The Bouncible Ball, Part One

The great children's writer Edith Nesbit knew how to write for the inner child in adults, and this witty story is no exception. Find out what happens when Thomasina and Selim are prevented from going to the seaside for their summer holidays, and a magic ball comes to their rescue.

With music from William King.

Transcript

Hello there,

It's Mandy here.

Thanks so much for joining me tonight and we're going to be listening to part one of a story by E.

Nesbitt called Where You Want to Go To,

Or The Bounceable Ball.

But before we begin,

Please go right ahead and make yourself really comfortable.

That's lovely.

I'll begin.

It is very hard when you have been accustomed to go to the seaside every summer,

Ever since you were quite little,

To be made to stay in London just because an aunt and an uncle choose to want to come and stay at your house to see the Royal Academy and go to the summer sails.

Selim and Thomasina felt that it was very hard indeed,

And aunt and uncle were not the nice kind either.

If it had been Aunt Emma,

Who dressed dolls and told fairy tales,

Or Uncle Reggie,

Who took you to the Crystal Palace and gave you five bob at a time and never even asked what you spent it on,

It would have been different.

But it was Uncle Thomas and Aunt Selina.

Aunt Selina was all beady and sat bolt upright and told you to mind what you were told.

And Selim had been named after her as near as they could get.

And Uncle Thomas was the one Thomasina had been named after.

He was deaf and he always told you what the moral of everything was.

And the housemaid said he was near.

I know he is worse luck,

Said Thomasina.

I mean,

Miss,

Explained the housemaid,

He's none too free with his chink.

Selim groaned.

He never gave me but a shilling in his life,

Said he.

And that turned out to be bad when I tried to change it at the ginger beer shop.

The children couldn't understand why this aunt and uncle were allowed to interfere with everything as they did.

And they quite made up their minds that when they were grown up,

They would never an aunt or an uncle to even cross their doorsteps.

They never thought,

Poor dear little things,

That someday they would grow up to be aunts and uncles in their turn,

Or at least one of each.

It was very hot in London that year.

The pavement was like hot pie and the asphalt was like hot pudding.

And there was a curious wind that collected dust and straw and dirty paper and then got tired of its collection and threw it away in respectable people's gardens.

The blind in the nursery had never been fixed up since the day when the children took it down to make a drop scene for a play they were going to write,

Though they never did.

So the hot afternoon sun came burning in through the window and the children got hotter and hotter and crosser and crosser till at last Selim slapped Tomasina's arms till she cried and Tomasina kicked Selim's legs till he screamed.

Then they sat down in different corners of the nursery and cried and called each other names and said they wished they were dead.

This is very naughty indeed,

As of course you know,

But you must remember how hot it was.

When they had called each other all the names they could think of,

Tomasina said suddenly,

All right silly,

That was Selim's pet name,

Cheer up.

It's too hot to cheer up,

He said gloomily.

We've been very naughty,

Said Tomasina,

Rubbing her eyes with the paint rag,

But it's all the heat.

I heard Aunt Selina telling mother the weather wore her nerves to fiddle sticks.

That just meant she was cross.

Then it's not our fault,

Said Selim.

People say be good and you'll be happy.

Uncle Reggie says be happy and perhaps you'll be good.

I could be good if I was happy.

So could I,

Said Tomasina.

What would make you happy,

Said a thick,

Wheezy voice from the toy cupboard,

And out rolled the big green and red India rubber ball that Aunt Emma had sent them last week.

They had not played with it much because the garden was so hot and sunny and when they wanted to play with it in the street on the shady side,

Aunt Selina has said it was not like respectable children,

So they weren't allowed.

Now the ball rolled out very slowly and the bright light on its new paint seemed to make it wink at them.

You will think that they were surprised to hear a ball speak,

Not at all.

As you grow up and more and more strange things happen to you,

You will find that the more astonishing a thing is,

The less it surprises you.

I wonder why this is.

Think it over and write and tell me what you think.

