Jasper and the Green Marvel Read Online Free Page B

shook her head.
    ‘Who, then?’ But she didn’t reply, and said instead, ‘You’ll be sorry you did this. REALLY sorry.’ And then Nelly did something that absolutely astonished them.
    She flew away!
    Strange as it may seem, the rats hadn’t even noticed until then that Nelly had wings. When she was hanging from Mrs Haverford-Snuffley’s hat she always kept them neatly folded against her sides, and so it was a tremendous shock to them when she took off into juddering flight from the edge of the table. She flew high up and circled the chandelier twice on her wide, ribbed black wings, then cried again, ‘You’ll be really sorry! I am going to tell!’ before disappearing off up the hallway, into the darkness of the sleeping house.
    The two rats stared after her. What a night! And now it was almost over, because throughthe hall window they could see the first faint traces of dawn in the sky. ‘We’d better get back to the room before Jasper wakes up.’
    It was easier said than done. They had wandered all over the house in the course of the night and although they thought they knew the way back, they quickly got lost. They trudged up and down for ages, arguing, blaming each other, both tired by now and beginning to get hungry again. It was a great relief when they finally found Jasper’s room. He was still snoring loudly in his brass bed as they crept back into their sock sleeping-bags, ready to nod off themselves, for they were worn out after all their adventures.
    But to their dismay no sooner had they put their heads on the rolled-up vest and were about to drift off when Jasper’s alarm clock went off with a loud jangle of bells. Oh no!
    ‘Morning, lads! Shake a leg! Wakey-wakey!’

9 The Green Marvel
    As Jasper was leaving the house to begin his first day’s work, he bumped into Mrs Knuttmegg at the bottom of the wooden stairs, and she glared at him.
    ‘Hungry during the night then, were you?’ she barked.
    ‘Yes, I was actually,’ Jasper replied. The dinner she had sent up to him the previous evening hadn’t been as mean and mingy as the scones, but it hadn’t been a particularly generous helping either. ‘I was very hungry indeed.’
    Mrs Knuttmegg seemed astonished by this. ‘Well, you’re a cheeky fellow and no mistake.’And then she announced, for no reason that Jasper could see, ‘There’s nothing Mrs Haverford-Snuffley likes more for her breakfast than stewed apples with cloves, cinnamon and raisins.’
    ‘Then why don’t you cook some for her?’ Jasper said. ‘That’s your job, isn’t it?’
    ‘You pup!’ she cried. ‘You cheeky pup! I’ll let you away with it this time but you watch yourself, mister, because I’ll be watching you. You mind your step.’ And she stumped off back to her kitchen.
    Let me away with it this time? Jasper wondered. Let me away with what? I haven’t done anything. And that talk about stewed apples, what was that all about? The woman’s clearly mad as well as nasty.
    He went out into the sunny garden to start work. Mrs Haverford-Snuffley had suggested he begin by cutting the lawn, which he thought would be easy enough. And it was, in so far as all that was required was to push the mowerup and down, stopping from time to time to empty the grass box into a barrow and then to wheel it away. The problem was that the lawns were so huge that it was tremendously hard work. Jasper pushed and cut and emptied and wheeled for hours and still he had made little progress.
    Why didn’t that woman buy one of those nifty mowers with an engine and a seat, he wondered as he emptied the grass box for the umpteenth time. Then I could zoom up and down and get the job done in no time at all. Lunchtime seemed to take forever to come, and the knowledge that the rats were snoozing in his pockets didn’t improve his temper. Lazy creatures! They’ve got bone idle since we left prison. They’re always sleeping these days.
    At last noon came and he settled down to eat the