The Haunted Fountain

by Margaret Sutton

  CHAPTER II

  If Wishes Came True

  “Did you?” Lois interrupted the story to ask excitedly. “Oh, Judy!Don’t keep us in suspense any longer. What did you wish?”

  “Patience,” Judy said with a smile. “I’m coming to that.”

  First, she told her friends, she had to think of a wise wish. There hadbeen so much she wanted in those early days before the flood. DoraScott had been her best friend in Roulsville, but she had moved away.

  “You see,” she explained, “I made the mistake of having just one bestfriend. There wasn’t anybody in Dry Brook Hollow. I remember thinkingof how lonely I was and how I wished for a friend or a sister, andsuddenly a tear splashed in the water. It made little ripples. Ithought I had to wish quickly before they vanished, and so I begannaming the things I wanted as fast as I could. I’m not sure they werewise wishes. They seem rather selfish to me, now. I wasn’t thinking ofanybody but me, Judy Bolton, and what I wanted. It wasn’t until after Ibegan to think of others that my wishes started to come true.”

  “But what were they?” Lois insisted.

  Lorraine seemed unusually quiet and thoughtful. Judy did not notice thefear in her eyes as she replied airily, “Oh, didn’t I tell you? Iwished for lots of friends and a sister, and I wished I could marry aG-man and solve a lot of mysteries and that’s as far as I got when theripples vanished. I thought the spell was broken and so I didn’t wishfor anything more.”

  “Wasn’t there anything more you wanted?” Lois asked.

  “Of course,” replied Judy. “There were lots more things. I wanted to goplaces, of course, and keep pets, and have a nice home, and—”

  “And your wishes all came true!”

  “Every one of them,” Judy agreed, “even the one about the sister. Yousee, it wasn’t a baby sister I wanted. It was a sister near my own age.That seemed impossible at the time, but the future did hold a sisterfor me.”

  “It held one for me, too,” Lois said, squeezing Lorraine’s hand underthe table. “Don’t you think sisters should tell each other theirproblems, Judy?”

  “Honey and I always do,” she replied “but then it was different. Ididn’t know I would marry Peter or that he would become a G-man, and hedidn’t know he had a sister. It is strange, isn’t it? But the strangestthing of all was the fountain itself.”

  “Why?” asked Lorraine. “Do you still think it was enchanted?”

  Lois laughed at this, but Judy was serious as she answered, “I wasstill little girl enough to think so at the time. I wandered around,growing very drowsy. Then I found a hammock and climbed into it. I musthave gone to sleep, because I remember waking up and wondering if thevoice in the fountain had been a dream.”

  “A hammock?” Lois questioned. “Are you sure it wasn’t a flying carpet?”

  “No, it was a hammock all right,” Judy assured her, laughing. “It washung between two trees in a beautiful garden all enclosed in rosetrellises thick with roses. Did I tell you it was June?”

  “All the year around?”

  Again Lois laughed. But Lorraine said abruptly, “Let’s not talk aboutrose gardens in June. It’s a long way from June to December.”

  “Do you mean a garden changes? I know,” Judy said, “but I think thisone would be beautiful at any time of the year. There wererhododendrons, too, and I don’t know how many different kinds ofevergreens. I explored the garden all around the fountain.”

  “And then what happened?” Lorraine urged her.

  “Yes, yes. Go on,” entreated Lois. “I didn’t dream you’d kept anythingthat exciting a secret. Why didn’t you try to solve the mystery?”

  “I think I would have tried,” Judy admitted, “if I had been older ormore experienced. I really should have investigated it more thoroughlyand learned the secret of the fountain. But after the ripples went awayit didn’t speak to me any more, and I didn’t really think it had heardmy wishes. I was still wishing for a friend when I met you, Lois. Itdid seem impossible for us to be friends at first, didn’t it? Lorrainewas your friend.”

  “I did make trouble for you,” Lorraine remembered. “It was all becauseof my foolish jealousy.”

  “It was nothing compared to the trouble caused by the Roulsvilleflood,” declared Judy. “After that things started happening so fastthat I completely forgot about the fountain. Honestly, Lois, I don’tbelieve I thought about it again until after we moved to Farringdon andI walked up to your door and saw the fountain on your lawn.”

  “The Farringdon-Pett puddle, I always called it,” Lois said with agiggle. “I’ve seen lots nicer fountains.”

  “You have?” asked Judy. “Then maybe you’ve seen the one I’ve beentelling you about. I think the picture of it is still in the attic.Come on up and I’ll show you.”

