Free Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager

the plane and broadcast the good news home to the States."
    And still clapping each other on the back and rejoicing in their good fortune, they hurried off across the snow.
    "Wait!" called Martha after them. The others didn't even bother.
    "Really!" said Jane. "Some people!"
    "And now I suppose we just go home," said Katharine.
    "No, we don't," said Mark. "Not till sundown. Remember?"
    Everybody looked at the sun. It shone brightly, straight above them. Time passed. They looked at it again. It hadn't moved an inch and didn't look as if it intended to. And then Mark remembered something.
    "Oh-oh," he said. "We're at the South Pole, remember? Didn't you ever hear of the midnight sun? When there
is
any sun at all down here, it hardly
ever
sets. Sometimes not for weeks, I guess."
    "And here we are," said Katharine.
    "And here we'll be," said Jane.
    "I want Mother," said Martha.
    After that nobody said anything for a few minutes. "Who wants to throw snowballs?" said Mark finally.
    Nobody did.
    "Now I know where the snows of yesteryear are," said Katharine. "They're all here. They must be."
    "Now I see why people go to Florida in the winter," said Jane. "I for one will never build a snowman again."
    Mark cleared his throat. "O turtle?" he said.
    "Don't be silly," said Jane. "It couldn't come here. It'd freeze."
    "We're here and
we're
not freezing, are we?" said Mark.
    "
Who
isn't?" said Martha bitterly.
    At that moment a voice spoke at their elbow. "Hello," it said.
    The four children turned. An odd figure in nun-like black-and-white confronted them.
    "You're a penguin," said Katharine.
    "Naturally," said the penguin.
    Carrie the cat arched her back and hissed. She could not abide a bird.
    "Do you know our turtle? Did it send you to help us? Are penguins magic, too?" said Martha.
    "Don't we look as though we were?" said the penguin. And the four children had to admit that this was true.
    "Wish us home, then," said Martha.
    "Make the sun set," said Katharine.
    "Please," said Mark, either because he had better manners than the others or because he was more tactful.
    "It's not so simple as that," said the penguin.
    "Naturally. It never is," said Jane.
    "As you ought to know by now," agreed the penguin. "However. Just sit there patiently for a bit. Perhaps I'll think of something."
    The four children sat there patiently while the penguin paced up and down, deep in thought. Carrie the cat followed the penguin with her eyes. She crouched low to the ground, her tail lashing. She started forward.
    "Call off this fierce marauding beast," said the penguin. "I can't think when I'm being stalked."
    Martha took Carrie in her lap.
    "That's better," said the penguin. "Now then. Follow me. I have a plan."
    It led the way, and the four children followed, Martha still keeping tight hold of Carrie. Carrie's lip curled in disgust every time she looked at the penguin. Presently they came in sight of an endless-looking windswept sea, with a great mass of ice at its edge.
    "That's probably the Antarctic Ocean," said Mark, who knew about such things. "That's probably a glacier just up ahead."
    Even as he spoke, there was a crash, and a sizable mass of ice detached itself from the shore and went floating away over the cold, vasty deep.
    "Hop on," said the penguin. "The next iceberg leaves in two minutes."
    The four children hopped where it pointed and sat down on cold slipperiness that moved. A few seconds later there was another crash, and a crack appeared between them and the penguin. The crack widened rapidly into a watery gulf, and the four children found themselves sailing away in the wake of the previous iceberg.
    "Good-bye!" they called, waving at the shore. "Thanks a lot!" The penguin flipped a flipper. Carrie uttered a parting snarl.
    And then shore and penguin were lost to view, and there was nothing to be seen on either hand but cold water and other bobbing icebergs.
    "Hard-a-lee!" said Jane. "This is as good as being on a yacht. Well,