Knock Three Times! Read online

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  IT WAS JACK, DAZED AND RUBBING HIS EYES]

  KNOCK THREE TIMES!

  _BY_

  MARION ST JOHN WEBB

  AUTHOR OF 'THE LITTLEST ONE' 'THE GIRLS OF CHEQUERTREES' 'ELIZ'BETH PHIL AND ME' ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY MARGARET W. TARRANT

 

  FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I Aunt Phoebe sends a Birthday Present 9 II The Adventure Begins 14 III The Other Side of the Tree 26 IV Why Old Nancy Slept through the Sunset Hour 38 V Which Explains who is Inside the Grey Pumpkin 44 VI The Black Leaf 55 VII Glan Opens the Gate in the Nick of Time 69 VIII Aunt Janet Puts on her Best Bonnet 84 IX Planning the Search 99 X Some One Meets Jack and Molly in the Third Green Lane 114 XI Trapped 130 XII The Goblin's Heath 143 XIII Timothy Gives Them a Clue 158 XIV Mr Papingay's House in the Orange Wood 169 XV Jack's Misfortune 190 XVI Molly Accepts a Present 202 XVII A Warning 213 XVIII Molly Comes to Lake Desolate 230 XIX Molly Looks Through Miss Lydia's Window 241 XX What Happened Outside Old Nancy's Cottage 259 XXI The Grey Pumpkin's Fate 272 XXII The Impossible World Again 282

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  PAGE IT WAS JACK, DAZED AND RUBBING HIS EYES _Frontispiece_ JACK AND MOLLY CLAMBERED OVER THE FENCE 20 THE LITTLE DWARF WAS LIFTED, STRUGGLING AND SCREAMING 50 THE HUGE GATE SWUNG BACK 74 "DO HAVE ONE!" 124 ONE AND ALL WERE SIMPLY PAINTED PEOPLE 178 "THANK GOODNESS YOU _'AVE_ WOKE UP!" 218 QUICK AS THOUGHT, SHE STRUCK ONE OF OLD NANCY'S MATCHES 256

  _KNOCK THREE TIMES!_

  CHAPTER I

  _Aunt Phoebe sends a Birthday Present_

  This story really begins with the arrival of a brown paper parceladdressed to Molly, but while the postman is bringing it along theroad, there may be just time to explain about Jack and Molly'sbirthday, so that you will understand why Molly sat down to supperwishing earnestly that silver bangles were considered useful andnecessary presents.

  Jack and Molly were twins, and this was their ninth birthday. Such ahappy, exciting day it had been; it _felt_ like a birthday all daylong, so you can guess how jolly it was, and how special it made Jackand Molly feel. Little did they guess what a weird and mysterious endto the day was now approaching!

  They had received a number of beautiful presents, and, to theirunbounded joy, a fine new bicycle each from Mother and Father. Butthere was one particular thing that Molly had wanted for her birthday,and that was a silver bangle.

  "Like Mother's," she had told Jack, "only silver. One that nearlyslips off when I hang my hand down and that I have to push back up myarm--and it jingles."

  As there happened also to be one other thing that Jack wantedspecially, a box of paints, the two children had decided some days agoto write to their Aunt Phoebe, who always remembered their birthday, andhint to her as delicately as possible what the most acceptable presentswould be. It had been a forlorn hope for Molly, because Aunt Phoebehad fixed ideas about useless and useful presents. Probably she mightconsider a box of paints useful to encourage Jack's artistic leanings;but a bangle----! Still, Molly sent her letter and hoped for the best.

  On looking at Jack and Molly you would have noticed at once thatthey both had the same kind of brown, curly hair and the same frankexpression about the eyes; but while Molly's eyes were brown, andher face often wistful and dreamy, Jack's eyes were blue, and hisexpression alert and full of energy; there was a certain reckless airabout Jack....

  But the postman has reached their house, and is handing in two brownpaper parcels, and so the story really begins.

  "It's Aunt Phoebe's handwriting!" Jack exclaimed, as he seized hisparcel.

  "Yours looks flat--like a paint-box, Jack," said Molly breathlessly,tugging at the string of her parcel.

  "Yours looks like something in a box too. Probably it will be abracelet," Jack said encouragingly, hoping that it would be, for hefelt he should be almost as disappointed as Molly if it wasn't.

  Jack was the first to vanquish strings and paper, and with a yell ofdelight he tore the wrapper off his parcel and disclosed a beautiful,shiny black paint-box. For a few moments Mother and Father and Jackwere so engrossed in examining and admiring the box that they did notnotice that Molly had unwrapped her parcel, until her intense quietnesswas borne in upon them, and they all three turned round.

  Molly stood by the side of the table gazing tearfully at a round,grey-looking thing half buried in a mass of tissue paper.

  "What is it, dear?" asked Mother, crossing over to her side.

  "It's not----" began Molly, then stopped because of an uncomfortablelump in her throat.

  "Let me see," said Mother, and she picked up the grey thing and turnedit over in her hands. On the other side was pinned a slip of paper, onwhich was written:

  FOR MOLLY

  _Hoping she will be a good girl on her birthday and have many happy returns. I thought this useful little thing would do for her dressing-table._

  _With love from_ AUNT PHOEBE

  "Why, it's a pincushion!" said Mother.

  "What a beastly shame!" said Jack.

  "Be quiet, Jack. It's a very pretty one," Mother added consolingly.

  "Funny shape, isn't it?" queried Father.

  "It's--let me see--why, it's the shape of a--what do you call thosethings?--pumpkins. It's shaped like a pumpkin," answered Mother.

  "But it's grey," objected Father. "Why didn't they make it yellow orgreen while they were about it?"

  "I suppose Aunt Phoebe thought grey would keep clean longer," said Jack:"that's why she chose it."

  Had Aunt Phoebe known when she bought 'this useful little thing' what itReally Was--could she have foreseen any of the mysterious happeningsthat were to follow the arrival of her birthday present--she would havepreferred to send her niece half a dozen of the most jingly silverbangles ever made; for she disapproved of adventures in any shape orform, even more than she disapproved of bangles. Yet it was entirelythrough Aunt Phoebe that Jack and Molly took part in the adventure ofthe Grey Pumpkin at all.