Chapter 15 Chapter Fifteen Howl Attends the Funeral in Disguise

As Sophie resumed sewing, the dog-man curled up and pressed heavily on Sophie's toes.Maybe he hoped that being near her would break the spell.A tall, red-bearded man rushed into the room with a box in his arms, then took off his velvet cloak and turned back into Mike, still holding the box in his hand.The dogman jumped up, wagging his tail.He lets Mike pat him on the body and rub his ears. "I want him to stay," Mike said. "I've always wanted a dog." Hal heard Mike's voice.He wrapped himself in the patchwork sheet on the bed and went downstairs.Sophie put down her sewing and held the dog carefully.But the dog is also very attentive to Hal.He didn't resist when Hal reached out from under the sheets to pat him.

"How?" Hal said hoarsely.He raised clouds of dust as he conjured the tissues. "Got it all," said Mike, "and good luck, Hal. There's a vacant hat shop for sale in Chipping. It used to be a hat shop. Do you think we can move the castle there?" Hal sat brooding on a bar stool, like a Roman councilor in a robe. "That depends on how much it costs," he said. "I want to move the entrance to Port Sanctuary there. It's not an easy task, because you have to move Calcifer together. Port Sanctuary is where Calcifer actually exists. How do you Think, Calcifer?"

"Moving me was a very careful project," Calcifer said.When he thought of this thought, he turned pale several shades. "I think you should leave me where I am." So Fanny was selling hats, Sophie thought as the other three discussed moving.And Hal said he had no more conscience than that!But the main thing on her mind was the dog's strange behavior.Even though Sophie had told him many times that she couldn't break the spell on him, he still seemed reluctant to leave.He didn't mean to bite Hal.That night and the next morning, Mike took him for a walk around the Port Shelter swamp.His purpose seems to be to want to be a family member.

"But if I were you, I would go back to Fording and take advantage of the situation to win Letty's heart." Sophie said to him. The next day, Hal would get up and lie down.Mike had to run up and down while he was in bed.When he got up, Mike had to run around, following him to measure the castle and fix the metal braces at every corner.In his free time, Hal wrapped himself in his quilt and dust, asking questions and making comments, mostly for Sophie's sake. "Sophie, since you've painted off all the markings we made when we created the castle, maybe you can tell me where the markings are in Mike's room?"

"No," Sophie replied, sewing a blue gusset. "I can not." Hal sneezed sadly and stepped back.After a while, he appeared again. "Sophie, if we took over that hat shop, what would we be selling?" Sophie found that she had had enough of hats and didn't want to touch them again for the rest of her life. "It's not hats anyway," she said. "You can buy the store, but not the business." "Try it in your crooked head," Hal said, "or think about it, if you know what to do." Then he strode off up the stairs. Five minutes later, he came downstairs again. "Sophie, do you have any preferences for the other entrances? Where would you like us to move?"

Sophie thought, without thinking, of Lady Fairfax's house. "I want a nice house with flowers," she said. "I see." Hal said hoarsely, and strode away again. When he reappeared, he was dressed.Three times that day, Sophie didn't pay attention, and Hal put on the velvet cloak that Mike used, and turned into a pale, red-bearded man coughing and covering himself with a large red handkerchief. nose.Only then did she realize that he was going out. "You're going to make your cold worse," she said. "I simply die, so that you will all feel sad." The red-bearded man said, and walked out the door.The green mark on the handle points down.

An hour after this, Mike had time to work on his spell.Sophie sewed up to the eighty-fourth blue triangle.Then the man with the red beard came back.He took off his cloak and turned back into Hal, coughing harder than ever, and feeling more self-pitying than ever. "I've bought the store," he told Mike. "There's a useful shed in the back and a house next to it, and I've bought them all. But I don't know what to pay for." "What about your reward for finding Prince Justin?" Mike asked. "You forgot." Hal said hoarsely, "The ultimate purpose of this operation is not to find Prince Justin. We will disappear from the world." After speaking, he went upstairs coughing and went to bed to rest.After a while he started sneezing again for attention, shaking the beam.

Mike had to drop the spell and rush upstairs.Sophie would have gone too if the Dogman hadn't been in the way.This is another strange behavior of dog people.He doesn't like Sophie doing anything for Howl.Sophie thought that was quite reasonable.She began sewing her eighty-fifth gusset. Mike came downstairs happily and continued to study his spell.He was very happy, singing the pan song with Calcifer while he worked, and chatting with the skull like Sophie. "We're moving to Chipping," he told the skull. "I can see my Letty every day." "Is that why you told Hal about the hat shop?" Sophie asked, threading the needle.By this time she had sewed to the eighty-ninth gusset.