Selim stood up and said hello,

But that was only out of politeness.

Tomasina answered the ball's question.

We want to be at the seaside and no aunts and none of the things we don't like,

And no uncles of course,

She said.

Well,

Said the ball,

If you think you can be good,

Why not set me bouncing?

We're not allowed to in here,

Said Tomasina,

Because of the crinkly ornaments people give me on my birthdays.

Well,

The street then,

Said the ball,

The nice shady side.

It's not like respectable children,

Said Selim sadly.

The ball laughed.

If you've never heard an India rubber ball laugh,

You won't understand.

It's the sort of quicker,

Quicker,

Quicker,

Softer,

Softer,

Softer chuckle of a bounce that it gives when it's settling down,

When you're tired of bouncing it.

The garden then,

It said.

I don't mind if you'll go on talking,

Said Selim kindly.

So they took the ball down into the garden and began to bounce it in the sun,

On the dry yellowy grass of the lawn.

Come on,

Said the ball,

You do like me.

What?

Said the children.

You do like I do.

Bounce,

Said the ball.

That's right.

Higher,

Higher,

Higher.

But then and there,

The two children had begun bouncing as if their feet were India rubber balls.

And you have no idea what a delicious sensation that gives you.

Higher,

Higher,

Cried the green and red ball,

Bouncing excitedly.

Now,

Follow me.

Higher,

Higher.

And off it bounced,

Down the blackened gravel of the path.

And the children bounced after it,

Shrieking with delight at the new feeling.

They bounced over the wall,

All three of them.

And the children looked back,

Just in time to see Uncle Thomas tapping at the window and saying,

Don't.

You have not the least idea how glorious it is to feel full of bounce-able-ness,

So that instead of dragging one foot after the other,

As you do when you feel tired or naughty,

You bounce along.

And every time your feet touch the ground,

You bounce higher,

And all without taking any trouble or tiring yourself.

You have perhaps heard of the Greek gentleman who got new strength every time he fell down.

His name was Antaeus,

And I believe he was an India rubber ball,

Green on one side where he touched the earth,

And red on the other where he felt the sun.

But enough of classical research.

Thomasina and Selim bounced away,

Following the bounce-able-ball.

They went over fences and walls and through parched,

Dry gardens and burning hot streets.

They passed the region where fields of cabbages and rows of yellow brick cottages marked the division between London and the suburbs.

They bounced through the suburbs,

Dusty and neat,

With geraniums in the front gardens,

And all the blinds pulled halfway down.

And then the lampposts in the road got fewer and fewer,

And the fields got greener and the hedges thicker.

It was real true country,

With lanes instead of roads.

And down the lanes the green and red ball went bouncing,

Bouncing,

Bouncing,

And the children after it.

Thomasina in her white starched frock,

Very prickly around the neck,

And Selim in his everyday sailor suit,

A little tight under the arms.

His Sunday one was a size larger.

No one seemed to notice them.

Where are we going?

They asked the ball,

And it answered with a sparkling green and red smile,

To the most delightful place in the world.

What's it called?

Asked Selim.

It's called where you want to go to,

The ball answered.

And on they went.

It was a wonderful journey,

Up and down,

Looking through the hedges and over them,

Looking in at the doors of cottages,

And then in at the top windows,

Up and down,

Bounce,

Bounce,

Bounce.

And at last they came to the sea,

And the bouncing ball said,

Here you are,

Now be good,

For there's nothing here,

But the things that make people happy.

And with that he curled himself up like a ball,

In the shadow of a wet seaweedy rock,

And went to sleep,

For he was tired out with his long journey.

The children stopped bouncing and looked around them.

Oh Tommy,

Said Selim.

Oh silly,

Said Thomasina.

And well they might,

In the place to which the ball had brought them,

Was all that your fancy can possibly paint,

And a great deal more besides.

The children feel exactly as you do,

When you've had the long,

Hot,

Dirty train journey,

And everyone has been so cross about the boxes,

And the little brown portmanteau,

That you left behind at the junction.

