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Suddenly, Charlotte had a notion, and as soon as she had it, she’d done it, and as soon as she’d done it, her ht up with her heart and she told herself it was too ridiculous to ever work, so sit down Charlotte, for God’s sake But done it was Charlotte dashed over to the sofa where Brunty sat bound and tied, bent over, and screaes:

“THE END!”

Brunty promptly sucked his head back down between his covers and snapped shut His brass lock clicked firmly

“That onderful!” Anne squealed

“That’s dash useful” Erinned

“What’d you have to go and do that for?” Branwell protested “He was going to say so really dreadful and now I’ve missed it”

“We can’t go listening to villains when they want to ains,” Charlotte said, as though she’d always known it would work, never doubted it for a et their side in Now, no e books We’llwe’ll find our moment We’ll find a way Our way After all, we invented Glass Town The least they could do would be to sp

are us a cup of—”

Charlotte did not get a chance to finish, for just then, they landed with a jolt, a tuht earth of a new city

ELEVEN

The Problem of Primarily Scurrilous Brunty

Ochreopolis sprawled and towered and twisted in as many shades of yellow as Port Ruby had done in red But this city had got rather bored of glass halfway through the building of it and decided to haul in a lot of other stuff to fancy up the place From up above, it looked like pictures of Oxford that they’d pored over in Father’s books, if Oxford had run off with Vienna and got itself in trouble Golden glass bridges arched over a branching river of bubbling chaolden apple and quince trees shaded slender alleys that wound through patches of saffron shadows and bright sunshine The people walking here and there wore yellow rain slickers and ivory wigs Burly alass walls closed it all in like York or Chester Three butter-colored crystal gates let folk out and in

But of course, balloons need no gates

The towers beyond the walls were not straight and tall and proud like Port Ruby’s They sagged tiredly, and leaned woozily, and bowed like old, old trees until their pointed roofs als of Ochreopolis were only partly lass Mostly, they werepaper, ripped froiants, for any one page stood as high as a shire horse Those saes around slabs of glass to -eared daffodil chapels with round topaz s

Bestlass square the color of honey Two lion statues, both presulared down as they wheeled round and round, trying to look in every direction at once The city was far too beautiful to have one single wicked soul living in it But the balloon assured theht place, the P-District, where all the criminals and villains and misbehavers of Glass Town ended up sooner or later Bestiant balloon-body back into two ordinary suitcases, and so fast Charlotte actually felt her head spin