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.

[Illustration: He enjoyed his long neck very much.]

Instead of a chariot and four, Carrie went off in an open wagon, with
the rest of the girls. It made her feel so to see Ben, with his long
neck, that she got her mother's permission to spend the night with the
friend in whose grounds the picnic was to be held.