And then all of a sudden something happened that transformed him from
a tailor's dummy into a very real boy, for Toobad, not seeing where
he was going, bumped right into him and the flame of the candle came
right against Winn's nose--only for a moment--but it was long enough to
scorch it and to make Winn yell--ouch! at the top of his lungs, and to
joggle all the enchantment out of him. And if you did not believe an
enchanted person can be cured by scorching his nose, just get yourself
enchanted and scorch your nose and see if it does not work.
Anyway, it cured Winn, and not only that but it woke Toobad up. And
when the tailor found himself in his shop with his nightgown on, and
found Winn changed from a dummy into a regular boy again, he was
furious.
"Zounds!" he shrieked, dancing up and down, "how the--what the--where
did I come from and how did you get all right again?"
And when Winn told him he was more furious than ever. "Well," he said,
"I'll soon fix you anyway." And thereupon he began to say the alphabet
backward the same as he had done before, but by the time he had said
three letters and before the enchantment had had time to work, Winn
rushed at him and knocked the candle to the floor. And then while the
shop was in darkness he unhooked the door and ran home as fast as he
could. When he got there it was past midnight and of course every one
was asleep, but by and by his mother heard him knocking and let him in.
And you may be sure it did not take his father, or his grandfather, or
his uncle, or his big brother long to hop out of bed where they had
been sleeping with their clothes on because they could not get them
off. And maybe they were not surprised when they learned that Winn had
really been the tailor's dummy they had seen outside the shop. And
maybe they were not delighted when they found that Winn knew of a way
for them to get rid of the enchanted clothes. And maybe they did not
pull down their vests in a hurry as soon as Winn had finished telling
them about it.
"My gracious," said Winn's grandfather, as he peeled the last of the
hated garments from him, "I feel twenty years younger. And I can hardly
wait until morning to get my hands on that villainous tailor."
"Nor I," said Winn's father.
"Me, too," said Winn's uncle.
"I daren't tell you what _I'll_ do to him," said Winn's big brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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