Jennifer Jane fixes the tap 2/3

"Have you tried blocking up the ends of the taps?" she asked at last.

It seemed they had tried, by using bits of wood tied on with string. The water had squirted out round the edges and made everyone very wet and then run along the floor and out through the holes, into the waiting clouds just the same.

"What we need is something softer than wood," she decided.

"Would a big bar of soap do?" asked one of the assistants.

Jennifer Jane decided it was worth a try, so he ran off and was soon back with a huge bar of soap and some string. The goblins who held the soap under the running tap got absolutely soaked to the skin, while two more goblins climbed up and tied string round the top of the tap to hold the bar of soap in place. Then, as the string was tightened, the flow of water slowed and it seemed that at least one of the taps was turned off.

In great excitement, the Clerk of the Weather asked for some more bars of soap and a lot more string, but before they could arrive, there was a horrible wet 'splooosh' and the bar of soap broke across the middle, whilst the water poured out as quickly as before.

Jennifer Jane was very disappointed. She walked away from the taps and went and sat quietly by herself. Quite without thinking, she had sat down on the large pipe that supplied the water to the row of taps used for rain making. It was a very big pipe and was just the right height for a seat. While she tried to think of some other way of stopping the flow of water, she idly picked off a piece of the paint, which was flaking away from her seat. The sight of the dull grey metal under the paint, reminded her of the time at home when an old pipe had split.

Dad had sent for a plumber to mend it and she had been allowed to watch him, provided she didn't get in his way. He had told her all sorts of funny things that had happened to him during a lifetime of working with pipes and taps and she suddenly remembered one of his stories.

She ran across to the Clerk of the Weather and told him her plan. He agreed at once.

"Of course," warned Jennifer Jane, "you won't be able to make any more rain until your plumber comes back from his holidays and can mend things for you properly."

"Don't worry about that," said the Clerk of the Weather, "everybody's had all the rain they want for a long time yet. You just go ahead and let's hope your plan works properly this time."

Jennifer Jane said everything should be all right, because a plumber had told her what to do, but that it would only work on a lead pipe. She went over to the place where she had sat down and scratched the dull metal with a knife borrowed from one of the goblins. Sure enough the metal was very soft, so it was a lead pipe, if her plumber friend was right; she should be able to stop the water.

Meanwhile the Clerk of the Weather had sent off six goblins to fetch some tools and now they came back, each one carrying a large hammer. The pipe, which supplied the water to all the taps, ran along the floor and Jennifer Jane lined up all the goblins and told them to start hitting the pipe with their hammers as hard as they could. Slowly the pipe began to flatten and restrict the flow of water, until at last the middle was hammered absolutely flat and not a trickle of water came from any of the taps.

Everyone crowded round Jennifer Jane and thanked her for her good idea, while the six goblins who had done all the work leaned on their hammers panting for breath but looking very pleased with themselves. At last Jennifer Jane said she would really have to be going and the Clerk of the Weather came to wave goodbye.

By the time she reached her home, it had stopped raining and little rays of sunshine were beginning to peep through gaps in the clouds.

Her father called to her as she walked along the garden, "Have you been washing my car, young lady?"

Of course she said that she couldn't have done, because she’d been playing in the wood.

"That's funny," said dad, "its all covered in soapy water. Somebody must have taken a long time to do a good job like that."

"Perhaps it's been raining soapy water," said Jennifer Jane with a giggle.

"You do say some strange things," he said and went indoors to tell Mary about "our daughter's funny remarks."