Jasper and the Magic Acorn , livre ebook

About the Author
Philip Grant is the nom de plume of Dr George Philip, a retired General Medical Practitioner, who qualified at Edinburgh (as did Conan Doyle) and has written crime fiction (including ‘The Other Mister Holmes’)… available on Amazon.
He now lives in Spain. Look him up at: philipgrant.org



Copyright Information
Copyright © Philip Grant (2019)
The right of Philip Grant to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781786936295 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528952088 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ


Dedication
I dedicate this book to the real life Jasper and his sister Phoebe… my grandchildren.


Acknowledgements
I owe so much to so many people… but on behalf of Jasper and his acorn I would like to thank the people at Austin Macauley… Vinh Tran and Rebecca Cribb in particular.


1. Down On the Farm
Jasper likes the kitchen. His Mummy is always there – well nearly always and, better still, he’s sure to find something to eat.
One day while Mummy was on the phone to Aunty Maisie, walking up and down, and looking out the window as she usually did, he went exploring after giving up on the jigsaw of a zoo – he knew he couldn’t complete it on his own. So he wandered into the kitchen. On the point of getting out his trumpet and blowing it while standing right behind her – this always got Mummy off the phone – he decided instead to try to open the secret catch on the door of the big cupboard next the fridge. He had been trying to do this for months, ever since his third birthday, but the plastic contrivance had refused to give way, allowing the door to open only a little way.
This time he didn’t pull hard on the door but inserted his finger into the gap and wiggled it about, just like he had seen Mummy do. And it worked.
He pulled the door open and looked inside. It was a big cupboard with shelves all round, full of boxes and cartons and huge mixing bowls, rolls of soft fluffy paper and white things like the one in the lampshade in the nursery. Stuff that grows in the garden hung down from the ceiling and there was a smell of fresh air. It was dark at the back and he couldn’t reach the string that Mummy pulled to put the light on.
Although he was frightened of the dark he went further in. Suddenly the door from the kitchen to the garden flew open, a wind blew in – and the cupboard door banged shut, leaving him in complete darkness.
Jasper shut his eyes, and then opened them again. But it was still dark.
He turned to face the door and was about to shout for his mummy when he remembered she was still speaking on the phone to Aunty Maisie and wouldn’t pay attention. Instead he decided to wait until she came looking for him, then he would jump out and shout ‘BOO’ – like Daddy.
Meanwhile he thought it would be a good idea to find something to eat. He was quite hungry because he hadn’t had much of the new stuff Mummy had given him for breakfast. It tasted just the same as the packet it came in and instead of eating it he had played with the rubbery animal that came with it. He was sure Mummy had meant to give him something else. She usually did, especially if he pushed out his lip and made as if to cry, but the phone had rung and she had been talking to it ever since.
He began to feel along the shelves for something – something round and hard like an apple or long and bendy like a banana, but all he could find were the boxes and big bottles that he knew he couldn’t open.
Then he saw a crack of light coming from between his feet. He got down on his hands and knees and put his eye to the floor. It looked like the sun was shining down there. He was looking into … a garden … his garden!
He thought it would be a good idea to get down there then come round to the back door and surprise Mummy. He could shout, ‘Two pints, Mrs’ like the man in the white hat who sometimes gave Mummy a cuddle. That would be funny!
If this was a door to the garden it had to have a handle. There wasn’t a round one like on the other doors but he felt around and found a metal ring in a hollow. He pulled on it and the door came up, flooding the cupboard with bright yellow light. He put his head down through the square hole for a better look and was sure he could hear something. It was an animal, mooing like a cow.
We don’t have cows in our garden, he thought. He pushed his head further down looking from one side to the other – and accidentally let go of the metal ring.
Before he could catch it the door fell on his shoulders, knocking him through the gap.
And he tumbled down … and down … and down.
Jasper felt himself falling but it wasn’t like the time he fell and grazed his knee, it was more like going down the garden slide very quickly. Below him was a huge jumble of countryside and as he came down he could see a farmyard … and a barn with a hole in the roof …inside there were piles of straw … he fell through the hole and landed, tumbling forward into the soft but spiky straw.

