Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager

and never thinking of others at all."
    "We've got to do something," said Jane.
    "What'll we do?" said Martha.
    "That's the whole point," said Mark. "The next wish has got to be for
him.
"
    "You're right," said Jane. "It's only fair."
    "What'll we wish?" said Martha.
    "That's the whole point," said Mark again. "We don't want to rush off half-cocked, the way we did when we tried to help Mother with the half-magic that other time. Remember what happened."
    They remembered.
    "No," he went on, "this time we've really got to think it over first. And that's why it's good that we've got two whole days before the magic. We can be thinking."
    "Good," said Jane. "We'll do that."
    "Let's," said Katharine.
    Martha nodded her head earnestly.
    And with that settled, the four children forgot all about Mr. Smith for the moment and turned their minds happily to the important question of how they were to while away the golden hours in the meantime.
    It was a blue-skied morning, and the sun shone brightly but coolly, and a fresh wind blew.
    "This," said Mark, "is the kind of day when the open road calls."
    "Let's explore," said Jane.
    "We already did," said Martha.
    "Not that old South Pole," said Jane in tones of scorn. "Let's explore our own territory. See America first. We've never found out where that red-clay road
goes.
"
    "We could take our lunch," said Katharine.
    "What kind of sandwiches?" said Mark.
    "Jam," said Martha thoughtfully, "and peanut-butter-and-banana, and cream-cheese-and-honey, and date-and-nut, and prune-and-marshmallow..."
    A time passed.
    Their mother came into the kitchen. "What's all this mess?" she said. "Nobody leaves this house till it's cleaned up."
    And nobody did.
    By the time Jane and Mark and Katharine were ready to go, the sun had climbed lots higher in the sky and wasn't half so cool. And they had made so many sandwiches and tasted the important parts of each so many times to get just the right blends that by now everybody's gorge rose and nobody felt like having a picnic for ages, at least. But they packed the lunch basket with the sandwiches, anyway.
    "Where's Martha?" asked somebody.
    It turned out nobody had seen her for some time.
    "Here I am," said a voice at that moment. " Are we all ready?" And a small figure walked in from outside.
    "No thanks to you," said Mark. "Workshirk."
    "I had something to do," said Martha.
    "Naturally," said Jane. "At a time like this. Just for that you get to carry the lunch basket." And Martha did.
    The four children went over the rolling meadow with the sheep, keeping well out of the way of the untrustworthy rams, and came into the red-clay road some distance beyond the farm where the milk came from. From now on all was unexplored territory, and they explored it.
    Once some bluebirds flew over saying, "Tru-alee," and for a while there were some bright yellow wildflowers growing by the side of the road that Mark, who always knew about such things, said were tansy, also called bitter buttons. Jane, ever venturesome, tasted a few and said they were bitter all right. None of the others cared to try.
    But otherwise, one red-clay hill proved very much like another, and they kept going on and on, and there didn't seem to be any end to them, until at the top of the third one Martha, who hadn't been in on all the sandwich-making and who had been carrying the heavy basket all this while, sat down by the side of the road and said she wasn't going a step farther until she had her lunch right here and now.
    "Not out here in the sun like this," said Katharine, wiping perspiration from her eyebrows. "Human flesh couldn't stand it. It'd broil."
    "There's a woods coming," said Mark, pointing ahead. "If we just keep on, we're sure to find an ideal spot."
    So he and Jane and Katharine and a reluctant Martha trudged down the third hill and toiled up the fourth, and at the top of it the woods came right up to the side of the road, and there proved to be a track that turned off and went in among