‘Empty,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Empty.’
She was just beginning to sob when, ‘Look in the box,’ went a loud, clear ‘ting’. ‘Look in the box.’
Elizabeth stopped in the middle of a sob, but she was cleverer now, and she argued. ‘Why?’ asked Elizabeth.
The ‘ting’ took no notice. ‘Look in the box.’
‘Why? It’s empty.’
‘Look in the box.’
‘It’s empty.’
‘Look.’
It was more than a ‘ting’, it was a stir, as if the box were alive, as if – a wand were waving?
Slowly Elizabeth put out her hand. The lid of the box flew off – ‘Did I open it?’ asked Elizabeth. She heard the blue tissue paper rustle – ‘Did I rustle it?’ – and out, in her hand, came Fairy Doll.
‘But how?’ asked Christabel. ‘How? And how did Elizabeth know? I said, “What shall we put on top?” and –’
‘She ran straight upstairs,’ said Godfrey, ‘and came back with Fairy Doll –’
‘Who was lost,’ said Josie. ‘Wasn’t she lost?’
‘We don’t understand,’ they said, all three together.
You may think that when Josie was jealous she stole Fairy Doll and put her back in the cedar chest. I thought so too, but then why was Josie so surprised? And how was it that Fairy Doll was not draggled at all, but clean, in a fresh new dress, with new silver wings and another pair of mice-sewn shoes?
Perhaps it was Mother who found her and put her away because it was time that Elizabeth had ‘tings’ of her own. Mother could have made the dress and wings, but, ‘I couldn’t have sewn those shoes,’ said Mother.
Fairy Doll looked straight in front of her, and the wand stirred gently, very gently in her hand.
Chapter 5
Fairy Doll went back in her place on the top of the Christmas tree. After Christmas she was laid away in the cedar chest till next year. ‘She has done her work,’ said Mother.
Christabel had her writing case; Godfrey had his engine; Josie, who was cured of being jealous, had a kitchen set with pots and pans, a pastry board, a rolling pin, and a kettle. Elizabeth had a long-clothes baby doll, with eyes that opened and shut.
She loves the baby doll, but every time she goes up and down the stairs she stops on the landing and puts her hand on the cedar chest; every time she does it – it may be her imagination – from inside comes a faint glass ‘ting’ that is like a Christmas bell.
The
Fairy Doll
Rumer Godden was born in England but brought up mainly in India. She became one of the UK’s most distinguished and successful authors. She wrote many well-known and much-loved books for both adults and children, including The Story of Holly and Ivy and The Dolls’ house. The Diddakoi won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 1972.
She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998, aged ninety.
Gary Blythe is a successful illustrator best known for The Whale Song, which won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Award, and I Believe in Unicorns by Michael Morpurgo. He lives in Merseyside.
Also by Rumer Godden
The Diddakoi
The Story of Holly and Ivy
The Dolls’ House
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower
Little Plum
For older readers
The Peacock Spring
The Greengage Summer
First published 1956 by Macmillan
This edition published 2007 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-447-21017-7 EPUB
Text copyright © Rumer Godden 1956
Illustrations copyright © Gary Blythe 2006
The right of Rumer Godden and Gary Blythe to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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