1Sylvester Duncan lived with his mother and father at Acorn Road in Oatsdale.
2One of his hobbies was collecting pebbles of unusual shape and color.
3On a rainy Saturday during vacation,
4he found a quite extraordinary one.
5It was flaming red, shiny, and perfectly round, like a marble.
6As he was studying this remarkable pebble, he began to shiver,
7probably from excitement, and the rain felt cold on his back.
8"Oh, I wish it would stop raining," he said.
9To his great surprise, the rain stopped.
10It didn't stop gradually as rains usually do.
11It ceased.
12The drops vanished on the way down, the clouds disappeared,
13everything was dry, and the sun was shining as if the rain had never existed.
14In all his young life, Sylvester had never had a wish gratified so quickly.
15It struck him that magic must be at work,
16and he guessed that the magic must be in the remarkable-looking red pebble.
17To make a test, he put the pebble on the ground and said,
18"I wish it would rain again."
19Nothing happened.
20But when he said the same thing holding the pebble in his hoof,
21the sky turned black,
22there was lightning and a clap of thunder,
23and the rain came shooting down.
24"What a lucky day this is!" thought Sylvester.
25"From now on I can have anything I want."
26"My father and mother can have anything they want."
27"My relatives, my friends, and anybody at all can have everything anybody wants!"
28He wished the sunshine back in the sky,
29and he wished for a wart on his left hind fetlock would disappear,
30and it did,
31and he started home, eager to amaze his father and mother with this magic pebble.
32He could hardly wait to see their faces.
33Maybe they wouldn't even believe him at first.
34As he was crossing Strawberry Hill, thinking of some of the many, many things he could wish for,
35he was startled to see a mean, hungry lion
36looking right at him from behind some tall grass.
37He was frightened.
38If he hadn't been so frightened, he could have made the lion disappear,
39or he could have wished himself safe at home with his father and mother.
40He could have wished the lion would turn into a butterfly
41or a daisy or a gnat.
42He could have wished many things,
43but he panicked and couldn't think carefully.
44"I wish I was a rock," he said,
45and he became a rock.
46The lion came bounding over,
47sniffed the rock a hundred times,
48walked around and around it,
49and went away confused,
50perplexed, puzzled, and bewildered.
51"I saw that little donkey as clear as day."
52"Maybe I'm going crazy," he muttered.
53And there was Sylvester, a rock on Strawberry Hill,
54with the magic pebble lying right beside him on the ground,
55and he was unable to pick it up.
56"Oh, how I wish I were myself again," he thought,
57but nothing happened.
58He had to be touching the pebble to make the magic work,
59but there was nothing he could do about it.
60His thoughts began to race like mad.
61He was scared and worried.
62Being helpless, he felt hopeless.
63He imagined all the possibilities,
64and eventually he realized that his only chance of becoming himself again
65was for someone to find the red pebble
66and to wish that the rock next to it would be a donkey.
67Well, someone would surely find the red pebble, it was so bright and shiny,
68but what on earth would make them wish that a rock was a donkey?
69The chance was one in a billion at best.
70Sylvester fell asleep.
71What else could he do?
72Night came with many stars.
73Meanwhile, back at home,
74Mr. and Mrs. Duncan paced the floor, frantic with worry.
75Sylvester had never come home later than dinner time.
76Where could he be?
77They stayed up all night wondering what had happened,
78expecting that Sylvester would surely turn up by morning.
79But he didn't, of course.
80Mrs. Duncan cried a lot
81and Mr. Duncan did his best to soothe her.
82Both longed to have their dear son with them.
83"I will never scold Sylvester again as long as I live," said Mrs. Duncan,
84"no matter what he does."
85At dawn, they went about inquiring of all the neighbors.
86They talked to all the children,
87the puppies, the kittens, the colts, the piglets.
88No one had seen Sylvester since the day before yesterday.
89They went to the police.
90The police could not find their child.
91All the dogs in Oatsdale went searching for him.
92They sniffed behind every rock and tree and blade of grass,
93into every nook and gully of the neighborhood and beyond,
94but found not a scent of him.
95They sniffed the rock on Strawberry Hill,
96but it smelled like a rock.
97It didn't smell like Sylvester.
98After a month of searching the same places over and over again,
99and inquiring of the same animals over and over again,
100Mr. and Mrs. Duncan no longer knew what to do.
101They concluded that something dreadful must have happened,
102and that they would probably never see their son again.
103Though all the time he was less than a mile away.
104They tried their best to be happy,
105to go about their usual ways.
106But their usual ways included Sylvester
107and they were always reminded of him.
108They were miserable.
109Life had no meaning for them any more.
110Night followed day and day followed night over and over again.
111Sylvester on the hill woke up less and less often.
112When he was awake, he was only hopeless and unhappy.
113He felt he would be a rock forever
114and he tried to get used to it.
115He went into an endless sleep.
116The days grew colder.
117Fall came with the leaves changing color.
118Then the leaves fell and the grass bent to the ground.
119Then it was winter.
120The winds blew, this way and that.
121It snowed.
122Mostly, the animals stayed indoors,
123living on the food they had stored up.
124One day a wolf sat on the rock that was Sylvester
125and howled and howled because he was hungry.
126Then the snows melted.
127The earth warmed up in the spring sun
128and things budded.
129Leaves were on the trees again.
130Flowers showed their young faces.
131One day in May,
132Mr. Duncan insisted that his wife go with him on a picnic.
133"Let's cheer up," he said.
134"Let's try to live again,"
135"and be happy even though Sylvester, our angel, is no longer with us."
136They went to Strawberry Hill.
137Mrs. Duncan sat down on the rock.
138The warmth of his own mother sitting on him woke Sylvester up from his deep winter sleep.
139How he wanted to shout,
140"Mother! Father! It's me, Sylvester, I'm right here!"
141But he couldn't talk.
142He had no voice.
143He was stone-dumb.
144Mr. Duncan walked aimlessly about while Mrs. Duncan set out the picnic food on the rock,
145alfalfa sandwiches, pickled oats, sassafras salad, timothy compote.
146Suddenly Mr. Duncan saw the red pebble.
147"Oh! What a fantastic pebble!" he exclaimed.
148"Sylvester would have loved this for his collection."
149He put the pebble on the rock.
150They sat down to eat.
151Sylvester was now as wide awake as a donkey that was a rock could possibly be.
152Mrs. Duncan felt some mysterious excitement.
153"You know, Father," she said suddenly,
154"I have the strangest feeling that our dear Sylvester is still alive and not far away."
155"I am, I am!" Sylvester wanted to shout, but he couldn't.
156If only he had realized that the pebble resting on his back was the magic pebble!
157"Oh, how I wish he were here with us on this lovely May day," said Mrs. Duncan.
158Mr. Duncan looked sadly at the ground.
159"Don't you wish it too, Father?" she said.
160He looked at her as if to say,
161"How can you ask me such a question?"
162Mr. and Mrs. Duncan looked at each other with great sorrow.
163"I wish I were myself again,"
164"I wish I were my real self again!" thought Sylvester.
165And in less than an instant...
166he was!
167You can imagine the scene that followed,
168the embraces, the kisses, the questions, the answers,
169the loving looks, and the fond exclamations!
170When they had eventually calmed down a bit, and had gotten home,
171Mr. Duncan put the magic pebble in an iron safe.
172Some day they might want to use it, but really, for now...
173what more could they wish for?
174They had all that they wanted.
175The End.