He grabbed for something to break his fall but succeeded only in catching in his hand something that his fall had dislodged. As he came to rest he found it was an acorn, fresh and green, turning brown at the edges. He made to toss it aside but somehow it stuck to his palm. He looked more closely at it and it seemed to glow as though lit up by something.
He held it tightly in his fist and looked around.
He sat up … and looked straight into a large dark brown eye. Its owner turned her head slowly, looked at him with both eyes and licked his face before giving out with a loud MOOO! Jasper didn’t care much for being licked by a cow and stood up, taking a pace to one side. Towards the back end of the cow a giggle came from a pretty face pressed flat against the animal’s rump.
“Hello,” said the pretty face, “I’m Phoebe.” Her smile faded as she concentrated on milking.
“He-helloo,” said Jasper, recovering himself. “How did I get here?”
“You slid down that rainbow,” said Phoebe, nodding her head up through the hole in the roof of the barn.
Jasper looked up and sure enough, a beautiful rainbow arched upwards from the pile of straw through the hole in the roof and away up into the sky. He glanced at the acorn, glowing less brightly than before, and then shut his fist quickly before Phoebe could see it.
“You came down from those black clouds. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re goin’ to have rain!” said the milkmaid, but she didn’t sound angry.
By now Jasper was looking round. He could see he was in a farmyard … there was the barn and the cow being milked and there were some big fat geese waddling about and a pretty strong smell of animal poo. But something was different from the Children’s Farm he had visited with Mummy and Auntie Maisie, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. Then it came to him.
There wasn’t a tractor in sight! “Where am I?” he asked.
“Oak Tree Farm in the County of Hoofshire,” replied Phoebe, grinning at him as she stood up from the milking stool. She pushed the cow to one side with her shoulder and picked up the wooden bucket almost full of creamy milk.

“Gotta take this indoors, else Daisybell’ll likely kick it o’er,” she said as she set off across the yard towards the farm house. Jasper hesitated, unsure whether to follow. “Come along, lad … hey, what’s tha name?”
“Jasper,” he replied stepping alongside her.
“I ‘ad a cousin by that name,” she said, her bright round face fading into a frown, “but ‘E were kilt in war.”
Jasper had heard about wars from books and Mummy and Aunty.
Maisie had been arguing about a racky war but had stopped when he came into the kitchen. Just then as they got near the back door of the farmhouse he heard voices coming from inside. He slowed down. Phoebe stopped, put down the bucket of milk and looked at him.
“No need to fret,” she said, “They’re all friendly …well most of them. Any case, they won’t be seeing you.”
Jasper didn’t mind staying outside but was beginning to feel a bit hungry. Even a glass of that warm milk would be welcome.
Phoebe picked up the milk again and set off. “C’mon,” she said.
“But …”
“Oh tha’s can come inside … tha won’t be seen.”
“But …”
“Tha’s insvisible, don’t tha know!”
“Inv …, nobody can see me?” asked Jasper, beginning to wonder what sort of place he had come to. No tractor on the farm and now being told he was … he couldn’t be seen.
“No, that’s reet. Those as comes down the rainbow is invisible. That’s one of the rules.”
Jasper knew there were rules … Mummy was always telling him, Daddy even more so … but this was a funny one. Couldn’t be seen?
“Tha’s invisible … as long as tha be’aves. Ifn tha does a naughty … well that’s diffellbent.”
“Diffelbent?”
“Aye, if tha’s naughty, then tha can be seen by all as is watching.”
“Funny,” thought Jasper. “That’s just how I FEEL when I’ve done something naughty – everybody’s looking at me.”

By now they had reached the farmhouse. It was a big sprawling stone building with a sagging roof and moss growing from the stone tiles. It had six chimneys and one of them held a stork’s nest. He could see t