And then when you get to your lodgings,

You're told you may run down and have a look at the sea,

As long as you're back by tea time,

And mother and nurse will unpack.

Only Thomasina and her brother had not had the tiresome journey,

And there were no nasty stuffy lodgings for them,

And no tea with oily butter,

And a new pot of marmalade.

And how cool it is,

Said Thomasina.

And yet it's nice and warm too,

Said Selim.

And what shells,

And seaweed,

And the downs behind,

And trees in the distance,

And here's a dog to go after sticks.

Here Rover.

A big black dog answered at once to the name,

Because he was a retriever,

And they were all called Rover.

And spades,

Said the girl,

And pails,

Said the boy,

And what pretty sea poppies,

Said the girl,

And a basket with grub in it,

Said the boy.

So they sat down and had lunch.

It was a lovely lunch,

Lobsters and ice creams,

Strawberry and pineapple,

And toffee,

And hot buttered toast,

And ginger beer.

They ate and ate,

And thought of the aunt and uncle at home,

And the minced veal and sago pudding,

And they were very happy indeed.

Just as they were finishing their lunch,

They saw a swirling,

Swishing,

Splashing commotion in the green sea a little way off,

And they tore off their clothes and rushed into the water to see what it was.

It was a seal.

He was very kind.

He showed them how to swim and dive.

But won't it make us ill to bathe so soon after meals?

Isn't it wrong,

Asked Tomasina.

Not at all,

Said the seal.

Nothing is wrong here,

As long as you're good.

Let me teach you Water Leap Frog,

A most glorious game.

So cool,

Yet so exciting.

You try it.

At last the seal said,

I suppose you wear man clothes.

They're very inconvenient.

My two eldest have just outgrown their coats.

If you'll accept them.

And it dived and came up with two golden seal skin coats over its arm,

And the children put them on.

Thank you very much,

They said.

You are kind.

I am almost sure that it has never been your luck to wear a fur coat that fitted you like a skin,

And that could not be spoiled with sand or water,

Or jam,

Or bread and milk,

Or any of the things with which you mess up the nice new clothes your kind relations buy for you.

But if you like,

You may try to imagine how jolly the little coats were.

Tomasina and Selim played all day on the beach,

And when they were tired,

They went into a cave and found supper,

Salmon and cucumber,

And Welsh rabbit and lemonade.

And then they went to bed in a great heap of straw and grass,

And fern and dead leaves,

And all the delightful things you have so often wished to sleep in,

Only you've never been allowed to.

In the morning there was plum pudding for breakfast,

And roast duck and lemon jelly,

And the day passed like a happy dream,

Only broken by surprising and delightful meals.

The ball woke up and showed them how to play water polo,

And they bounced him on the sand with shrieks of joy and pleasure.

You know,

A ball likes to be bounced by people he is fond of.

It is like slapping a friend on the shoulder.

There were no houses in where you want to go to,

And no bathing machines or bands,

No nursemaids or policemen,

Or aunts or uncles.

You could do exactly what you liked,

As long as you were good.

What will happen if we're naughty?

Selim asked.

The ball looked very grave and answered,

I mustn't tell you,

And I very strongly advise you not to try and find out.

We won't,

Indeed we won't,

Said they,

And they went off to play rounders with the rabbits on the downs,

Who were friendly fellows and very keen on the game.

To be continued.

You

Reviews

It was wonderful for falling asleep! I will listen again to find out more of the story. Thank you for a peaceful bedtime.

What a lovely sweet story. I would love a bounceable ball! You are definitely my favourite reader Mandy. Looking forward to hearing the next episode. 💜 x

Another delicious story by one of my most favorite readers !!! Love your selections.

Helped put me to sleep about six times and I finally heard it all the way through… delightful! I would love a ball like this for everyone!😍 thank you Mandy❤️❤️🙏🏼

Sounds like a great story… I’ll just have to listen again to hear the whole chapter. Fell asleep early on. 🙏🏻💤💕