Beverley Nichols - The Tree that Sat Down

First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape 1945

First published in this abridged edition By Lions 1975

Lions is an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books 2015

This edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright (abridged edition) © Beverley Nichols 1975

Cover illustration © Nicola Kinner 2016

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers , Ltd 2016

Beverley Nichols and Isobel and John Morton Sale assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrators of the work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780006709930

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008199531

Version: 2016-04-21

For the PRRP

Z

Z

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One – Judy Meets a Stranger

Chapter Two – The Strangest Shop in the World

Chapter Three – Plots and Plans

Chapter Four – The Struggle Begins

Chapter Five – Bruno Escapes

Chapter Six – More About Bruno

Chapter Seven – Bruno Recaptured

Chapter Eight – A Peacock Spreads his Tail

Chapter Nine – Queer Customers

Chapter Ten – The Wickedness of Miss Smith

Chapter Eleven – Witchcraft

Chapter Twelve – A Tortoise to the Rescue

Chapter Thirteen – The Book of Magic

Chapter Fourteen – Judy in Danger

Chapter Fifteen – Appeal to the Law

Chapter Sixteen – The Night Before the Trial

Chapter Seventeen – Justice is Done

Chapter Eighteen – The Storm – and After

Chapter Nineteen – Happy Ending

Footnote

Collins Modern Classics

About the Publisher

JUDY WAS OUT in the wood, collecting Sleepo.

In case you do not know about Sleepo, I will explain. It was one of the things which Judy’s grandmother sold in The Shop Under the Willow Tree. It was really her own invention, though other people in the wood had tried to copy it. But nobody’s Sleepo was as good as Mrs Judy’s; it did not send you to sleep nearly so quickly, and sometimes it gave you bad dreams. Mrs Judy’s Sleepo never gave you bad dreams … in fact, she had an extra special variety, which cost a penny an ounce more, which gave you the most beautiful dreams. She put a dream in each of these special boxes, which were tied up with green ribbon. Sometimes, if she thought you looked sad, she would pop in an extra dream for luck. The ordinary boxes, which had not got a dream in them, were only tied up with string. But even so, they were very good value for money.

Now I will explain how to get Sleepo, because you might like to try to collect some yourself.

*

Whenever a cat or a dog or a dormouse or any other animal is sleeping, the air it breathes out through its mouth or its nose has got a little Sleepo in it. You cannot see it, any more than you can see the air itself, but it is there.

Now if the animal just goes on sleeping, the Sleepo drifts away, like smoke, and goes up to the ceiling or flies out of the window. But if you take a glass jar, and hold it near its nose, a lot of Sleepo goes into the jar and settles down. And if you bottle it up and recite the right spells over the bottle, it will keep for a whole month; and when you pour it out of the bottle again, it will send you to sleep.

Now that sounds very simple, but it isn’t really quite as simple as all that. First of all, the jar has to be specially treated before it will hold the Sleepo properly. It has to be put under the branches of a willow tree at midnight. And then you have to wait until three willow leaves have fallen into the jar. And they must fall in of their own accord ; it is not the least use putting them in yourself, or shaking the branches of the tree.

When the three leaves have fallen into the jar, you must carry it up to your bedroom, and put it as near as you can to your pillow. And every night, before you go to sleep, you must take the jar in your hands and look at the leaves and say:

Sleepo, sleepo, three times three,

Out of the branch of a willow tree;

Sleepo come and make me wise.

Give me rest and close my eyes.

You do this for three nights running; and when you wake up on the third morning you find that something very exciting has happened. The leaves of the willow tree have flown away, and in their place are three pennies. You must take these pennies and buy something with them to give away … you must not spend any of it on yourself. When you have done this (which will be a very nice and kind thing to do) you will be able to collect as much Sleepo as you want. And perhaps you may be able to sell some of it for more than the three pennies that you gave away.

*

Now let us get back to Judy in the wood, and see how she is getting on.

She had just been holding the jar in front of the nose of a baby leopard. It was lying fast asleep in the sun and a lot of Sleepo was coming from its nose. And then a fly settled on its tail, and the baby leopard began to twist and turn, and not so much Sleepo came. So she closed the jar and walked on.

She came to a cornfield in a clearing and wondered if she should go in to look for dormice. They were always sleepy, and it was a very good quality of Sleepo which one collected from them, because they were such amiable animals, and always had the nicest thoughts. However, they were also very small, and it took a dreadfully long time to collect any quantity; you had to hold the jar in front of at least twenty dormice before you got more than half an ounce. What she really wanted was somebody like old Mr Sloth, who hung from a tree, with Sleepo pouring from him in bucketfuls.

Then, through a gap in the trees, she saw something lying on the ground. It was covered with stripes, and at first she thought it must be a rug which somebody had left behind after a picnic. But when she looked more closely, her heart beat fast with excitement, because she saw it was a little zebra, sound asleep. And when zebras slept, they slept very heavily indeed. If she could only tiptoe across without waking him up, she would be able to fill her jar in no time, and go home to tea.