  Lois and Lorraine had finished their dessert while Judy was tellingthem the story of the fountain. Somehow, she wasn’t hungry for hers.She had tasted it too often while she was making it.

  “I’ll leave it for Blackberry,” she decided.

  Lois watched in amusement as the cat lapped up the chocolate puddingafter Judy had mixed it generously with cream.

  “Sometimes,” Judy said fondly, “Blackberry thinks he’s a person. Heeats everything we eat, including lettuce. Do you mind if he comes withus, Lorraine? He wants to explore the attic, too.”

  “He’ll remember he’s a cat fast enough if there are any mice up there,”Lois said with a giggle.

  Leaving the table, they all started upstairs with the cat boundingahead of them. In modernizing her grandparents’ house to suit her ownand Peter’s tastes, Judy had seen to it that the old stair door wasremoved. But there was still a door closing off the narrower stairsthat led to the attic. Blackberry reached it first and yowled for Judyto open it.

  “He can read my mind. He always knows where I’m going,” Judy said asthe door creaked open and the cat shot through it. A moment later aweird rolling noise came from the floor above.

  “Come on. There’s nothing up here to be afraid of,” Judy urged herfriends.

  “Maybe not, but I’m beginning to get the shivers,” confessed Lois asshe followed Judy to the sewing room at the top of the last flight ofstairs.

  “So am I,” Lorraine admitted. “I’m not superstitious about black cats,but they are creepy. Does Blackberry have to roll spools across thefloor?”

  “Now he thinks he’s a kitten,” laughed Judy. Pausing at still anotherdoor that led to the darker part of the attic, she turned and saidmysteriously, “Up here we can all turn back the clock. Does anybodycare to explore the past?”

  The exploration began enthusiastically with Judy relating still more ofwhat she remembered about the fountain.

  “When I told Grandma about it she laughed and said I must have dreamedit. She said if wishes came true that easily she’d be living in acastle. But would she?” Judy wondered. “When I first remember thishouse she was still burning kerosene lamps like those you see on thathigh shelf by the window. I think she and Grandpa like the way theylived without any modern conveniences or anything.”

  “I think so, too,” Lois agreed, looking around the old attic with ashiver. “It is strange they both died the same winter, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe they wanted it that way. Maybe they wished neither of them wouldoutlive the other. If they did wish in the fountain,” Judy went on morethoughtfully, “I’m sure that was one of their wishes. Another couldhave been to keep the good old days, as Grandma used to call them. Thatone came true in a way. They did manage to keep a little of the pastwhen they kept all these old things. That’s what I meant about turningback the clock.”

  “If wishes came true I’d like to turn it back a little myself,”Lorraine began. “It would be nice if things were the way they used tobe when I trusted Arthur—”

  “Don’t you trust him now?” Judy asked.

  Afterwards she was sorry for the interruption. Lois and Judy bothquestion
ed Lorraine, but that was all she would say. Judy wondered, asthey searched through the old magazines, what was wrong. Lorraine wasof a jealous disposition. Was the green-eyed monster coming between herand her handsome husband, Arthur Farringdon-Pett? Until now they hadseemed blissfully happy. But there was no happiness in Lorraine’s faceas she gazed at a picture of one of the fountains and then said in atight little voice, “It is. It’s the very same one.”

  “But that’s the picture I’ve been searching for!” Judy said eagerly.“Do you know where it is?”

  “I can’t be sure. But if it ever was enchanted, I’m sure it isn’t now.Let’s go,” Lorraine said suddenly to Lois. Judy knew she was suggestinga fast trip home. But, apparently, Lois did not understand it that way.If she did, she pretended not to.

  “Where?” she asked. “To the fountain? I’d love to, wouldn’t you, Judy?”

  “I certainly would,” Judy replied enthusiastically. “Do you recognizeit, too?”

  “I think so,” Lois answered after studying a little more closely thepicture they had found. “It looks like the fountain on the Brandtestate.”

  “The department store Brandts?” Judy questioned. “Then my grandparentsmust have driven old Fanny all the way to Farringdon.”

  “Not quite all the way,” Lorraine objected. “The Brandts own thatstretch of woods just before you come into the city. You’ve passed itlots of times.”

  “Of course,” agreed Judy. She put the magazine back in its place underthe eaves and turned eagerly to her friends. “I do remember a roadturning off into the woods and going on uphill,” she told them. “Inever thought it led to a house, though. There isn’t even a gate. Couldthat be the road my grandparents took?”

  “Why don’t we take it ourselves and find out?” Lois suggested.

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