The Box of Delights (New York Review Children's Collection)
John Masefield
Language: English
Pages: 312
ISBN: 1590172515
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Strange things begin to happen the minute young Kay Harker boards the train to go home for Christmas and finds himself under observation by two very shifty-looking characters. Arriving at his destination, the boy is immediately accosted by a bright-eyed old man with a mysterious message: “The wolves are running.” Soon danger is everywhere, as a gang of criminals headed by the notorious wizard Abner Brown and his witch wife Sylvia Daisy Pouncer gets to work. What does Abner Brown want? The magic box that the old man has entrusted to Kay, which allows him to travel freely not only in space but in time, too. The gang will stop at nothing to carry out their plan, even kidnapping Kay’s friend, the tough little Maria Jones, and threatening to cancel Christmas celebrations altogether. But with the help of his allies, including an intrepid mouse, a squadron of Roman soldiers, the legendary Herne the Hunter, and the inventor of the Box of Delights himself, Kay just may be able rescue his friend, foil Abner Brown’s plot, and save Christmas, too.
At once a thriller, a romp, and a spellbinding fantasy, The Box of Delights is a great English children’s book and a perfect Christmas treat.
trumpets, swords, popguns, pistols that fired caps and others which fired corks. There were also many dolls and teddy-bears. For the older boys there were railways with signals and switches and passenger trains and goods trains, some of which went by steam and others by clockwork. There were goods yards with real goods: little boxes, bales and sacks, real cranes by which these could be hoisted, and pumps by which the engines could get water. There were aeroplanes which you could wind up so that
once been planted. This had straggled and grown to a great height and made the wood even darker than it would otherwise have been. There the track ended in a double line of box trees. No doubt the trees had once been trimmed into a box walk; now they were all straggled and overgrown and untidy. Between the lines of box trees, however, a path, that seemed to be in considerable use, led to right and left, and through gaps in the dense shrubbery the boys saw the gleam of water just below them.
earth will they do for the Christmas services? We’ll get the news on the wireless. We’d better wait up till then.” They waited up until the news on the wireless. They heard that the Archbishops were determined that, in case of need, the services should be held in the Cathedral in spite of the absence of the regular staff and that certain clergy had been asked to proceed to Tatchester to officiate there if the need arose. The announcer said that the matter was viewed with the greatest seriousness
Station and a full description of both bandits is being broadcast at half-hourly intervals from all stations. Mr. Stalwart is convinced that both criminals will bear marks of their meeting with him for some weeks. “We would point out that the mystic words uttered by the reprobates are common thieves’ slang: “Kool slop” is what is called back slang: the words Look, Police turned backwards. It is a familiar warning in the underworld. The other word, “Mizzle,” of doubtful derivation, means escape,
the rail of the car Kay saw Condicote brightly lit; he heard a few notes from the famous Condicote bells. The unicorns were now going so fast that, a moment later, he saw the pinnacled tower of Tatchester Cathedral floodlit for the great night. In an instant he saw all the lights of Tatchester. “Of course,” he thought, “everybody in the city has lit a window as part of the celebration.” The unicorns swerved suddenly, then swerved again, in a great sweep, cutting in ahead of the team of lions,