Jennifer Jane fixes the tap 1/3

In the sitting room of Jennifer Jane's house, every one was sitting very quietly. Mother was sewing and Jennifer Jane was reading a book. The only person doing nothing was her father, but he was looking very cross and biting his fingernails. Biting your nails isn't very nice and it only went to show how upset he was.

From outside came the drumming noise, as the rain beat down on the roof and windows. It hadn’t stopped raining for three whole days and nights.

"Drat the rain", said dad, walking over to the window, “can’t do a thing out of doors when its like this!”

Looking out, all that could be seen were grey skies and the rain slanting down into the puddles that lay all over the lawn.

'Rather like the Essex saltings,' Jennifer Jane had thought to herself earlier in the day.

"Someone's really left the tap turned on this time," grumbled her father as he turned away from the window, picked up the newspapers and sat down moodily in his chair.

Jennifer Jane felt a little thrill of excitement. Of course, why ever hadn't she thought of it before? The Clerk of the Weather must have got into trouble with the rain making and wasn't able to stop it.

Sure enough, the rain was still pouring down the next morning. Mother made Jennifer Jane dress up in her Wellington boots, mackintosh and sou'wester hat, before she’d let her go outside. As quickly as possible, picking her way between the worst puddles, she went to the magic clearing in the wood, then wished herself to the Clerk of the Weather's office and splashed off along a path.

In a few moments she found herself back at the end of her own garden.

Something had gone wrong! So back to the clearing she went and this time she wished out loud.

"I want to visit the Clerk of the Weather's office,” just in case whoever granted the wishes in the clearing was sheltering from the rain and hadn't heard her the first time.

Off she went again and arrived back at the bottom of the garden for the second time, Suddenly she realised what had gone wrong. She had visited the Clerk of the Weather once before and that time she had been blown up into the sky by a strong gust of wind, while she’d been holding on to an umbrella.

As quickly as she could, she went back to the house and asked if she could borrow an umbrella. "Whatever for?" asked her mother. "You're perfectly dry in your waterproofs."

"If I have an umbrella, I think I can stop it from raining," replied Jennifer Jane.

"Oh well, if it's for one of your games I suppose it's all right, but be careful not to damage it."

Mother laughed to herself as she watched Jennifer Jane run along the garden towards the wood. "The child hasn’t even opened it yet. Whatever can she be playing at?"

Jennifer Jane wasn't going to open the umbrella until she reached the clearing in the wood. After all, she didn't want to be blown away while she was still in sight of the house; her parents would have had a fright!

As she expected, as soon as she opened the umbrella, a gust of wind caught it and blew her right up through the clouds. The wind kept on blowing and Jennifer Jane and her umbrella were whisked along, until at last she saw the building where the Clerk of the Weather worked. The Clerk of the Weather himself was standing at the front door waiting for her. He looked very worried indeed, and the quill pen he kept behind his ear looked very wet and bedraggled.

"Thank goodness you've come at last," he said, "I've been trying to send for you for two days now but you've been indoors all the time."

"It's been raining so hard, that's why," replied Jennifer Jane.

"I know, such a terrible thing has happened and we won't be able to stop it for at least another two weeks!"
He asked Jennifer Jane to come inside and took her down some stairs to the rain making department. He explained how the rain clouds came along to one of a series of holes in the floor and were filled up from large taps. All the taps were running as hard as they could go, water was pouring all over the floor and everything was in a terrible mess.

"This year we'd planned to have some extra heavy April showers," explained the Clerk of the Weather, "so we took on some extra staff."

Unfortunately it seemed that the extra staff had been seven practical jokers, who had turned all the taps on and then left, taking the tap handles with them.

"We do have a plumber for emergencies, of course," continued the Clerk of the Weather, "but he's away on holiday and his assistant is ill in bed and can't help at all."

Jennifer Jane stood there quietly and thought, while the Clerk of the Weather and his assistants waited hopefully for her to think of an answer to their problems.