"Yeah," Mike answered cheerfully. "Letty told me we were trying to figure out how we'd see each other again. I said to her—" His words were interrupted by Hal, who dragged the sheet downstairs again. "This is definitely the last time I'll show up." Hal said hoarsely. "I forgot to say that Mrs. Pentstemton will be buried tomorrow on her land near Port Shelter. My clothes need to be washed." He never He took out the gray-red coat from the quilt and threw it on Sophie's lap. "You're using your strength in the wrong place," he said to Sophie. "I like this one, but I don't have the strength to wash it myself."

"You don't have to go to the funeral, do you?" Mike asked anxiously. "I will never stand by," said Hal. "Mrs. Pentstemmon made me a wizard. I must go and see her one last time to pay my respects." "But your cold got worse," Mike said. "He made it himself," said Sophie. "Get up and run around." Hal immediately put on his most dignified expression. "I'm all right," he said hoarsely, "just keep out of the sea wind. It's a harsh climate, Penzantine. The trees are all on one side, and there's no shelter for miles."

Sophie knew he was just out for sympathy.She scoffed. "So what about the witch?" Mike asked. Hal coughed miserably. "I'll disguise myself, probably another corpse," he said, and walked slowly toward the stairs. "Then you need a shroud, not this dress." Sophie shouted after her.Howl didn't respond, but shuffled up the stairs, and Sophie made no further protests.It was a godsend that she now had the enchanted coat in her hands.She picked up the scissors and cut the gray-red coat into seven large pieces.This should dispel Hal's desire to wear it again.Then she went on to mend the last gussets of the silver-blue coat, mainly the small fragments of the neckline.Clothes are really small now.It looked too small for Mrs. Pentstemt's page. "Mike," she said, "make that magnifying charm quickly. It's urgent." "Not for long," Mike replied. Half an hour later, he went over the list and said he felt ready.He walked up to Sophie with a small bowl with a pinch of green powder at the bottom. "Where are you going to use it?" "Here," said Sophie, cutting the last few threads.She pushed the sleeping Dogman aside and carefully spread the baby-size clothes on the floor.Mike tipped the bowl carefully, spreading the powder over every inch of the garment. Then the two waited rather anxiously. After a while, Mike let out a sigh of relief.Clothes are getting bigger.They watched it grow and grow until the side of the clothes piled up against the dogman.Sophie had to pull it farther to have more room. After five minutes, they all agreed that the dress looked to be Hal's size.Mike picked up his clothes and carefully shook the excess powder into the fireplace.Calcifer rose up, growling.The dog man woke up from his sleep and jumped up. "Be careful!" said Calcifer. "It's powerful." Sophie took her clothes and staggered upstairs on tiptoe.Howl was asleep, on his gray pillow, while the spiders busily weaved new webs all around them.He looked noble and sad when he was asleep.Sophie staggered over and put the silver-blue coat on the old cabinet by the window, convincing herself that it wasn't getting bigger. "It's no loss if that stops you from going to the funeral, though," she said to herself, looking out the window. The sun was low, pouring light into the neat garden.A tall, dark-skinned man was there, gleefully throwing a red ball to Hal's nephew Neil.Neil held the racket with a face of enduring pain.Sophie could see that the man was Neil's father. "Sneaky again," Hal said suddenly behind her.Sophie turned guiltily to see that Howl was only half asleep.He probably thought it was a day ago, because he said, "'Teach me to avoid the sting of jealousy'—that's a thing of the past. I love Wales, but it doesn't love me. Megan is jealous because she Respected and I don't." Then he sobers up and asks, "What are you doing?" "Just put your clothes away for you." Sophie finished and left in a hurry. Hal must have fallen asleep again.He did not reappear that night.When Sophie and Mike woke up the next morning, there was no sign of him rising either.They were careful not to wake him up.They both did not think it wise to go to Mrs. Pentstemmon's funeral.Mike tiptoed out the door and took the dog man up the hill for a walk.Sophie tiptoed to prepare breakfast, secretly hoping Howl had overslept.When Mike came back, Hal was still there.The dog man is hungry.Sophie and Mike were rummaging through the cupboard for dog food when they heard Hal plodding downstairs. "Sophie." His voice was accusatory. The stair door was open, and he hid the hand holding it completely under his huge silver-blue sleeve.His