window to
recover strength enough to speak, and then her words came out in gasps.

Carrie did leave her rocking-chair and tried fanning her mother, for she
saw she had something to say.

"What is it? What have you seen? Have you got something slam-bang for
me? Is the Governor coming here? Couldn't you raise any dinner?"

Carrie's questions came out so fast that her mother never could have
answered them, even with the breath of a Corliss engine; much less,
panting as she was now.

"Yes, I saw him; I managed to see him," she gasped out. "The guns were
firing, the cannon were booming, the bells were ringing----"

"Oh! I dare say! I dare say!" cried Carrie, eager to hear more. "I could
hear them up here. That was not worth going to town for. What did the
Governor say?"

"My dear! my dear!" panted Mrs. Fraser, "he said you could have your
three wishes."

"What! The chariot and four (that means horses), the maid, and the
boot-hooks,--no, the maid was scratched out,--not the chocolates?" asked
Carrie, in wonder.

"No, no! I don't know what you mean!" said Mrs. Fraser; "but you can
have three wishes; and I have hurried home, for they are to be told as
the clock strikes twelve,--one to-day, one to-morrow, one the next
day,--the moment the clock strikes, and I am only just in time. You are
to wish, and you will have just what you wish."

Both Carrie and her mother looked at the clock. The hand was just
approaching twelve. Carrie could hear a little "click" that always came
from inside the clock before it struck.

"I have written out my wishes," she hurried to say; "but I don't want
the chariot yet, because everybody is coming back from town. And I don't
want any more hats and boots just now. But, oh! I do want some chocolate
creams, and I wish this room was 'chock full of them.'"

As she spoke the clock struck; and when it stopped she could speak no
more, for the room was as full of chocolate creams as it could hold.
They came rattling down upon her head, filling in all the crannies of
the room. They crowded into her half-open mouth; they filled her
clutching hands. Luckily, Mrs. Fraser was sitting near the open window,
and the chocolate creams pushed her forward upon the sill. There were
two windows looking upon the piazza. One was made of glass doors that
were shut; the other, fortunately, was quite low; and Mrs. Fraser seated
herself on the edge, and succeeded in passing her feet over to the other
side, a torren