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Updated: May 22, 2025
"Nothing to boast of," said it; "it had rather a restless night. But thank you for asking." "I say," said Robert, "do you feel up to giving wishes to-day, because we very much want an extra besides the regular one? The extra's a very little one," he added reassuringly. "Humph!" said the Sand-fairy.
'Well, in plain English, then, a SAND-FAIRY. Don't you know a Sand-fairy when you see one? It looked so grieved and hurt that Jane hastened to say, 'Of course I see you are, now. It's quite plain now one comes to look at you. 'You came to look at me, several sentences ago, it said crossly, beginning to curl up again in the sand. 'Oh don't go away again! Do talk some more, Robert cried.
Although they were all in a great hurry they did not try to climb down the sides of the gravel-pit, but went round by the safe lower road, as if they had been carts. They had made a ring of stones round the place where the Sand-fairy had disappeared, so they easily found the spot. The sun was burning and bright, and the sky was deep blue without a cloud. The sand was very hot to touch.
The Sand-fairy blew himself out, and next moment each child felt a funny feeling, half heaviness and half lightness, on its shoulders. The Psammead put its head on one side and turned its snail eyes from one side to the other. "Not so bad," it said dreamily. "But really, Robert, you're not quite such an angel as you look." Robert almost blushed.
"Look out dig with your hands, now!" So they did, and presently uncovered the spider-shaped brown hairy body, long arms and legs, bat's ears and snail's eyes of the Sand-fairy himself. Everyone drew a deep breath of satisfaction, for now of course it couldn't have been a dream. The Psammead sat up and shook the sand out of its fur. "How's your left whisker this morning?" said Anthea politely.
Each thought that its brothers and sisters had wandered off, and that these strange children had stolen up unnoticed while it was watching the swelling form of the Sand-fairy. Anthea spoke first "Excuse me," she said very politely to Jane, who now had enormous blue eyes and a cloud of russet hair, "but have you seen two little boys and a little girl anywhere about?"
'I don't believe we SHALL turn to stone, said Robert, breaking a long miserable silence, 'because the Sand-fairy said he'd give us another wish to-morrow, and he couldn't if we were stone, could he? The others said 'No, but they weren't at all comforted.
'Then it's your fault, said Robert, 'because you might just as well have made "soon" mean some moment next year or next century. 'That's where you, as so often happens, make the mistake, rejoined the Sand-fairy. 'I couldn't mean anything but what SHE meant by "soon". It wasn't my wish. And what SHE meant was the next time the King happens to go out lion hunting.
'Is that the day's wish? said the Sand-fairy, yawning. Cyril muttered something about 'just like a girl, and the rest stood silent. If they said 'Yes, then good-bye to the other wishes they had decided to ask for. If they said 'No, it would be very rude, and they had all been taught manners, and had learned a little too, which is not at all the same thing.
And everyone saw the Sand-fairy sitting quite close to them, with the expression which it used as a smile on its hairy face. "Good-morning," it said; "I did that quite easily! Everyone wants him now." "It doesn't matter," said Robert sulkily, because he knew he had been behaving rather like a pig. "No matter who wants him there's no one here to anyhow."
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