'That's terrific, Grandma!' George cried. 'You haven't stood up like that for years! Look at you! You're standing up all on your own and you're not even using a stick!'
Grandma didn't even hear him. The frozen pop-eyed look was back with her again now. She was miles away in another world.
Marvellous medicine, George told himself. He found it fascinating to stand there watching what it was doing to the old hag. What next? he wondered.
He soon found out.
Suddenly she began to grow.
It was quite slow at first . . . just a very gradual inching upwards . . . up, up, up . . . inch by inch . . . getting taller and taller . . . about an inch every few seconds . . . and in the beginning George didn't notice it.
But when she had passed the five foot six mark and was going on up towards being six feet tall, George gave a jump and shouted, 'Hey, Grandma!
You're
But Grandma didn't stop.
It was a truly fantastic sight, this ancient scrawny old woman getting taller and taller, longer and longer, thinner and thinner, as though she were a piece of elastic being pulled upwards by invisible hands.
When the top of her head actually touched the ceiling, George thought she was bound to stop.
But she didn't.
There was a sort of scrunching noise, and bits of plaster and cement came raining down.
'Hadn't you better stop now, Grandma?' George said. 'Daddy's just had this whole room repainted.'
But there was no stopping her now.
Soon, her head and shoulders had completely disappeared through the ceiling and she was still going.
George dashed upstairs to his own bedroom and there she was coming up through the floor like a mushroom.
'Whoopee!' she shouted, finding her voice at last. 'Hallelujah, here I come!'
'Steady on, Grandma,' George said.
'With a heigh-nonny-no and up we go!' she shouted. 'Just watch me grow!'
'This is
'Terrific medicine!' she cried. 'Give me some more!'
She's dotty as a doughnut, George thought.
'Come on, boy! Give me some more!' she yelled. 'Dish it out! I'm slowing down!'
George was still clutching the medicine bottle in one hand and the spoon in the other. Oh well, he thought, why not? He poured out a second dose and popped it into her mouth.
'
'I'm on my way now, boy!' she called down to George. 'Just watch me go!'
'That's the attic above you, Grandma!' George called out. 'I'd keep out of there! It's full of bugs and bogles!'
George stood in his bedroom gazing at the shambles. There was a big hole in the floor and another in the ceiling, and sticking up like a post between the two was the middle part of Grandma. Her legs were in the room below, her head in the attic.
'I'm still going!' came the old screechy voice from up above. 'Give me another dose, my boy, and let's go through the roof!'
'No, Grandma, no!' George called back. 'You're busting up the whole house!'
'To heck with the house!' she shouted. 'I want some fresh air! I haven't been outside for twenty years!'
'By golly, she
The Brown Hen
George stood in the farmyard looking up at the roof. The old farmhouse had a fine roof of pale red tiles and tall chimneys.
There was no sign of Grandma. There was only a song-thrush sitting on one of the chimney-pots, singing a song. The old wurzel's got stuck in the attic, George thought. Thank goodness for that.
Suddenly a tile came clattering down from the roof and fell into the yard. The song-thrush took off fast and flew away.
Then another tile came down.
Then half a dozen more.
And then, very slowly, like some weird monster rising up from the deep, Grandma's head came through the roof . . .
Then her scrawny neck . . .
And the tops of her shoulders . . .
'How'm I doing, boy!' she shouted. 'How's that for a bash up?'
'Don't you think you'd better stop now, Grandma?' George called out . . .
'I have stopped!' she answered. 'I feel terrific! Didn't I tell you I had magic powers! Didn't I warn you I had wizardry in the tips of my fingers! But you wouldn't listen to me, would you? You wouldn't listen to your old Grandma!'
'
'A
'I did! I did!' George shouted.
'You're lying as usual!' Grandma yelled. 'You're always lying!'
'I'm not lying, Grandma. I swear I'm not.'
The wrinkled old face high up on the roof stared down suspiciously at George. 'Are you telling me you actually made a new medicine all by yourself?' she shouted.
'Yes, Grandma, all by myself.'
'I don't believe you,' she answered. 'But I'm very comfortable up here. Fetch me a cup of tea.'
A brown hen was pecking about in the yard close to where George was standing. The hen gave him an idea. Quickly, he uncorked the medicine bottle and poured some of the brown stuff into the spoon. 'Watch this, Grandma!' he shouted. He crouched down, holding out the spoon to the hen.
'Chicken,' he said. 'Chick-chick-chicken. Come here. Have some of this.'
Chickens are stupid birds, and very greedy. They think everything is food. This one thought the spoon was full of corn. It hopped over. It put its head on one side and looked at the spoon. 'Come on, chicken,' George said. 'Good chicken. Chick-chick-chick.'
The brown hen stretched out its neck towards the spoon and went
The effect was electric.
'
Then down it came again into the yard,