Let Sleeping Sea-Monsters Lie (7 page)

The boat landed. Miss Pigg’s old mother was placed on a tussock with her parasol open against the sun. Miss Pigg began to butter the sandwiches. And the five sensible little boys and the
five well-behaved little girls ran about, so happy they thought they would burst. They took off their shoes and they paddled. They made daisy chains. They crawled through the grass pretending to be
Ferocious Animals.

But not Algernon. Algernon was bored. He kicked the stones about and hit one of the little boys on the forehead. He pulled down a thrush’s nest and trampled on the eggs. He found a little
girl with her apron full of cowrie shells and threw them on the ground.

“I’m bored,” he moaned. “There’s nothing to do on this island.”

But after lunch, when everyone was resting, he did find something to do. He thought of it because it was the one thing Miss Pigg had told the children not to do on the island.

“You must not light a fire, children,” she had said, “because it is dangerous and will damage the plants and trees.”

And the five little girls and the five little boys had listened and nodded their heads. But not Algernon.

He gathered some sticks and he piled up some dry grass right in the middle and humpiest bit of the island. Then he crept to where one of the fishermen was sleeping and stole his matches. And
then . . . he lit a fire!

The fire started small. But soon it caught a gust of wind and it grew and it spread.

At first the Kraken felt nothing at all. Then it felt rather a strong tickle . . . then an itch . . . and then a pain!

“Ow!” said the Kraken, feeling very much upset.

Well, you will see what happened next and it is no use at all blaming the Kraken. If someone lit a fire on you, what would you do?

The Kraken sank.

He sank very slowly, because he was a monster who did not do things in a hurry, but he sank. And on the island the children saw the water rise over the fringe of sand, on to the grass, and up
and up into the button boots of Miss Pigg’s mother sitting underneath her parasol . . .

“To the boats, children! Quick! Quick!” cried Miss Pigg.

She gathered up the smallest of the little girls and the smallest of the little boys and, with the rest of the children following her, she ran to where the fishermen were waiting in the boat.
Miss Pigg’s mother, who was too old to run, climbed into her upturned parasol and floated towards the boat where the fishermen hauled her to safety.

But Algernon was still in the middle of the island, shouting and hooting round his fire.

“Algernon!” shouted Miss Pigg, standing up in the boat and waving her arms. “Algernon, come quickly!”

Too late! The island – and the boy – had gone!

Down and down went awful Algernon, down into the icy water . . . down and down he sank until he was level with the Kraken’s gaping mouth.

The Kraken had of course meant to swallow Algernon, but when he saw the soggy, pulpy boy he said: “I find I do not want to eat this child.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” said the mermaid. “I wouldn’t fancy him myself. But what’s to be done with him? They don’t last more than a few minutes under
water and we don’t want dead bodies littering up the place.”

“Perhaps the sea-witch could turn him into something?” suggested the Kraken.

“Good idea,” said the mermaid. “I’ll get her.” And she swam off very quickly because Algernon was fast becoming waterlogged and magic does not work on people who
are dead.

So the sea-witch came and did her spell, the one that began “Sweery, sweery linkum-loo”, and she turned Algernon into the thing he most reminded her of, which was a sea slug with a
slimy body and blotchy spots.

As for the children and Miss Pigg and Miss Pigg’s mother and the fishermen in the village, they were at first upset at losing their beautiful island. But when they realised that it had
been a Kraken they became very excited. Soon people came from all over the world and gave the fishermen a lot of money to row them out to where the island had been. So the fishermen became rich and
bought lovely clothes for their wives and nice toys for their children and were very happy. The Kraken, too, was happy because he had no more trouble with his back.

But whether Algernon was happy or not I cannot tell you. Some things are easy and some things are difficult – and finding out whether a sea slug is happy is very difficult indeed!