Cy and Bobby held on to each other as they fell faster to the ground.
"Bobby," cried Cy, "flap your wings.
Keep them moving!"
Soon the brothers regained control.
They flew over to their sisters.
"That was a close call," Cy said in a trembling voice.
Panther looked around.
She spotted a large tree branch.
"Let's rest over there."
As the children flew toward the tree, Jane suddenly asked:
"How do we land?"
"The wings have to fold back like an umbrella," Panther said after a while.
"Let me try."
Panther flew to the tree.
One of her wings folded.
The other, however, got caught in the leaves.
"Ouch!" she cried.
The other children followed after her.
Cy landed gracefully, and so did Bobby.
"We made it!" the brothers exclaimed, grinning.
Jane, however, did not want to rest.
"We don't have much time," she said.
"I want to fly as much as I can."
She lifted her head and flew higher.
"We'd better stay together," said Panther.
So the others flew after Jane.
The children flew over lakes and mountains.
Birds squawked loudly as the children flew by.
After a while, Bobby said, "I'm hungry."
"But where can we get food?" Panther wondered aloud.
"We can't walk around with these things," said Cy.
He pointed to his wings.
It would be impossible to hide their wings.
The children searched high and low for food.
But they could not find anything.
"I know where we might find food," said Cy.
"Farmer Jenkins makes his own jam."
Farmer Jenkins was Aunt Martha's neighbor.
Sometimes he gave Aunt Martha homemade bread and jam.
"You mean steal his food?" shouted Panther.
Cy's face turned red.
"Not steal it. Just borrow it."
"That's a terrible idea," scolded Panther.
"Do you have any better ones?" Cy shot back.
Of course Panther did not have any ideas at all.
"Well, if you promise to return what we take," she finally agreed.
"Okay, just follow me."
Cy turned around and flew off.
By the time they reached the farm, it was late afternoon.
"He probably keeps his food in the barn," said Cy.
The barn had two floors.
Luckily, a large window on the second level was open.
The children flew in through that window.
Cy found several wooden boxes.
They were filled with jam.
Without a word, the children ate the jam.
"That was delicious," Bobby said, licking his lips.
"We must remember how much we ate,"
said Panther as she counted the empty jars.
"Look! The sun is setting!"
Jane pointed to the glowing red sky.
Suddenly the children felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
"They're gone," whispered Jane, reaching around to touch her flat back.
"Well, we have to get out of here now," Cy said.
Without wings, the children could not fly out.
The main door was on the ground floor.
The animals were kept down there.
"We can climb down this ladder," said Cy.
In the middle of the floor was a large square opening.
There was a ladder inside the opening.
Cy got on the ladder.
"Come on," Cy said as he climbed down.
As each child climbed down, the animals grew noisier.
"Hush," Panther whispered to a particularly loud horse.
Cy headed for the barn entrance.
He pulled the door.
It wouldn't move.
He tried again.
Cy looked at his siblings with wide eyes.
"It's locked."