“Let me wind the silk for you,” he said in a low voice. “It’s something like the old game of spider web, I think. If you look along the floor you can see threads going in different directions.”
Elizabeth Ann looked, while the witch was passing down the line, handing each boy a bobbin.
“Yes,” whispered Elizabeth Ann. “I see the threads. Isn’t this fun!”
“Now then, each of you count eleven as loudly as you can,” said the witch, picking up her broomstick. “When you have counted to eleven, start to wind your silk. I’ll be waiting for you in my cave.”
With a wave of her hand, she clattered out.
“One-two-three-four——” the counting began in the barn.
As they reached the number “ELEVEN!” the boys began to wind the silk.
“All right, we’re ready,” said Roger to Elizabeth Ann. “I thought this was a spider web. See, we’re going under the wagon.”
Elizabeth Ann glanced back to see whether Doris was happy. She saw that Jim Bennett was her partner. Jim would talk so much that Doris wouldn’t have to say many words, and that would make her happy. Doris liked to talk to Elizabeth Ann, but she didn’t have much to say when she was at a party.
The silk cord Roger was winding led him and Elizabeth Ann under the heavy farm wagon, standing in one corner of the barn. It led them through an empty box stall. It took them across the barn yard and around a tree—a beautiful silver moon was shining in the sky and Elizabeth Ann found herself wishing that she could ride a broomstick—just once—across the sky and see how the moon looks when one is near it.