The Magic World

Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Wilson and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









[Illustration: He scrambled out of the cupboard, and the boots and
goloshes fell off him like spray off a bather.--P. 24.]




THE MAGIC WORLD

BY
E. NESBIT

AUTHOR OF
'THE TREASURE SEEKERS,' 'THE WONDERFUL GARDEN,'
'THE MAGIC CITY,' ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
H. R. MILLAR and SPENCER PRYSE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1924




_First published by Macmillan & Co. 1912_




CONTENTS
                                              PAGE
   1. The Cat-hood of Maurice                    1

   2. The Mixed Mine                            27

   3. Accidental Magic                          58

   4. The Princess and the Hedge-pig            96

   5. Septimus Septimusson                     126

   6. The White Cat                            148

   7. Belinda and Bellamant                    160

   8. Justnowland                              185

   9. The Related Muff                         206

  10. The Aunt and Amabel                      218

  11. Kenneth and the Carp                     233

  12. The Magician's Heart                     260




ILLUSTRATIONS

  He scrambled out of the cupboard, and the
  boots and goloshes fell off him like spray
  off a bather (p. 24)                       _Frontispiece_

                                                 FACE PAGE
  'If you think cats have such a jolly time,'
  said Lord Hugh, 'why not _be_ a cat?'                 7

  It was Mabel who untied the string and soothed
  his terrors                                          14

  He landed there on his four padded feet light
  as a feather                                         17

  When Jane went in to put Mabel's light out,
  Maurice crept in too                                 21

  Her bow went down suddenly                           28

  'Look!' he said, 'look!' and pointed                 35

  Far above him and every one else towered the
  elephant                                             39

  It became a quite efficient motor                    42

  Quentin de Ward                                      58

  It landed on the point of the chin of Smithson
  major                                                67

  'Who are you?' he said. 'Answer, I adjure you
  by the Sacred Tau!'                                  79

  The cart was drawn by an enormous creature, more
  like an elephant than anything else                  85

  'Silence!' cried the priest. 'Chosen of the
  Immortals, close your eyes!'                         91

  On the lower terrace the royal nurse was walking
  up and down with the baby princess that all the
  fuss was about                                       98

  Instantly a flight of winged arrows crossed the
  garden                                              109

  'I would kiss you on every one of your thousand
  spears,' she said, 'to give you what you wish'      123

  So we all sat on chairs in the drawing-room, and
  thought of nothing to say harder than ever          208

  We scalped Eliza as she passed through the hall     213

  Sidney threw the rug over her, and rolled her
  over and over                                       215

  Early next morning he tried to catch fish with
  several pieces of string knotted together and
  a hairpin                                           235

  A radiant vision stepped into the circle of light   241

  There was a splash                                  248

  'Oh, good-bye!' he cried desperately, and snapped
  at the worm                                         256




I

THE CAT-HOOD OF MAURICE


To have your hair cut is not painful, nor does it hurt to have your
whiskers trimmed. But round wooden shoes, shaped like bowls, are not
comfortable wear, however much it may amuse the onlooker to see you try
to walk in them. If you have a nice fur coat like a company promoter's,
it is most annoying to be made to swim in it. And if you had a tail,
surely it would be solely your own affair; that any one should tie a tin
can to it would strike you as an unwarrantable impertinence--to say the
least.

Yet it is difficult for an outsider to see these things from the point
of view of both the persons concerned. To Maurice, scissors in hand,
alive and earnest to snip, it seemed the most natural thing in the world
to shorten the stiff whiskers of Lord Hugh Cecil by a generous inch. He
did not understand how useful those whiskers were to Lord Hugh, both in
sport and in the more serious business of getting a living. Also it
amused Maurice to throw Lord Hugh into ponds, though Lord Hugh only
once permitted this liberty. To put walnuts on Lord Hugh's feet and then
to watch him walk on ice was, in Maurice's opinion, as good as a play.
Lord Hugh was a very favourite cat, but Maurice was discreet, and Lord
Hugh, except under violent suffering, was at that time anyhow, dumb.

But the empty sardine-tin attached to Lord Hugh's tail and hind
legs--this had a voice, and, rattling against stairs, banisters, and the
legs of stricken furniture, it cried aloud for vengeance.