either. You often notice that sort of silence when someone has
said something it ought not to - and everyone else holds its tongue
and waits for the one who oughtn't to have said it is sorry.

The silence was broken by a sigh - a breath suddenly let out. The
children's heads turned as if there had been a string tied to each
nose, and someone had pulled all the strings at once.

And everyone saw the Sand-fairy sitting quite close to them, with
the expression which it used as a smile on its hairy face.

'Good-morning,' it said; 'I did that quite easily! Everyone wants
him now.'

'It doesn't matter,' said Robert sulkily, because he knew he had
been behaving rather like a pig. 'No matter who wants him -
there's no one here to - anyhow.'

'Ingratitude,' said the Psammead, 'is a dreadful vice.'

'We're not ungrateful,'Jane made haste to say, 'but we didn't
REALLY want that wish. Robert only just said it. Can't you take
it back and give us a new one?'

'No - I can't,' the Sand-fairy said shortly; 'chopping and changing
- it's not business. You ought to be careful what you do wish.
There was a little boy once, he'd wished for a Plesiosaurus instead
of an Ichthyosaurus, because he was too lazy to remember the easy
names of everyday things, and his father had been very vexed with
him, and had made him go to bed before tea-time, and wouldn't let