She carried baskets of chocolate creams, and she found numbers of the
girls, who had not eaten any, who were delighted with them, and promised
to come the next day, to buy and carry away any amount of them. She
began to grow more cheerful, though she felt no appetite, and instead
of eating everything, as she always did at picnics, she could not even
touch Mattie Somers's cream-pie nor Julia Dale's doughnuts. She stayed
as late as she could at her friend Mattie's; but she felt she must get
home in time for her third wish, at twelve o'clock.

Would it be necessary for her to wish that Ben Sykes's neck should be
made shorter? She hoped she might find that it had grown shorter in the
night; then she could do as she pleased about her third wish.

She still clung to the desire for the chariot and four. If she had it,
she and her mother and Jimmy could get into it and drive far away from
everybody,--from Ben Sykes and his long neck, if he still had it,--and
never see any of them any more. Still, she would like to show the
chariot and four to her friends; and perhaps Ben Sykes would not mind
his long neck, and would be glad to keep it and earn money by showing
himself at a circus.

So she reached home in the middle of the morning, and found the whole
Sykes family there, and Ben, still with his long neck. It seems it had
given him great trouble in the night. He had to sleep with his head in
the opposite house, because there was not room enough on one floor at
home. Mrs. Sykes had not slept a wink, and her husband had been up
watching, to see that nobody stepped on Ben's neck. Ben himself appeared
in good spirits; but was glad to sit in a high room, where he could
support his head.

Carrie suggested her plan that Ben should exhibit himself. He, no doubt,
could earn a large sum. But his mother broke out against this. He never
could earn enough to pay for what he ate, now his throat was so long.
Even before this he could swallow more oatmeal than all the rest of the
family put together, and she was sure that now even Mr. Barnum himself
could not supply him with food enough. Then she burst into a flood of
tears, and said she had always hoped Ben would be her stay and support;
and now he could never sleep at home, and everybody looking after him
when he went out, and the breakfast he had eaten that very morning was
enough for six peoples' dinners.

They were all in the parlor, where the chocolate creams were partially
cleared