The Flat Stanley Collection. Jeff Brown
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Название: The Flat Stanley Collection
Автор: Jeff Brown
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Учебная литература
isbn: 9781405295161
isbn:
Arthur flung aside a football and some lead soldiers and aeroplane models and lots of wooden blocks, and then he said, ‘Aha!’
He had found what he wanted – an old bicycle pump. He held it up, and Stanley and he looked at each other.
‘Okay,’ Stanley said at last. ‘But take it easy.’ He put the end of the long pump hose in his mouth and clamped his lips tightly about it so that no air could escape.
‘I’ll go slowly,’ Arthur said. ‘If it hurts or anything, wiggle your hand at me.’
He began to pump. At first nothing happened except that Stanley’s cheeks bulged a bit. Arthur watched his hand, but there was no wiggle signal, so he pumped on. Then, suddenly, Stanley’s top half began to swell.
‘It’s working! It’s working!’ shouted Arthur, pumping away.
Stanley spread his arms so that the air could get round inside him more easily. He got bigger and bigger. The buttons of his pyjama top burst off – Pop! Pop! Pop! A moment more and he was all rounded out: head and body, arms and legs. But not his right foot. That foot stayed flat.
Arthur stopped pumping. ‘It’s like trying to do the very last bit of those long balloons,’ he said. ‘Maybe a shake would help.’
Stanley shook his right foot twice, and with a little whooshing sound it swelled out to match the left one. There stood Stanley Lambchop as he used to be, as if he had never been flat at all!
‘Thank you, Arthur,’ Stanley said. ‘Thank you very much.’
The brothers were shaking hands when Mr Lambchop strode into the room with Mrs Lambchop right behind him. ‘We heard you!’ said Mr Lambchop. ‘Up and talking when you ought to be asleep, eh? Shame on –’
‘GEORGE!’ said Mrs Lambchop. ‘Stanley’s round again!’
‘You’re right!’ said Mr Lambchop, noticing. ‘Good for you, Stanley!’
‘I’m the one who did it,’ Arthur said. ‘I blew him up.’
Everyone was terribly excited and happy, of course. Mrs Lambchop made hot chocolate to celebrate the occasion, and several toasts were drunk to Arthur for his cleverness.
When the little party was over, Mr and Mrs Lambchop tucked the boys back into their beds and kissed them, and then they turned out the light. ‘Goodnight,’ they said.
Goodnight,’ said Stanley and Arthur.
It had been a long and tiring day. Very soon all the Lambchops were asleep.
Once upon a very long time ago, way before the beginning of today’s sort of people, there was a magical kingdom in which everyone lived forever, and anyone of importance was a genie, mostly the friendly kind. The few wicked genies kept out of sight in mountain caves or at the bottoms of rivers. They had no wish to provoke the great Genie King, who ruled very comfortably from an enormous palace with many towers and courtyards, and gardens with reflecting pools.
The Genie King took a special interest in the genie princes of the kingdom, and was noted for his patience with their high spirits and desire for adventure. The Genie Queen, in fact, thought he was too patient with them, and she said so one morning in the throne room, where the King was studying reports and proposals for new magic spells.
‘Training, that’s what they need. Discipline!’ She adjusted the Magic Mirror on the throne-room wall. ‘Florts and collibots! Granting wishes, which is what they’ll be doing one day, is serious work.’
‘Florts yourself! You’re too hard on these lads,’ said the Genie King, and then he frowned. ‘This report here, though, says that one of them has been behaving very badly indeed.’
‘Haraz, right?’ said the Queen. ‘He’s the worst. What a smarty!’
The Genie King sent a thought to summon Prince Haraz, which is all such a ruler has to do when he wants somebody, and a moment later the young genie flew into the throne room, did a triple flip, and hovered in the air before the throne.
‘That’s no way to present yourself!’ The Queen was furious. ‘Really!’
Prince Haraz grinned. ‘What’s up?’
‘You are!’ said the King. ‘Come down here!’
‘No problem,’ said the Prince, landing.
‘It seems you have been playing a great many magical jokes,’ said the King, tapping the reports before him. ‘Very annoying jokes, such as causing the army’s carpets to fly only in circles, which made all my soldiers dizzy.’
‘That was a good one!’ laughed the Prince.
‘And turning the Chief Wizard’s wand into a sausage while he was casting a major spell, you did that?’
‘Ha, ha! You should have seen his face!’ said the Prince.
‘Stop laughing!’ cried the Queen. ‘Oh, this is shameful! You should be heavily punished!’
‘He’s just a boy, dear, only two hundred years old,’ said the King. ‘But I’ll –’
‘Who knows what more he’s done?’ said the Queen, turning to the Magic Mirror. ‘Magic Mirror, what other silly jokes has this fellow played?’
The Magic Mirror squirted apple juice all over her face and the front of her dress.
‘Oooooohh!’ The Queen whirled around. ‘Florts and collibots! I know who’s responsible for that!’
Prince Haraz blushed and tried to look sorry, but it was too late.
‘That does it!’ said the Genie King. ‘Lamp duty for you, you rascal! One thousand years of service to a lamp.’ He turned to the Queen. ‘How’s that, my dear?’
‘Make it two thousand,’ said the Queen, drying her face.
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