“Jack, my boy,” said a well-known voice behind them, “I feel a great deal better already! I believe I would like a bowl of soup.”
Chapter Sixteen
Spring Valley
They never managed to get the Buffalonis charged with attempted murder by termites, so the case was never solved; but they didn't have any more trouble from them.
The poison factory was closed down and reopened as a mineral water bottling plant. Spring Valley water is famous now; every smart restaurant has it on the menu.
They cleaned up the land and cleared out all the ditches and redug the wells and opened the clogged-up drains, and now the fountains in the town are splashing good clear water all day and night, and the children play in the paddling pools and the birds wash themselves in the municipal birdbaths. Spring Valley water flows to every house, and all the houses have three kinds of tap: hot, cold, and sparkling.
As for the Scarecrow, he was the happiest of anyone. The broomstick that Granny Raven had found, the one that was transplanted to save his life, turned out to be the very one he'd fallen in love with all that time ago. Her fiancé the rake had left her for a feather duster, and, unhappy and abandoned, she had passed from hand to hand, lamenting the loss of the handsome Scarecrow who had proposed marriage to her. When the two of them found themselves united, their happiness was complete.
The Scarecrow spends all his days wandering around Spring Valley, playing with Jack's children, shooing the greedy birds away from the young corn, and enjoying the fresh air. But he only shoos the birds away to a special box of birdseed that he keeps behind the barn, and what's more, there's always a nest in his coat pocket. The little birds, the sparrows and robins, queue up for the honor; there's a waiting list. The Scarecrow and his broomstick are as proud of the eggs as if they'd laid them themselves.
“Jack's children?” I hear you say.
Yes, a few years later, when he was grown up, Jack got married. His wife is called Rosina, and their children's names are Giulietta, Roberto, and Maria. They're all as happy as fleas. Granny Raven is godmother to the children, and she stands no nonsense from any of them, and they love her dearly.
And on winter evenings, as they sit by the fire with some good soup inside them, and the children are playing on the hearth and the wind is roaring around the rooftops, the Scarecrow and his servant talk about their adventures and bless the chance that brought them together. There never was a servant, Jack is sure, who had such a good master; and in all the history of the world, the Scarecrow is certain, there never was a scarecrow who had so honest and faithful a servant.
Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children's Books a division of Random House, Inc., New York
Text copyright © 2004 by Philip Pullman
Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Peter Bailey
Originally published in Great Britain in 2004 by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, London. Interior illustrations by Peter Bailey published by arrangement with Random House Children's Books, London, a part of the Random House Group, Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers.
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