“A falsehood,” cried Ward, triumphantly.
“Oh, well, I guess that’s right.”
“Now everybody has asked a riddle, let us go on with our Hallowe’en stunts,” said Polly. “Let us start on the wishes.”
“Everybody make a wish,” directed Artie. “Then we’ll go upstairs and down and around the summerhouse and the real house. Remember, nobody is to say a word.”
They made their wishes hurriedly and silently, and then, Fred leading the way, they started. They kept rather close together, for each time they went up- and downstairs—and they had to do that twice—their shadows made such queer shapes on the wall that they looked positively spooky.
Artie and Ward clumped along in the giraffe suit, and the leopard and kangaroo looked almost real. Each one wanted to say to some one else, “Oh, doesn’t it make you feel jumpy?” but that, of course, would have broken the spell.
When they had been up and down the stairs twice, Fred led the way outdoors. Then, indeed, they did keep close together, for the moon was crossed by scudding clouds and the dry leaves, rattling over the dried grass, made funny, little scratching noises. Polly said afterward that she would not have been surprised to have seen a witch come jumping out at her from behind the summerhouse.
Around the house they trailed, and around the summerhouse, in perfect silence. Back to the house they went and into the brightly lighted kitchen.
“Well!” said Margy, in great relief. “I guess our wishes are coming true. No one said a word.”
“I almost did, though,” declared Jess. “I nearly yelled. Didn’t you see something back of the summerhouse?”