{"product_id":"2940012192844","title":"The Enchanted Castle","description":"The Enchanted Castle is a children's fantasy novel by Edith Nesbit published in 1907.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHERE were three of them--Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathleen. Of course, Jerry's\u003cbr\u003ename was Gerald, and not Jeremiah, whatever you may think; and Jimmy's\u003cbr\u003ename was James; and Kathleen was never called by her name at all, but\u003cbr\u003eCathy, or Catty, or Puss Cat, when her brothers were pleased with her,\u003cbr\u003eand Scratch Cat when they were not pleased. And they were at school in a\u003cbr\u003elittle town in the West of England--the boys at one school, of course,\u003cbr\u003eand the girl at another, because the sensible habit of having boys and\u003cbr\u003egirls at the same school is not yet as common as I hope it will be some\u003cbr\u003eday. They used to see each other on Saturdays and Sundays at the house\u003cbr\u003eof a kind maiden lady; but it was one of those houses where it is\u003cbr\u003eimpossible to play. You know the kind of house, don't you? There is a\u003cbr\u003esort of a something about that kind of house that makes you hardly able\u003cbr\u003eeven to talk to each other when you are left alone, and playing seems\u003cbr\u003eunnatural and affected. So they looked forward to the holidays, when\u003cbr\u003ethey should all go home and be together all day long, in a house where\u003cbr\u003eplaying was natural and conversation possible, and where the Hampshire\u003cbr\u003eforests and fields were full of interesting things to do and see. Their\u003cbr\u003eCousin Betty was to be there too, and there were plans. Betty's school\u003cbr\u003ebroke up before theirs, and so she got to the Hampshire home first, and\u003cbr\u003ethe moment she got there she began to have measles, so that my three\u003cbr\u003ecouldn't go home at all. You may imagine their feelings. The thought of\u003cbr\u003eseven weeks at Miss Hervey's was not to be borne, and all three wrote\u003cbr\u003ehome and said so. This astonished their parents very much, because they\u003cbr\u003ehad always thought it was so nice for the children to have dear Miss\u003cbr\u003eHervey's to go to. However, they were \"jolly decent about it,\" as Jerry\u003cbr\u003esaid, and after a lot of letters and telegrams, it was arranged that the\u003cbr\u003eboys should go and stay at Kathleen's school, where there were now no\u003cbr\u003egirls left and no mistresses except the French one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It'll be better than being at Miss Hervey's,\" said Kathleen, when the\u003cbr\u003eboys came round to ask Mademoiselle when it would be convenient for them\u003cbr\u003eto come; \"and, besides, our school's not half so ugly as yours. We do\u003cbr\u003ehave tablecloths on the tables and curtains at the windows, and yours is\u003cbr\u003eall deal boards, and desks, and inkiness.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen they had gone to pack their boxes Kathleen made all the rooms as\u003cbr\u003epretty as she could with flowers in jam jars, marigolds chiefly,\u003cbr\u003ebecause there was nothing much else in the back garden. There were\u003cbr\u003egeraniums in the front garden, and calceolarias and lobelias; of course,\u003cbr\u003ethe children were not allowed to pick these.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We ought to have some sort of play to keep us going through the\u003cbr\u003eholidays,\" said Kathleen, when tea was over, and she had unpacked and\u003cbr\u003earranged the boys' clothes in the painted chests of drawers, feeling\u003cbr\u003every grown-up and careful as she neatly laid the different sorts of\u003cbr\u003eclothes in tidy little heaps in the drawers. \"Suppose we write a book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You couldn't,\" said Jimmy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I didn't mean me, of course,\" said Kathleen, a little injured; \"I meant\u003cbr\u003eus.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Too much fag,\" said Gerald briefly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If we wrote a book,\" Kathleen persisted, \"about what the insides of\u003cbr\u003eschools really _are_ like, people would read it and say how clever we\u003cbr\u003ewere.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"More likely expel us,\" said Gerald. \"No; we'll have an out-of-doors\u003cbr\u003egame--bandits, or something like that. It wouldn't be bad if we could\u003cbr\u003eget a cave and keep stores in it, and have our meals there.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There aren't any caves,\" said Jimmy, who was fond of contradicting\u003cbr\u003eevery one. \"And, besides, your precious Mamselle won't let us go out\u003cbr\u003ealone, as likely as not.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, we'll see about that,\" said Gerald. \"I'll go and talk to her like a\u003cbr\u003efather.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like that?\" Kathleen pointed the thumb of scorn at him, and he looked\u003cbr\u003ein the glass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"To brush his hair and his clothes and to wash his face and hands was to\u003cbr\u003eour hero but the work of a moment,\" said Gerald, and went to suit the\u003cbr\u003eaction to the word.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a very sleek boy, brown and thin and interesting-looking, that\u003cbr\u003eknocked at the door of the parlour where Mademoiselle sat reading a\u003cbr\u003eyellow-covered book and wishing vain wishes. Gerald could always make\u003cbr\u003ehimself look interesting at a moment's notice, a very useful\u003cbr\u003eaccomplishment in dealing with strange grown-ups. It was done by opening\u003cbr\u003ehis grey eyes rather wide, allowing the corners of his mouth to droop,\u003cbr\u003eand assuming a gentle, pleading expression, resembling that of the late\u003cbr\u003elittle Lord Fauntleroy--who must, by the way, be quite old now, and an\u003cbr\u003eawful prig.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166291640560,"sku":"2940012192844","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012192844_p0.jpg?v=1763553164","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012192844","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}