The Little Old Toymaker and Other Stories by ENID BLYTON Illustrated by Peter Wilks AWARD PUBLICATIONS LIMITED For further information on Enid Blyton please contact www.blyton.com ISBN 0-86163-930-8 This compilation text copyright © 1998 The Enid Blyton Company Illustrations copyright © 1998 Award Publications Limited Enid Blyton's signature is a trademark of The Enid Blyton Company This edition entitled The Little Old Toymaker and Other Stories published by permission of The Enid Blyton Company First published 1998 3rd impression 2000 Published by Award Publications Limited, 27 Longford Street, London NW1 3DZ Printed in Singapore CONTENTS The Little Old Toymaker 5 The Three Lovely Presents 16 The Cross Little Tadpole 30 Bottom of the Class! 41 Impy Plays a Trick 51 A Tale of Two Boys and a Kitten 63 It Grew and It Grew 81 Down the Rabbit-Hole 89 Sly-One Buys His Apples 100 The Little Sewing Machine 108 The Empty Doll's-House 121 The Pig with a Straight Tail 132 The Grand Birthday Cake 143 Clever Old Shaggy 156 The Enchanted Book 171 The Little Old Toymaker There was once a little old man who lived with his wife in a tiny cottage. He was called Stubby the toymaker, and he could make the loveliest toys. He liked making tiny toys the best–small chairs and tables for doll's-houses , little beds for tiny dolls to sleep in, and things like that. He was very clever at mending broken dolls too. Whenever a doll's face was broken, or an arm or leg, it was brought to Stubby and he mended it lovingly. Then came a sad time for the old toymaker . Nobody seemed to want his toys any more. All the children had unbreakable dolls which never needed mending. People said his shop was old- fashioned, and they went to the big new stores in the nearest town. Stubby went 5 The Little Old Toymaker and Other Stories on making his little chairs and tables, but nobody bought them. "Stubby, dear , I don't know what we shall do," said his little old wife. "We have no money now, you know. You have not sold anything for two weeks. I cannot buy flour to make bread if I have no money." "Dear me , wife, this will never do !" said Stubby, taking off his big round glasses and polishing them furiously. He always did that when he wanted to think hard, and right now he was thinking very hard indeed. "Have you thought of an idea , Stubby?" asked his wife at last . Stubby nodded. "Yes," he said. "But it isn't a very good one. You know, wife, our shop window is very old and the glass is not good. Perhaps people cannot see my nice little toys very well through it. Suppose we set out some little chairs and tables and beds on the broad top of the old wall outside. Then everyone would see them!" "That is a very good idea ," said his 6 wife. "I am quite sure that if people saw them, they would buy them. You really do make them so beautifully, Stubby dear." So out went the old toymaker and placed six little red chairs and a table to match on the top of the low stone wall outside. Then he put two small beds there as well, and his wife arranged the 7 The Little Old Toymaker and Other Stories tiny sheets, blankets and pillows on each. They did look so sweet! The sun shone down on them and old Stubby felt quite certain that anyone passing by would come in and buy them at once! But nobody did. Nobody even seemed to notice the tiny furniture. It was most disappointing. "I'll go and fetch them in after we've had supper," said Stubby. So the two sat down and had a poor supper of one cooked turnip out of the garden and a crust of stale bread. It was nearly dark when they had finished. Stubby got up and went out into the little garden to fetch in his dolls' furniture. He walked to the wall and looked down at it in the twilight. To his great astonishment there was no furniture there! It had gone! He felt all along the wall in dismay, and then hurried back to his wife. "Wife, wife!" he called. "All my chairs and the table and beds are gone!" "Has someone stolen them?" said his wife, almost in tears. "Oh, what a 8 The Little Old Toymaker shameful thing to steal from a poor old couple like ourselves!” “Never mind,” said Stubby. “It shows someone noticed them, anyhow. I’ll put some more out tomorrow and I’ll keep my eye on them!” So the next day he put out a set of green chairs and a table to match, and one tiny bed. He sat at his window and watched to see that no one took them. But nobody seemed to notice them at all. And then a strange thing happened. Stubby could hardly believe his eyes! He saw the chairs and table and bed walking off by themselves! Yes, really- they just slid down the wall and made off out of the gate! The Little Old Toymaker and Other Stories Stubby ran after them. “Hi! Hi!” he called.“What do you think you’re doing?” He made a grab at a chair – and to his enormous surprise, he got hold of a little wriggling figure that he couldn’t see! “Let me go, let me go!” screamed the little creature he couldn’t see. “Show yourselves then,” commanded Stubby, shaking with excitement. At once the little struggling creature showed himself and became visible. It was a very small pixie! “Bless us all!” said Stubby, his eyes nearly dropping out with amazement. “It’s the very first time I’ve ever seen a fairy! Pray what are you doing, stealing my chairs?” “Oh, are they yours?” said the pixie in surprise. “Hi, brothers. Stop carrying off this furniture. It belongs to someone!” At once all the chairs and tables were set down, and many small pixies became visible before Stubby’s astonished eyes. “We are really very sorry,” said the first pixie. “You see, we found the chairs, tables, and beds on the wall there, and we 10