feet were under the stairs, and he was wearing half of an extremely large silver-blue jacket.Howl's other arm couldn't touch the other big sleeve at all.Sophie could see the outline of the arm, bulging and gesturing under the huge ruffled collar.The entire staircase behind Hal was covered with silver and blue clothes, all the way to his bedroom. "Oh, my God!" Mike exclaimed, "Hal, it's all my fault. I—" "Blame you? Bullshit!" said Hal. "I could feel Sophie's hand from a mile away. This dress is miles away. Sophie dear, where's my other coat?" Sophie hurriedly took out the gray-red coat she had hidden in the broom cupboard. Hal inspected his clothes. "You're good," he said. "I thought it was too broken to see. Take all seven." Sophie handed him a pile of gray-red cloth.Howl groped, finding his way through the layers of silver-blue sleeves, through a gap between two large stitches.He snatched the pile of cloth from her hand. "I am now," he said, "to get ready for the funeral. Please don't do anything extravagant while I am getting ready, both of you. I can see that Sophie is in high spirits at the moment, and I hope that when I get back to this room, It's still the same size." He trudged demurely in his silver-blue suit, heading for the bathroom.The rest of the silver-blue clothes trailed behind him, dragged down one step after another, rustling across the floor.By the time Hal got into the bathroom, most of the jacket was on the floor, and the pants were on the stairs.Hal half closed the bathroom door, as if alternately pulling his clothes with his left and right hands.Sophie, Mike, and the Dogman stood, watching yards and yards of silver-blue loom march across the floor, with occasional flashes of stonemill-sized silver buttons and huge, regular rope-like stitches.It stretches for almost a mile. "I don't think I got that spell all right," Mike said as the final shell edge disappeared in the bathroom doorway. "That's not clear!" said Calcifer. "An extra firewood, thanks." Mike added a piece of firewood to Calcifer.Sophie fed the dogman.But until Hal came out of the bathroom, neither of them dared to do anything but stand and eat bread and honey for breakfast. It was two hours before Hal emerged from the steam filled with verbena-scented spells.He is all black.His suit was black, his boots were black, and his hair was black, the same blue jay black as Miss Angorian.His long dangling earrings are also black.Sophie wondered if the black hair was an homage to Mrs. Pentstemmon.She agreed with Mrs. Pentstemmon that black hair suited Hal better.His green glass eyes were even more beautiful against the backdrop of his hair.But she wants to know exactly which outfit changed the black clothes. Hal conjured another black handkerchief and wiped his nose.The windows rattled.He scooped up a piece of bread and some honey from the workbench, and summoned the Dogmen.The dogman looked skeptical. "I want you to stay where I can see it," Hal said hoarsely.His cold is still bad. "Come here, puppy." Hal added, as the dog reluctantly crawled into the middle of the room, "You won't find my other suit in the bathroom, Mrs. Snoopy. I won't let your hands touch me again." clothes." Sophie stopped tiptoeing to the bathroom and watched Howl circle the dog man, eating bread and honey and blowing his nose. "What do you guys think of this disguise?" he asked.He flicked the black handkerchief toward Calcifer and fell forward on his hands and knees.Almost as soon as he acted, he disappeared.By the time he hits the floor, it's a red curly terrier, like a dogman. Dogman was completely taken aback, and his instincts got the better of him.His neck hair stood up, his ears were pressed down, and he kept barking.Hal was fussing too—or maybe he was showing his true nature too.Two identical dogs were chasing each other, glaring, barking, bristling, ready to fight. Sophie grabbed what she thought was the dog's tail.Mike grabbed what he thought was Hal's.Howl immediately turned back again.Seeing a tall man in black standing in front of her, Sophie let go of the back of Howl's clothes.The Dogman sat down on Mike's instep and looked at everyone sadly. "Fine," Hal said, "if I can fool a dog, I can fool everybody. No one will notice a stray dog ​​at a funeral lifting its leg up against a gravestone." He walked toward the door, Turn the blue label on the door handle down. "Wait a minute," said Sophie. "Aren't you going to a funeral dressed as a red retriever? Why are you going to the trouble of dressing yourself in jet black?" Hal lifted his chin, looking regal. "Kudos to Mrs. Pentstemton," he said, opening the door. "She likes to be thought of in every detail." He stepped out onto the streets of Port Sanctuary.