oking at his lighted windows, the lighted windows of his house,
remembering a time when he and Amos had seen only a wooded ridge and a
burnt-out campfire.

Something stirred in his mind, and after finding the front door
unlatched, he eased himself in and up the stairs as quietly as he
could. He did not want to face his Aunt Rachel for a few minutes
longer.

In his own room he shut the door and carefully lifted the _Mirabelle_
in its bottle to the place of honor on top of his chest of drawers.
Then he stood looking at his reflection in the small mirror hung askew
near the window.

He looked the same--well, not quite. The tiny scar was there, to prove
it was not a dream, and he quickly undid his shirt, and pulling it
off, got up on a chair to peer over his shoulder to see how his back
looked in the square of glass.

A whiplash like a long clean briar tear lay across his shoulders, and
as he looked, he almost felt again the searing cut.

Chris grinned, buttoning up his shirt. Then it had been no dream, no
childish imagining.

A voice soared up the stairs. "Chris! Chris darling? Are you home?"

Aunt Rachel had news for him of his mother's imminent return.

Chris opened his bedroom door, pulling out from his pocket the first
thing his fingers hit on, and as he went downstairs whistling,
"Farewell and Adieu, to you Spanish Ladies," he tossed and caught, and
tossed and caught again, an old silver button burnt black in a fire.

* * * * *

$3.25

_Mr. Wicker's Window_

_by_

Carley Dawson

When twelve-year-old Chris entered Mr. Wicker's shop to inquire about
a job for his friend, something about old Mr. Wicker forced him to
take the job himself. Chris found himself the pupil of Mr. Wicker, not
the old man he first saw, but a powerful man in his forties--a
magician. Chris learned how to turn himself into a fish, a bird, a
fly, and with a magic rope he learned to make a boat or even an
elephant.

Chris had been chosen to sail to China on a mysterious mission. Long
before he sailed, Chris met the enemies who would try and stop
him--evil Claggett Chew, the dandy Osterbridge Hawsey, the treacherous
old beggar Simon Gosler. With a Nubian boy Chris brought to life with
magic, he set out on his hazardous voyage.

Carley Dawson writes beautifully, combining fact and fantasy with
skill. Her characters are lifelike and vivid, and the plot of this,
her first book, is fantasticall