“And at twelve o’clock you have your second wish,” said Mrs. Fraser.

“Yes, Mamma,” said Carrie; “and I have already decided what it shall be,—­a chariot and four.  It will come just in time to take me to the picnic.”

“Oh, my dear Carrie,” said her mother, “do think what you are planning!  Where would you keep your chariot and the four horses?”

“Oh! there will be a man to take care of them,” said Carrie; “but I will think about it all night carefully——­”

At that very moment she went to sleep.

The next morning early, Carrie was downstairs.  She found she could eat a few more chocolate creams, and Jimmy was in the same condition.  She proposed to him her plan of keeping the chocolates still for sale, but eating a way to the sofa in the corner, to her best dress.

Ben Sykes came early, and a few of the other boys.  The rest were kept at home, because it turned out they had eaten too many and their parents would not let them come.

A good many of the older people came with baskets and boxes, and bought some to carry away, they were so delicious and fresh.

Meanwhile Ben Sykes was eating his way toward the corner.  It was very hard making any passage, for as fast as he ate out a place others came tumbling in from the top.  Carrie and Jimmy invented “a kind of a tunnel” of chairs and ironing-boards, to keep open the passage; and other boys helped eat, as they were not expected to pay.

But the morning passed on.  Mrs. Fraser tried to persuade Carrie to wear another dress; but she had set her mind on this.  She had a broad blue sash to wear with it, and the sash would not go with any other dress.

She watched the clock, she watched Ben; she went in under the ironing-boards, to help him eat, although she had begun to loathe the taste of the chocolate creams.

Ben was splendid.  He seemed to enjoy more the more he ate.  Carrie watched him, as he licked them and ate with glowing eyes.

“Oh, Ben,” Carrie suddenly exclaimed, “you can’t seem to eat them fast enough.  I wish your throat were as long as from one end of this room to the other.”

At this moment the clock was striking.

Carrie was ready to scream out her second wish; but she felt herself pushed in a strange way.  Ben was on all fours in front of her, and now he pushed her back, back.  His neck was so long that while his head was still among the chocolates, at the far corner of the room, his feet were now out of the door.

Carrie stood speechless.  She had lost her wish by her foolish exclamation.  The faithful Ben, meanwhile, was flinging something through the opening.  It was her dress, and she hurried away to put it on.

When she came down, everybody was looking at Ben.  At first he enjoyed his long neck very much.  He could stand on the doorstep and put his head far out up in the cherry trees and nip off cherries, which pleased both the boys and himself.