res, and brought therefrom the dry and brittle wishbone.

"Peg told me how it must be done. I'm to hold the wishbone with both
hands, like this, and walk backward, repeating the wish nine times. And
when I've finished the ninth time I'm to turn around nine times, from
right to left, and then the wish will come true right away."

"Do you expect to see Pat when you finish turning?" said Dan
skeptically.

None of us had any faith in the incantation except Peter, and, by
infection, Cecily. You never could tell what might happen. Cecily
took the wishbone in her trembling little hands and began her backward
pacing, repeating solemnly, "I wish that we may find Paddy alive, or
else his body, so that we can bury him decently." By the time Cecily
had repeated this nine times we were all slightly infected with the
desperate hope that something might come of it; and when she had
made her nine gyrations we looked eagerly down the sunset lane, half
expecting to see our lost pet. But we saw only the Awkward Man turning
in at the gate. This was almost as surprising as the sight of Pat
himself would have been; but there was no sign of Pat and hope flickered
out in every breast but Peter's.

"You've got to give the spell time to work," he expostulated. "If Pat
was miles away when it was wished it wouldn't be reasonable to expect to
see him right off."

But we of little faith had already lost that little, and it was a very
disconsolate group which the Awkward Man presently joined.

He was smiling--his rare, beautiful smile which only children ever
saw--and he lifted his hat to the girls with no trace of the shyness and
awkwardness for which he was notorious.

"Good evening," he said. "Have you little people lost a cat lately?"

We stared. Peter said "I knew it!" in a triumphant pig's whisper. The
Story Girl started eagerly forward.

"Oh, Mr. Dale, can you tell us anything of Paddy?" she cried.

"A silver gray cat with black points and very fine marking?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Well, doesn't that beat the Dutch!" muttered Dan.

But we were all crowding about the Awkward Man, demanding where and when
he had found Paddy.

"You'd better come over to my place and make sure that it really is your
cat," suggested the Awkward Man, "and I'll tell you all about finding
him on the way. I must warn you that he is pretty thin--but I think
he'll pull through."

We obtained permission to go without much difficulty, althou