"How I do wish I were a little girl in a book! Nothing ever happens to
little girls in real life. It is so dull!"
The Big Sister went on writing, and said nothing.
"It's no use talking to her," thought Christabel, "because she always
goes on writing."
A few days after this Christabel began to feel rather strange. A kind of
stiffness came into all her limbs, so that they would not do what she
told them. And sometimes she found herself saying things that she had
not intended to say at all. This puzzled her and made her very
uncomfortable. She wondered if other people noticed that there was
something wrong with her. She even thought of speaking to her Big Sister
about it, but the Big Sister was so busy writing that it was no use to
try and make her hear.
This went on for some time. Christabel grew stiffer and stiffer, and
more and more uncomfortable; and her Big Sister went on writing busily.
At last one day Christabel understood what had happened. She woke up and
found that everything round her had changed; the people and the place
and everything. She was frightened at first, and then the truth suddenly
flashed into her mind. A most remarkable and unusual and unexpected
thing had happened: her Big Sister had put her into a book!
"So I really am a little girl in a book, after all!" she said to
herself.
She tried to say it aloud, but she found she couldn't. The words were
not in the book, you see.
"Now I am going to enjoy myself," she thought, "and never be dull any
more."
There was not much chance of her being dull, for the book was full of
adventures and narrow escapes, and other delightful things.
First she was captured by pirates; and after having a terrible time with
them she was saved from them by a shipwreck. The shipwreck did not do
her much good, however, for she at once fell into the hands of the most
dreadful savages. So you will understand that she was not at all likely
to be dull.
Christabel was delighted to find that she behaved, like other little
girls in books, with the greatest courage and cleverness. Whenever an
adventure was going on she always managed to get out of every
difficulty, and she saved the lives of several of the other people in
the book by her bravery. The strange thing was that she found it quite
easy to be brave; while she was a little girl in real life she had not
found it easy at all.
"I do hope the book has a happy ending," she thought sometimes.
She wished very much that she could peep into the end of the book, as
she used to do when she was a little girl in real life. Meantime every
chapter was more exciting than the last. Of course Christabel did not
know whether she would escape from the savages at all. Perhaps they were
going to eat her. That would not be a happy ending to the book, she
felt.
After a great many terrible dangers, she managed to escape; for a ship
sailed into the bay at the right moment, and took her home to England.
This was the end of the book. The person who was reading it shut it up
with a bang--and Christabel went to sleep.
By-and-by, some one else took up the book and began to read it. Then
Christabel woke up and found herself at the beginning of the story.
After so many adventures she was rather tired, and did not feel inclined
to begin them all over again. But that was just what she had to do.
Being captured by pirates is not nearly so exciting when you know you
can only escape from them by a cold, wet shipwreck; and when you are
shipwrecked you are not very anxious to scramble ashore when you know
there are a large number of fierce savages waiting for you!
"This is rather tiresome," thought Christabel.
She was very glad when the person who was reading the book shut it up
again, and she was allowed to go quietly to sleep.
But her sleep was not long. Every time any one began to read the book
poor Christabel was obliged to wake up and go through all her troubles
again. She soon became horribly tired of being shipwrecked.
"Have I got to spend the rest of my life with pirates and savages?" she
asked herself in despair.
It was especially annoying that they were always the same pirates and
savages, who said always exactly the same things. Christabel soon knew
the whole book by heart. She wished sometimes she could be one of the
pirates for a change, instead of being always a little girl.
"I suppose I shall never even be grown up," she thought sadly.
The most unpleasant thing of all was that she was never able to say what
she wished to say: she was always obliged to say what was in the book.
Sometimes she opened her mouth to say what was in her mind, and then
found herself speaking words that had nothing to do with her thoughts.
"It is simply hateful not to be able to say and do what one likes," she
thought.
She made up her mind to try and be drowned at the very next shipwreck.
Of course it was useless for her to try, for the book said she was saved
by a big wave which flung her up on a rock. It was uncomfortable for her
to be saved in this way, but she could not avoid it. The shipwreck
happened in the usual way, in spite of her efforts to be drowned; and
then, as usual, she met the savages on the Island, and soon afterwards
came the end of the book.
[Illustration: THE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE BOOK LOOKED AT HER IN SURPRISE]
Now, it happened this time that the person who was reading the book did
not shut it up at all, but handed it at once to some one else who wished
to read it. This was really too much for Christabel's temper. She had
had no sleep, and she was determined not to begin all over again without
a rest. It suddenly struck her that this was her only chance--now,
before the beginning of the first chapter.
She lost no time. She knew she ought to be standing up--the book said
she was standing up. Finding to her great joy that she was able to move
of her own accord, she calmly sat down and folded her arms. The other
people in the book looked at her in surprise.
"It's no use looking at me like that," she said; "I'm tired of this. I'm
not going on any more saying the same things over and over again. If
there's any pirate who would like to change places with me I don't mind
being a pirate for a bit. But I'm not going on being the little girl."
Then there was indeed an outcry. All the people in the book began
speaking at once. Just at that moment--before the beginning of the first
chapter--they were all able to say what they chose.
"Make her stand up!" cried one.
"I never heard such nonsense!" said another.
"Why can't she behave as we do?" asked a third angrily.
"The idea of wanting a change!"
"She'll have to behave like other people in the end."
"So discontented!"
"So very odd!"
So they went on, while Christabel still sat calmly, with her arms
crossed.
"I'm not going to begin all over again," she repeated firmly.
"But that poor boy is waiting to begin the book," said some one; "and we
can't go on while you are behaving in this silly way."
"I can't help that," said Christabel; "I'm tired of saying things I
don't a bit mean."
Before she knew what was going to happen Christabel found herself in the
middle of a terrible turmoil. All the people in the book seemed to be
rushing at her.