The Wind on the Moon Read Online Free Page A

Wax, and told them to give pins to every other boy and girl in the crowd.
    Then she said loudly, ‘If they really are balloons, they ought to burst!’ And she stuck a pin into Dorinda.
    Tom Leathercow stuck a pin into Dinah, and all the other children cried ‘Burst the balloons!’ And those who were nearest Dorinda stuck pins into her, while others pricked Dinah.
    Dinah and Dorinda began to cry. They cried so loudly that everyone was amazed, and all the dogs began to bark.
    Mrs. Leathercow the butcher’s wife caught hold of Tom and boxed his ears. Mrs. Taper the draper’s wife, who was very short-sighted, seized Robin and Robina Wax, thinking they were her own children, and knocked their heads together. So Mrs. Wax pulled Mrs. Taper’s hair, and Mr. Taper was thrown to the ground by Mr. Crumb, who stood very firmly on his wooden leg and hit everyone within reach. Some of the children were still sticking pins into Dinah and Dorinda, who cried louder than ever, and seventeen dogs began to fight in eight different parts of the Square, while every other dog was barking with all his might to encourage them.
    Mrs. Fullalove fell off the statue of Queen Victoria, but luckily fell on Mr. Horrabin the iron-monger, who was very fat and saved her from being hurt. The Vicar shouted, ‘Peace, peace! Silence is golden!’ But no one could hear him, so no one paid any attention.
    Then Constable Drum, the village policeman, blew his whistle. The first time he blew it, all the older people stopped quarrelling and looked around to see what was happening. The second time he blew it, the children stopped shouting and stuck no more pins into Dinah and Dorinda. The third time he blew it, the dogs stopped barking, and all was quiet.
    â€˜In the King’s name!’ shouted Constable Drum. ‘If you do not behave yourselves, I shall put you all in prison. Let there be no more rioting, roistering, brawling or biting, barking or fighting. Be good people and go to your homes. Whoever is late for his luncheon shall feel the weight of my truncheon! God save the King!’
    So all the people went home, feeling very much ashamed of themselves, and Mrs. Palfrey and Miss Serendip did what they could to comfort Dinah and Dorinda. But nothing could make them stop crying, even though Mr. Whitloe the drayman took them home in his dray, which was much more comfortable than rolling home.

    Mrs. Taper knocked their heads together

Chapter Four
    Dinah and Dorinda would not stop crying. They cried for days and days. They lost their appetite, and wanted nothing to eat. But they drank lots of milk and water and lemonade and barley-water, and perhaps all this liquid turned into tears. Because as time went on they cried more and more. They cried all through the Christmas holidays, and every day they got thinner and thinner. They got as thin as a lamp-post, and then as thin as a walking-stick, and thinner than that. And their faces were always red with weeping.
    One day when they were in the garden, crying under the apple-tree, their mother looked at them and said, ‘They’re as thin as match-sticks! With their poor little red faces they look just like those big wooden matches that their father used to light his pipe!’
    â€˜An early attempt to make sulphur matches,’ said Miss Serendip, ‘was directed by Robert Boyle, the natural philosopher, in the year 1680. Robert Boyle, whose father was the Earl of Cork, discovered Boyle’s Law, which says that the volume of a gas varies inversely as the pressure. 1680, of course, was the year in which Parliament passed the Act of Exclusion, the object of which, as might be imagined, was to exclude the Duke of Monmouth.’
    Mrs. Palfrey paid no attention to Miss Serendip, but sadly shook her head, and sighed, ‘How you children do worry me! I must take you to see Dr. Fosfar — but will you promise me, Dinah, not to bring some horrid magpie who might steal