Free The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes Page A

was on her face.
    "Gammer?" she said.
    "Eh?" croaked Old Witch.
    "You don't know it, of course. But you know what I wished for on my birthday candles that I blew out in one blow? And if you blow out all the candles in one blow, it means your wish will come true."
    "No," said Old Witch.
    "Well, I wished for a baby sister. That's what I wished for. And now. Listen to this. Just listen." Little Witch Girl read the letter aloud. When she finished she said, "Oh, Gammer! Isn't that wonderful?"
    Old Witch was not as pleased. "Baby witch!" she said. "Oh, to glory be!" Old Witch did not want any weeny witch around. Weeny rabbits, fat and juicy, that she could pop into her mouth and eat up were what she wanted. Let Little Witch Girl try and get a baby witch herself with her own abracadabra—heh-heh!—for Old Witch knew that she wouldn't do the getting.
    "Just think! A baby sister!" said Little Witch Girl. She could not imagine Old Witch not being as pleased as she was.
    "A baby sister, now!" said Old Witch, as though her mind had not already been made up that she did not want any baby witch around.
    "Yes," said Little Witch Girl. "Then I would never be lonesome."
    "Well, you don't have one, heh-heh!" Old Witch said with a rasping croak.
    "Couldn't you get me one? You're the real, right, regular Head Old Witch. You know the abracadabra, don't you? It says here in this important letter that you do," pleaded Little Witch Girl. "Oh, please, dear old gammer Old Witchie! Please!"
    "I could. But I won't. No!" said Old Witch with a terrible croak.
    "Well, I'm going to get one myself, you'll see," said Little Witch Girl with a sob. "And right this very minute, too."
    So, Little Witch Girl piped this chant. Her voice was pretty and high when she was excited.
"Abracadabra
A B C
Flying through the air to me
Hotch
Cotch
In the Potch
A weeny witchie baby
Do I see?"
    Apparently this was not the right abracadabra for getting a witch baby. Nothing came flying through the air. Disconsolately, Little Witch Girl sat down on her heels, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed silently.
    In spite of herself Old Witch began to feel sorry for the little witch girl. (She must be getting good, willy-nilly.) And she reasoned in this way. "After all,
I
got
her
—that's Little Witch Girl—with abracadabras when I was lonesome. Now, maybe I should get
her
a baby sister, now that
she
is lonesome. I don't know. I don't know," she muttered with a witch sigh, which is on the order of a cold blast of wind.
    A loud sob escaped from Little Witch Girl who rarely wept even when she bumped her nose.
    This decided Old Witch. "Yes, I suppose I should. And yes, I suppose I shall," she said.
    Having made the important decision, Old Witch lost no time in doing something about it. She bent over and got into the position for uttering great abracadabras. Wiggling back and forth and waving her arms about with strange and frightening movements, she chanted this chant:
"Abracadabra
Cadabra
Cadee
C B A and
A B C
Flying through the air to WE
Fiddly
Widdly
Biddly
BEE
Here's a weeny witchie just for
SHE!"
    Of course this was a much more powerful abracadabra than Little Witch Girl's had been. To learn to say it properly, Old Witch had probably had to go to the witch and wizard school for centuries. It should, therefore, work. And, it did work!
    Flying through the air, strapped to a miniature broomstick, there came a weeny witch baby. She came complete with little witch hat, loose-flowing, soft little black witch clothes, and with a tiny, scrawny black kitten miaowing fiercely and clinging to the broomstick, sometimes right side up, sometimes wrong side up.
    " HERE BE BABY, " spelled the voice of Malachi.
    Little Witch Girl took her hands off her tear-streaked face. Awestricken, she sat back on her haunches. "0-o-oh!" she gasped as she watched the weeny witch baby come to a neat landing on the little brass bed. "Oh! Isn't she cute!"
    Old Witch was surprised herself. "Oh, to