After a while, Cy got tired of lowering the bucket.
The others wanted to give up, too.
Cy let out a deep breath.
"That's it. There's nothing else down there,"
he said, emptying a final bucket load.
"Wait," cried Panther.
"Look at this!"
She picked out an unusual shell covered in mud.
"What is it?" Jane asked, looking closer.
Panther wiped off some of the mud and held it up.
It was beautiful.
"I think it's a seashell," she replied.
She began wiping off the rest of the mud.
Suddenly the shell began to giggle.
Panther was so shocked she almost dropped it.
"It laughed!" Bobby shouted loudly.
"Something's inside." He knocked on the shell.
"Ouch! Stop that!" the shell cried.
The children all looked at each other.
Then the most amazing thing happened.
A creature poked its head out from the shell.
It had the face of a seahorse.
On its neck and back were shimmery fins that opened and closed.
As its head circled left and right, the fins glowed and shone.
For the first time in their lives, the children were speechless.
"Well?" the creature asked in an irritated voice.
Finally, Panther spoke up.
"What are you?"
The creature gazed at them.
"Let me get this straight," it began.
"You throw things on me and wake me up."
It glared at Jane.
"You start taking away my things."
It looked at Cy.
"You tickle me."
It stared at Panther.
"Then you bang on my shell!"
Bobby looked down at the ground.
"And now, you tell me that you don't even know what I am?"
The children stared at the ground in embarrassment.
"We're sorry," apologized Jane.
"We didn't know you were in the well."
The creature didn't say anything.
After a while, its fins stopped glowing.
"Apology accepted," it said finally.
"But we really don't know what you are," Cy added quickly.
"I am Huit des Orlanes," it announced.
"The eighth of my kind of the sea."
"Wow," the children said in unison.
"But you can call me Huey," the creature smiled.
It was clear from the children's blank faces that they still did not know what he was.
"Do you know what an Orlane is?" he asked.
"Not really," Jane admitted for them all.
Huey closed his eyes dramatically.
His head turned quickly from side to side.
"At one time," he said, "we Orlanes were the best-known mystic creatures of the sea."
"You mean, you're a fairy?" interrupted Bobby.
"A fairy? Oh, my, oh, my!"
Huey's fins started to glow again as they opened and closed quickly.
"Please don't be upset, Huey," said Jane.
"Bobby didn't mean to call you a fairy."
"All right then," Huey said calmly.
"Orlanes have the gift to grant others whatever they want," he continued.
"You mean you can make wishes come true?" Bobby asked.
Huey nodded, and the other children joined Bobby in shouts of delight.
"However," Huey said in a loud voice.
"There are two things you must promise."
"We'll do anything to get our wish!" Jane clapped her hands.
Huey continued. "First," he said, "you can only make one wish a day.
And second, after making your wish, you must return me to the well."
"That doesn't sound too hard." Cy laughed.
"By the way," Huey smiled, "at sunset, everything returns to the way it was."
"You mean, our wish is true only for one day?" asked Bobby in a disappointed voice.
"Yes," Huey replied, and with that he disappeared back into his shell.