Four times a year, Lord and Lady Devonroe host a feast in Castle Earnose that all the children in Horsmarlonerpool are invited to. There were three feasts at the beginning of the three school holidays, and a fourth big special feast at Christmas.
Well, this being the start of the summer holiday, everyone got an invitation through the post with a big bright sun on it that said to be at the Grand Hall of Castle Earnose at 2 O’Clock on Tuesday afternoon.
Mateo wasn’t scared of the dark when he went to bed, because he knew that his house was as safe as a fortress, and that his mummy and daddy were either downstairs watching television or somewhere nearby.
Not to mention, his covers were warm like a shield, and there was a little light on in the corner that was protecting him when he closed his eyes. There was nothing to worry about, and normally he slept very deeply and had wonderful dreams.
Colorado and Adora had nearly finished their first ever term in Year One at Half Hitch Elementary School
And what a term they’d had. They’d learnt how to plant seeds, and paint, and stand on one leg and then how to stand on no legs. You see, Half Hitch wasn’t a normal type of school - it was all about using your imagination and trying to make - as the headmistress Mrs Perrinpeas would always say - “trying to make the impossible, possible.”
If you visit Horsmarlonerpool train station, you can catch a train in two directions. North, to the Skylands, or west to the Pastures. But if you’re very lucky, and you’re friends with the engines and their drivers, you can go to other places, too.
One small line branches down to the harbor, and another one goes to the airport. Well it just so happened that on this day, as Amira and Dylan stood waiting for a train up to the Skylands that Shampoo the engine chugged into the platform with a rake of goods wagons.
Amira had an idea.
“Fancy an adventure,” she said to Dylan.
As the river Gurgleglug flows away from Lomberstack Mountain, it doesn’t all flow straight to the sea. Most of it goes forward through Horsmarlonerpool, and under the Twisty Bridge and under the Bridge of Flags, but a little bit branches off to the right to form Merrytime Stream.
And where Merrytime Stream leaves the River Gurgleglug, there’s a water mill. The fresh water spins the big wooden wheel, and inside, Mister Harry works the equipment that does so many important jobs - like grinding grain, or rolling out paper, or spinning thread.
Mister Harry worked very long days, which gave his son Elliot and daughter Eilidh plenty of time to explore. And there was nothing that Eilidh and Elliot liked to do more than explore!
Most of the people who live in Horsmarlonerpool are very nice indeed. Folk are friendly, and people help each other out. Well it was old Kirkland Muffin’s rule: Everyone should be kind to one another.
But there is a couple of wronguns who are rather naughty: And at their worst, they can be really quite bad. These two men are called Pebbles and Crater. And they're always causing a right nuisance, and the trouble is, they are rather clever at doing it. You see, Pebbles and Crater and very good at being naughty, because they are very good at inventing.
Roy was under his bed in the best camp he had ever made.
There were pillows around the edge like castle walls, so nobody could see in, but through a tiny spy hole he could see out to check for intruders. Then, on the inside of the camp, he’d used his bedsheets and duvet to make it warm. And there was a carton of orange juice, and a packet of biscuits. He could last in here for WEEKS if he needed to.
But although noBODY could get into Roy’s camp, there was one thing that could. The sound of the lawnmower from the back garden. Roy tried to plug every single little gap with his sheets, but the noise kept coming in. It was no use, Roy opened up the camp, climbed out, and made his way over to the window. Down in the garden below, mummy was mowing the grass with a big red mower. It was the noisiest mower in the whole town.
When you cross the Twisty Bridge, you reach the Old Town of Horsmarlonerpool.
This is where the streets are windy and muddled, and where the ancient houses creak and hang off their old wooden beams. There are houses here that are older than Sprivers Wood, or Bluebell Wood, with their little doorways, and little windows and little attic rooms where people have sat and looked at the moon for hundreds of years.
If you ever go to Horsmarlonerpool, and head north out of the centre of town and into the country - you’ll soon come across a wood. It’s a very special wood, not just because it’s full of magic and magical adventures and adventures that are magical, but very special to me - because I was born there.
The wood is called Sprivers. And I grew up in a cave to the west of the wood with my Aunt Darla and Uncle Donald. And so I reckon I know most of what there is to know about Sprivers - and it does the heart good to know that the people of Horsmarlonerpool still find magic in it today.
