“I wish I were a boy again-unquestioning, with no need to analyze the moment.”

“If wishes were horses, what the heck would I need wishes for?”

“I've loved this house from the moment I set eyes on it," Dad said quietly."I just wish it were a little bigger," I said. "I need at least five hundred bedrooms to keep from feeling cramped, you know?”

“I didn't walk over and talk to him, though, not then. If I needed the time for a tree branch to become just a tree branch again and the wind to become just the wind, then a boy, most of all, needed some time to be only a boy.”

“Oh, I'm burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free... and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed?”

“Nestor beckoned to me and I dismounted with care.I handed the reins to the boy with thanks. I do not wish to see that hard-charging bag of bones again, unless it is in my soup.”