12 Little Jim

12. LITTLE JIM It was a bit chilly in the pantry. Matilda wasn't sure how long she'd been there, but she wasn't going to rescue the Jolley-Rogers if she was stuck in the pantry. She wondered what the hags had planned for her. Maybe they'd freeze her too. Or use her tongue for potions. Or make Nugget-and-Matilda stew! Then the key clunked and the door opened to reveal all three hags, with a mop and bucket, a broom, and a very long feather duster.

We've got some jobs! There's plenty to do! We've written a list! Especially for yoooou!

The hags howled with laughter and handed Matilda a scroll. Matilda loosened the ribbon that bound it, and the list fell to the floor, revealing hundreds of chores. Even with so much to do, Matilda was happy to get out of the pantry. Helping around the house might give her the opportunity to escape-and save the Jolley-Rogers. She mopped the kitchen floor, scrubbed the counters, and washed the cups and saucers. The sea hags had a large vegetable garden, and pigs and chickens too.

Matilda picked peas and dug up potatoes, carrots, and onions. She collected the eggs and fed the pigs, all under the watchful eye of Pipweed, who was knitting in a deck chair in a wide-brimmed hat, the cursed cat on her lap. Matilda spent the next hour in the kitchen, scrubbing potatoes, peeling carrots, and chopping onions. She passed everything to Maerl, who was concocting a soup in a vast stockpot. Next, she fed the animals in the observatory, the glass-walled room she'd been dumped in the day before. Among the mournful menagerie, Bones was still there, lying in the cage with his head

on his paws. When he saw Matilda, he jumped up and started wagging his tail. "Don't worry, Bones," whispered Matilda as she pushed a bowl through the bars. "I'll hatch a plan. I'll get us out of here." Then she noticed Dabberlocks's elbows protruding from a tattered armchair by the window, where she was reading a thick, leather-bound book. The hag's head poked around the side of the chair. "Have you dusted the hats? The ships in my room? Have you brushed the floors? I gave you a broom!

Then you'll be back under lock and key, While we all have a snooze for an hour or three!" Matilda headed for the bedrooms, collecting the broom, a dustpan, and the feather duster on her way through the kitchen, where Maerl