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It began one day in summer about thirty years ago, and it happened to
four children.

=Jane was the oldest and =Mark was the only boy, and between them they
ran everything.

=Katherine was the middle child, of docile disposition and a comfort to
her mother. She knew she was a comfort, and docile, because she'd heard
her mother say so. And the others knew she was, too, by now, because
ever since that day =Katherine would keep boasting about what a comfort
she was, and how docile, until =Jane declared she would utter a piercing
shriek and fall over dead if she heard another word about it. This will
give you some idea what =Jane and =Katherine were like.

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"Just taking a walk?"
"Well, no."
The rather small gentleman had opened the door of the car now.
"Get in," he said.
To her surprise, the children's mother got in.
They rode on for a bit in silence. The children's mother tried to
study the gentleman's face out of the corner of her eye, and was
displeased to see that he wore a beard. Beards always seemed to her
rather sinister. Why would anyone wear one, unless he had something
to hide?
But this beard was only a small, pointed one, and the rest of the
gentleman's face, or as much of it as she could see in the dark car,
seemed pleasant. She found herself wanting to tell him of her strange
adventure. Of course, she couldn't. It would sound too silly.


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But just skating around by himself wasn't very much fun. He wished all the
guys were back from their vacations. He wished that when he came to the
vacant lot up ahead, he'd see them there, playing baseball as usual.
And for a second, as he whizzed past the vacant lot, he did seem to sort
of half-see a ghostly game in progress.
He rounded the corner and came down his own block on =Maplewood. As he
passed Mrs =Hudson's house he wished, as he'd often wished before, that
just for once the iron dog in the yard would be alive, instead of only iron.
Then he looked back. For a minute he thought he heard a faint muffled
bark, and it seemed as though the iron tail had tried to wag. =Mark guessed
he must have a pretty vivid imagination, all right, the way Miss =Amrhein,
his last year's teacher, had always said.

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=Jane had drawn up some rules.
"The wishes are to go by turns," she said. "Nobody's to make any main wish
that doesn't include all the rest of us. If there have to be any smaller
wishes later on in the same adventure, the person who wished the main wish
gets to make them, except in case of emergency. Like if he loses the charm
and one of the other ones finds it. I get to go first.:
=Katherine had something to say about that.
"I don't see why," she said. "You always get dibs on first because you're the
oldest, and grownups always pick =Martha because she's the baby, and =Mark has
a wonderful double life with all this and being a boy, too! Middle ones
never get any privileges at all! Besides, who hasn't had a wish of her own yet?
Think back!"

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"=Camelot, I should think," said =Katherine, "in tournament time! Look!"
=Jane and =Mark and =Martha looked. =Camelot and the field of tournament looked
exactly as you all would expect them to look, from the descriptions in The
Boy's King =Arthur and the wonderful books by Mr =THWhite. Trumpets were blowing
clarion calls, and pennons fluttered on the blue air, and armor flashed in the
bright light, and gallant knights and trusty squires and faithful pages and
ladies fair and lowly varlets were crowding into the stands in hundreds, to
watch the chivalrous sport.
The four children had front-row grandstand seats, for =Katherine had made that a
part of her wish. She had forgotten to say anything in her wish about getting
rid of the four horses, and at first these made some trouble by wanting to sit
in the grandstand, too, much to the annoyance of the people sitting behind. But
=Katherine wished them twice as far as away, and they disappeared.

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"Of course it has to be just nowadays and in our own country after this," =Mark said,
"but still! What if we messed up the President and Congress next time, the way we
did King =Arthur? We could cause a national emergency!"
"I know," said =Jane! "We must proceed with Utter Caution. I've been thinking all night,
and I'm going to make my next wish really serious. I decided the two things I want
most in the world are no more wars and that I knew everything!"
=Katherine shook her head doubtfully.
"That's too serious," she said. "That's kind of like interfering with God. That might
be even worse than trying to change history."

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A male and a female thief lay bound and gagged on the floor, while =Mark stood over them
victoriously, his hands dripping diamonds and rubies.
Watching him in admiration were =Jane an =Katherine and =Martha, only =Martha seemed to be
completely transparent.
And perhaps oddest of all, there stood the rather small gentleman with the beard who had
given her a lift on the night she visited Uncle =Edwin and Aunt =Grace and had the strange
adventure.
The combination of these surprises, after the worry she had had during the panic in the streets,
proved too much for her. She stood swaying in the doorway for a moment, a prey to conflicting
emotions. Then she tottered to a chair and collapsed. Like many another in that unfortunate
city, during the half hour since =Martha made her first wish, she had fainted.

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"Shall we tell him," =Katherine asked?
"Yes," =Mark nodded decisively. "There comes a time in the affairs of men, and this is it."
"I said we ought to, all along, said =Martha. "I said he'd know what to do. This'll prove it."
And the and =Mark and =Katherine all piled into the front seat of the car and began telling
Mr =Smith about the dread events of the morning. They didn't go into the reason for =Jane's
upset, though, or the way she felt about stepfathers, out of consideration for his feelings.
And Mr =Smith didn't wast time in unnecessary questions. "Which proves," said =Mark to
=Katherine, afterward, "that he would make an ideal step, and not =Murdstone at all!"
He started the motor, and the car shot down =Maplewood and turned into =Virginia Street.

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"Yes, you'd almost think she were a different person," said =Katherine, equally daring!
=Martha giggled. So, I regret to say, did Mr =Smith.
"What's the joke," said the children's mother?
"Oh, nothing," said the four children.
"I'm just feeling happy," said Mr =Smith. "This is a treat for me. I live all alone, you
know, and it's years since I've been to a family party like this."
=Jane looked around the room, at the colored pictures on the lemon-yellow walls and the
gay printed curtains at the windows and the bright rugs on the floor and the smiling
faces around the table.
"This is a wonderful family to belong to," she said. "It's the best family to belong to in the
whole world!"
And then she smiled at Mr =Smith.
"And I think you're going to think so, too," she said.

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Their mother sat at her desk, a dreamy, faraway smile on her face. =Katherine turned to her
anxiously.
"There," she said! "Now do you believe?"
Their mother's smile vanished. She looked stubborn. "That didn't happen," she said. "It was
a dream."
"How do we all know about it, then," said =Katherine?
"You don't," said their mother. "You couldn't."
And nothing any of the children could say would make her believe anything else. After
five minutes of trying, they were all breathing hard and beginning to feel a bit desparate.
"May I point out," said Mr =Smith, at last, "that if you would only listen to me."
But =Martha interrupted him.