The Story of the Amulet, E. Nesbit [free ebook reader for iphone txt] 📗

Merely from habit, the Sand-fairy began to blow itself out, but it stopped short suddenly.

“I forgot,” it said; “I can’t give you any more wishes.”

“No⁠—but look here,” said Cyril, “couldn’t we call in old Nurse and get her to say she wishes they were safe home. I’m sure she does.”

“No go,” said the Psammead. “It’s just the same as your wishing yourself if you get someone else to wish for you. It won’t act.”

“But it did yesterday⁠—with the man in the shop,” said Robert.

“Ah yes,” said the creature, “but you didn’t ask him to wish, and you didn’t know what would happen if he did. That can’t be done again. It’s played out.”

“Then you can’t help us at all,” said Jane; “oh⁠—I did think you could do something; I’ve been thinking about it ever since we saved your life yesterday. I thought you’d be certain to be able to fetch back Father, even if you couldn’t manage Mother.”

And Jane began to cry.

“Now don’t,” said the Psammead hastily; “you know how it always upsets me if you cry. I can’t feel safe a moment. Look here; you must have some new kind of charm.”

“That’s easier said than done.”

“Not a bit of it,” said the creature; “there’s one of the strongest charms in the world not a stone’s throw from where you bought me yesterday. The man that I bit so⁠—the first one, I mean⁠—went into a shop to ask how much something cost⁠—I think he said it was a concertina⁠—and while he was telling the man in the shop how much too much he wanted for it, I saw the charm in a sort of tray, with a lot of other things. If you can only buy that, you will be able to have your heart’s desire.”

The children looked at each other and then at the Psammead. Then Cyril coughed awkwardly and took sudden courage to say what everyone was thinking.

“I do hope you won’t be waxy,” he said; “but it’s like this: when you used to give us our wishes they almost always got us into some row or other, and we used to think you wouldn’t have been pleased if they hadn’t. Now, about this charm⁠—we haven’t got over and above too much tin, and if we blue it all on this charm and it turns out to be not up to much⁠—well⁠—you see what I’m driving at, don’t you?”

“I see that you don’t see more than the length of your nose, and that’s not far,” said the Psammead crossly. “Look here, I had to give you the wishes, and of course they turned out badly, in a sort of way, because you hadn’t the sense to wish for what was good for you. But this charm’s quite different. I haven’t got to do this for you, it’s just my own generous kindness that makes me tell you about it. So it’s bound to be all right. See?”

“Don’t be cross,” said Anthea, “Please, please don’t. You see, it’s all we’ve got; we shan’t have any more pocket-money till Daddy comes home⁠—unless he sends us some in a letter. But we do trust you. And I say all of you,” she went on, “don’t you think it’s worth spending all the money, if there’s even the chanciest chance of getting Father and Mother back safe now? Just think of it! Oh, do let’s!”

“I don’t care what you do,” said the Psammead; “I’ll go back to sand again till you’ve made up your minds.”

“No, don’t!” said everybody; and Jane added, “We are quite mind made-up⁠—don’t you see we are? Let’s get our hats. Will you come with us?”

“Of course,” said the Psammead; “how else would you find the shop?”

So everybody got its hat. The Psammead was put into a flat bass-bag that had come from Farringdon Market with two pounds of filleted plaice in it. Now it contained about three pounds and a quarter of solid Psammead, and the children took it in turns to carry it.

“It’s not half the weight of The Lamb,” Robert said, and the girls sighed.

The Psammead poked a wary eye out of the top of the basket every now and then, and told the children which turnings to take.

“How on earth do you know?” asked Robert. “I can’t think how you do it.”

And the Psammead said sharply, “No⁠—I don’t suppose you can.”

At last they came to the shop. It had all sorts and kinds of things in the window⁠—concertinas, and silk handkerchiefs, china vases and teacups, blue Japanese jars, pipes, swords, pistols, lace collars, silver spoons tied up in half-dozens, and wedding-rings in a red lacquered basin. There were officers’ epaulets and doctors’ lancets. There were tea-caddies inlaid with red turtle-shell and brass curly-wurlies, plates of different kinds of money, and stacks of different kinds of plates. There was a beautiful picture of a little girl washing a dog, which Jane liked very much. And in the middle of the window there was a dirty silver tray full of mother-of-pearl card counters, old seals, paste buckles, snuffboxes, and all sorts of little dingy odds and ends.

The Psammead put its head quite out of the fish-basket to look in the window, when Cyril said⁠—

“There’s a tray there with rubbish in it.”

And then its long snail’s eyes saw something that made them stretch out so much that they were as long and thin as new slate-pencils. Its fur bristled thickly, and its voice was quite hoarse with excitement as it whispered⁠—

“That’s it! That’s it! There, under that blue and yellow buckle, you can see a bit sticking out. It’s red. Do you see?”

“Is it that thing something like a horseshoe?” asked Cyril. “And red, like the common sealing-wax you do up parcels with?”

“Yes, that’s it,” said the Psammead. “Now, you do just as you did before. Ask the price of other things. That blue buckle would do. Then the man will get the tray out of the window. I