end.
‘Oh – er – nothing!’ said Mildred brightly. ‘Just some bits and pieces I couldn’t fit into my suitcase. The cat basket was empty for the fight, so I thought I’d use it for extra stuff – you know. How did you get on with the holiday project by the way?’ she added, swiftly changing the subject.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Ethel, ‘the holiday project. Well, it was quite a challenge, wasn’t it? How did you get on?’
A shy smile spread over Mildred’s face. ‘Quite well, as a matter of fact,’ she replied. ‘I had a really good idea. In fact, it was the best idea I’ve ever had in my whole life! Then I looked up all the relevant bits in an ancient spell book in our local library. It’s an amazing old book, tiny print – you actually need a magnifying glass – and hardly any pictures, so it’s a bit boring, but it’s got everything in it. Anyway, I’ve got it all written down, so for once I can’t wait to get to school and show everyone. Makes a change, eh?’
‘What exactly is the spell?’ asked Ethel casually.
‘Well,’ said Mildred proudly, ‘it isn’t actually a known spell. I sort of made it up by myself. It’s to make an animal able to speak. Not like when a human turns into an animal, because, when that happens, the human sort of becomes the animal and can talk as the animal would. No, this is to make a small animal under twenty-five centimetres square able to have a conversation with a person. The animal has to be a maximum size because you have to make an exact formula for a particular body area – which means that it has to be correct down to the last detail. I tried to get it bigger, because I was dying to have a chat with Tabby, but I couldn’t get the equation right for the larger size, so I gave up trying. Anyway, I’ve actually managed to work it all out for twenty-five centimetres and under –all the incantations, and the herbs and how to mix it – so you could have a chat with, say, a toad or a field mouse. Oh, and it only works for two weeks on each animal and after those two weeks you can never get it to speak again. Weird, isn’t it?’
‘How do you know it only lasts for two weeks?’ asked Ethel, intrigued. ‘I mean, if you invented the spell, how do you know ?’
Mildred smiled.
‘Well, actually I have tried it,’ she said. ‘I tried it on a shrew and a young hedgehog and a newt, who all fitted the size criterion – I don’t know why I’m telling you all this Ethel, I expect your project is a zillion times more interesting.’
Ethel did her best to look admiring and pleased for Mildred.
‘Gosh, Mildred,’ she enthused, ‘you really have come up with a winner there. My idea’s nothing compared with that. What did the shrew and the hedgehog say ?’
‘Not much actually,’ said Mildred. ‘The hedgehog was quite quiet and shy, just asked if it could have a saucer of milk and be directed to the nearest slug-infested flowerbed, but the shrew was really quite nasty – very bad-tempered and complaining about everything. I was glad when the two weeks were up and it suddenly went back to squeaking.I noticed that both of them stopped being able to talk bang on fourteen days at noon and that, however hard I tried, I couldn’t get them speaking again. So I used the formula on a newt and it worked, though newts aren’t very chatty either – just for two weeks again, so it’s been properly tested. I’ve written it all up and put it in this special folder. Look, fifteen pages! H.B. won’t believe it until she sees how well it works.’ She held up a neat blue folder.
Mildred suddenly felt slightly uneasy, sitting there in a tree with Ethel, having what appeared to be a normal, pleasant conversation. Up until this point the two girls had never had any conversation longer than two minutes without an argument developing.
‘Come on then,’ she said, putting the folder back into her school bag and beginning to gather her things together.
‘Oh – er – nothing!’ said Mildred brightly. ‘Just some bits and pieces I couldn’t fit into my suitcase. The cat basket was empty for the fight, so I thought I’d use it for extra stuff – you know. How did you get on with the holiday project by the way?’ she added, swiftly changing the subject.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Ethel, ‘the holiday project. Well, it was quite a challenge, wasn’t it? How did you get on?’
A shy smile spread over Mildred’s face. ‘Quite well, as a matter of fact,’ she replied. ‘I had a really good idea. In fact, it was the best idea I’ve ever had in my whole life! Then I looked up all the relevant bits in an ancient spell book in our local library. It’s an amazing old book, tiny print – you actually need a magnifying glass – and hardly any pictures, so it’s a bit boring, but it’s got everything in it. Anyway, I’ve got it all written down, so for once I can’t wait to get to school and show everyone. Makes a change, eh?’
‘What exactly is the spell?’ asked Ethel casually.
‘Well,’ said Mildred proudly, ‘it isn’t actually a known spell. I sort of made it up by myself. It’s to make an animal able to speak. Not like when a human turns into an animal, because, when that happens, the human sort of becomes the animal and can talk as the animal would. No, this is to make a small animal under twenty-five centimetres square able to have a conversation with a person. The animal has to be a maximum size because you have to make an exact formula for a particular body area – which means that it has to be correct down to the last detail. I tried to get it bigger, because I was dying to have a chat with Tabby, but I couldn’t get the equation right for the larger size, so I gave up trying. Anyway, I’ve actually managed to work it all out for twenty-five centimetres and under –all the incantations, and the herbs and how to mix it – so you could have a chat with, say, a toad or a field mouse. Oh, and it only works for two weeks on each animal and after those two weeks you can never get it to speak again. Weird, isn’t it?’
‘How do you know it only lasts for two weeks?’ asked Ethel, intrigued. ‘I mean, if you invented the spell, how do you know ?’
Mildred smiled.
‘Well, actually I have tried it,’ she said. ‘I tried it on a shrew and a young hedgehog and a newt, who all fitted the size criterion – I don’t know why I’m telling you all this Ethel, I expect your project is a zillion times more interesting.’
Ethel did her best to look admiring and pleased for Mildred.
‘Gosh, Mildred,’ she enthused, ‘you really have come up with a winner there. My idea’s nothing compared with that. What did the shrew and the hedgehog say ?’
‘Not much actually,’ said Mildred. ‘The hedgehog was quite quiet and shy, just asked if it could have a saucer of milk and be directed to the nearest slug-infested flowerbed, but the shrew was really quite nasty – very bad-tempered and complaining about everything. I was glad when the two weeks were up and it suddenly went back to squeaking.I noticed that both of them stopped being able to talk bang on fourteen days at noon and that, however hard I tried, I couldn’t get them speaking again. So I used the formula on a newt and it worked, though newts aren’t very chatty either – just for two weeks again, so it’s been properly tested. I’ve written it all up and put it in this special folder. Look, fifteen pages! H.B. won’t believe it until she sees how well it works.’ She held up a neat blue folder.
Mildred suddenly felt slightly uneasy, sitting there in a tree with Ethel, having what appeared to be a normal, pleasant conversation. Up until this point the two girls had never had any conversation longer than two minutes without an argument developing.
‘Come on then,’ she said, putting the folder back into her school bag and beginning to gather her things together.
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