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her, when her legs stopped trembling, and explain that she must have been 'down the garden' when she called.
    Meanwhile, sipping and thinking, Sally regained her composure and turned over in her mind the best way of making use of the secret and surprising accomplishment with winch she was now endowed.

    There now began, for Sally, a period of engrossing interest and pleasure. After her duties at the big house, she hurried home to experiment with her essays in levitation. She found that by taking a small amount of the concoction she could hover about a foot above the ground for a period of roughly ten minutes. This gave her ample time to tidy shelves, wash out high cupboards, dust the picture rail and so on, tasks which had always been irksome to one of her low stature.
    She found it wholly delightful to be without weight, and became skilled at balancing herself, with one hand touching a wall, whilst the other performed its task. Naturally, she did not indulge in this secret practice every day. For one thing, she still feared that it might be discovered by her neighbours in Fairacre, and she had no intention of giving them cause for gossip. She found it prudent to keep her 'floating periods' for Thursdays. Market day in Caxley was on a Thursday, and usually the other inhabitants of Tyler's Row spent their Thursdays hunting for bargains, meeting their friends and catching up with their news amidst the market-day bustle. Alone in her cottage, Sally felt safe from unexpected visitors, and experimented with the mixture.
    One day she noticed that both the plum tree and the ancient Bramley Seedling apple tree were heavy with fruit. She had wondered for some time if she might dare to practise floating out of doors, and this seemed the time to experiment. There was much to consider before she began.
    Of course she must remain unseen by the neighbours. That was the first consideration. It would be wise, therefore, to wait until nightfall to make her first attempt. Then she must be careful to leave a considerable amount of fruit to be picked in the normal way or her neighbours would wonder why she had not borrowed a ladder as was her usual practice.
    Then, of course, there was the question of staying in her own garden. She shuddered at the thought of floating out into the blue, as well she might, if she did not take care. It was not so much the danger that worried Sally as the impropriety of such a mode of travelling. After considerable thought she decided to tie a stout length of clothes line round her waist and to tie a brick to the other end. She would carry the brick, already tied, up in the basket with her. On attaining the correct height she would throw the brick to the ground, remain safely tethered level with the fruit, pick it and place it in the basket, and so get the job done.
    Of course there was more to it than the general plan. For one thing Sally had to calculate the height of the fruit from the ground, how much the brick would weigh and how much of her mixture she needed to take to balance all these factors. But she was determined to try her luck, and one moonless night she crept from the cottage to embark on this adventure.
    It was very still and quiet. The windows in the row of cottages were dark. Not a soul stirred. St Patrick's clock had struck one as Sally tip-toed down her stairs, and all Fairacre slept the dreamless sleep of those who live and work in the bracing air of the downs.
    A spoonful and a half of the revolting brew was doing its best to settle in Sally's affronted stomach as she approached the plum tree. Already her feet were skimming the grass and she had hardly reached the gnarled old trunk before she began to rise swiftly. For a moment Sally was torn with panic. She felt horribly vulnerable out here in the open and would have welcomed the painful crack of the kitchen rafter on her head, at that moment. She clawed frantically at a substantial branch, as she floated by, and paused to get her breath.