Five Children and It — E. Nesbit
Nesbit. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Five Children and It Author : E. Nesbit Illustrator : H. R. Millar Release date : December 15, 2005 [eBook #17314] Most recently updated: December 13, 2020 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17314 Credits : Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress) Character set for HTML: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF NESBIT Author of "The Treasure-seekers," "The Would-be-goods," etc. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1905 Copyright, 1905, by Dodd, Mead and Company Published October, 1905 The Psammead TO JOHN BLAND My Lamb, you are so very small, You have not learned to read at all; Yet never a printed book withstands The urgence of your dimpled hands. So, though this book is for yourself, Let mother keep it on the shelf Till you can read. O days that pass, That day will come too soon, alas! NOTE Parts of this story have appeared in the Strand Magazine under the title of "THE PSAMMEAD." CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Beautiful as the Day 1 II Golden Guineas 36 III Being Wanted 70 IV Wings 108 V No Wings 141 VI A Castle and No Dinner 159 VII A Siege and Bed 183 VIII Bigger than the Baker's Boy 203 IX Grown Up 236 X Scalps 261 XI The Last Wish 287 ILLUSTRATIONS The Psammead Frontispiece That First Glorious Rush Round the Garden Facing page 2 Cyril Had Nipped His Finger in the Door of a Hutch " " 4 Anthea Suddenly Screamed, "It's Alive!" " " 12 The Baby Did Not Know Them! " " 28 Martha Emptied a Toilet-jug of Cold Water Over Him " " 32 The Rain Fell in Slow Drops on to Anthea's Face " " 36 He Staggered, and Had to Sit Down Again in a Hurry " " 50 Mr. Beale Snatched the Coin, Bit It, and Put It in His Pocket " " 58 They Had Run Into Martha and the Baby " " 64 He Said, "Now Then!" to the Policeman and Mr. Peasemarsh " " 66 The Lucky Children Hurriedly Started for the Gravel Pit " " 78 "Poof, poof, poofy," He Said, and Made a Grab " " 86 At Double-quick Time Ran the Twinkling Legs of the Lamb's Brothers and Sisters " " 88 The Next Minute the Two Were Fighting " " 90 He Snatched the Baby from Anthea " " 94 He Consented to Let the Two Gypsy Women Feed Him " " 98 The Sand-fairy Blew Himself Out " " 122 They Flew Over Rochester " " 126 The Farmer Sat Down on the Grass, Suddenly and Heavily " " 128 Everyone Now Turned Out His Pockets " " 132 These Were the Necessaries of Life " " 134 The Children Were Fast Asleep " " 138 The Keeper Spoke Deep-Chested Words through the Keyhole " " 150 There the Castle Stood, Black and Stately " " 164 Robert Was Dragged Forthwith—by the Reluctant Ear " " 166 He Wiped Away a Manly Tear " " 168 "Oh, Do, Do, Do, Do !" Said Robert " " 174 The Man Fell with a Splash Into the Moat-water " " 196 Anthea Tilted the Pot over the Nearest Leadhole " " 198 He Pulled Robert's Hair " " 210 "The Sammyadd's Done Us Again," Said Cyril " " 214 He Lifted Up the Baker's Boy and Set Him on Top of the Haystack " " 216 It Was a Strange Sensation Being Wheeled in a Pony-carriage by a Giant " " 220 When the Girl Came Out She Was Pale and Trembling " " 228 "When Your Time's Up Come to Me" " " 230 He Opened the Case and Used the Whole Thing as a Garden Spade " " 238 She Did It Gently by Tickling His Nose with a Twig of Honeysuckle " " 244 There, Sure Enough, Stood a Bicycle " " 248 The Punctured State of It Was Soon Evident " " 250 The Grown-up Lamb Struggled " " 258 She Broke Open the Missionary Box with the Poker " " 266 "Ye Seek a Pow-wow?" He Said " " 278 Bright Knives Were Being Brandished All about Them " " 284 She Was Clasped in Eight Loving Arms " " 294 "We Found a Fairy," Said Jane, Obediently " " 298 It Burrowed, and Disappeared, Scratching Fiercely to the Last " " 308 CHAPTER I BEAUTIFUL AS THE DAY The house was three miles from the station, but, before the dusty hired hack had rattled along for five minutes, the children began to put their heads out of the carriage window and say, "Aren't we nearly there?" And every time they passed a house, which was not very often, they all said, "Oh, is this it?" But it never was, till they reached the very top of the hill, just past the chalk-quarry and before you come to the gravel-pit. And then there was a white house with a green garden and an orchard beyond, and mother said, "Here we are!" "How white the house is," said Robert. "And look at the roses," said Anthea. "And the plums," said Jane. "It is rather decent," Cyril admitted. The Baby said, "Wanty go walky;" and the hack stopped with a last rattle and jolt. Everyone got its legs kicked or its feet trodden on in the scramble to get out of the carriage that very minute, but no one seemed to mind. Mother, curiously enough, was in no hurry to get out; and even when she had come down slowly and by the step, and with no jump at all, she seemed to wish to see the boxes carried in, and even to pay the driver, instead of joining in that first glorious rush round the garden and orchard and the thorny, thistly, briery, brambly wilderness beyond the broken gate and the dry fountain at the side of the house. But the children were wiser, for once. It was not really a pretty house at all; it was quite ordinary, and mother thought it was rather inconvenient, and was quite annoyed at there being no shelves, to speak of, and hardly a cupboard in the place. Father used to say that the iron-work on the roof and coping was like an architect's nightmare. But the house was deep in the country, with no other house in sight, and the children had been in London for two years, without so much as once going to the seaside even for a day by an excursion trai