormous bottles of
pear-drops under each arm.
“Gracious me!” cried Peggy, jumping off the Giraffe, and followed by
the Giant. “How quick you’ve been! And that’s not a pennyworth!”
“I know it isn’t,” said Noah. “But the woman _made_ me take them. I
asked her quite politely for a pennyworth, but instead of weighing
them out like anyone else would, she fell down behind the counter and
screamed, ‘Take anything you like, only go away!’ So I did. I chose
_all_ pear-drops because they’re my favourite sweets,” he added simply,
putting two into his mouth at once.
“Oh you greedy!” cried Peggy. “Give us some at once! I’m very glad
nobody sees us,” she added, looking anxiously up and down the village
street; “they’d never believe the woman really _gave_ them to you.”
And at that moment a perfect shout of delight rose up in the road
behind them, and Peggy, turning hastily round, saw a troup of Toys
rushing towards them!
There were all the dolls she had ever had, all the people in every
Fairybook she had ever looked at, and all her wooden carts and horses.
There were all her Golliwogs and Teddy-bears, all the Ark animals
again, all the rest of Noah’s family (who had been lost for years),
all the dolls’ tea-sets, and even the big dolls’ house, and the
rocking-horse, and all the balls and tops, and ninepins, and whips, and
whistles, in fact every single thing that had ever lived in the Toy
Cupboard in the Nursery.
“Found at last!” they screamed, dancing and leaping round Peggy. “Now
let’s play a game. _You_ choose!”