`` Crystal Lake , '' read Jane triumphantly . Crystal Lake it was , and if Anne thought that chance had played the pool a shabby trick she did not say so . Pushing through the undergrowth beyond , the girls came out to the young green seclusion of Mr. Silas Sloane 's back pasture . Across it they found the entrance to a lane striking up through the woods and voted to explore it also . It rewarded their quest with a succession of pretty surprises . First , skirting Mr. Sloane 's pasture , came an archway of wild cherry trees all in bloom . The girls swung their hats on their arms and wreathed their hair with the creamy , fluffy blossoms . Then the lane turned at right angles and plunged into a spruce wood so thick and dark that they walked in a gloom as of twilight , with not a glimpse of sky or sunlight to be seen . `` This is where the bad wood elves dwell , '' whispered Anne . `` They are impish and malicious but they ca n't harm us , because they are not allowed to do evil in the spring . There was one peeping at us around that old twisted fir ; and did n't you see a group of them on that big freckly toadstool we just passed ? The good fairies always dwell in the sunshiny places . '' `` I wish there really were fairies , '' said Jane . `` Would n't it be nice to have three wishes granted you ... or even only one ? What would you wish for , girls , if you could have a wish granted ? I 'd wish to be rich and beautiful and clever . '' `` I 'd wish to be tall and slender , '' said Diana . `` I would wish to be famous , '' said Priscilla . Anne thought of her hair and then dismissed the thought as unworthy . `` I 'd wish it might be spring all the time and in everybody 's heart and all our lives , '' she said .
`` But that , '' said XXXXX , `` would be just wishing this world were like heaven . ''
Anne Diana First Jane Lake Priscilla Sloane elves right toadstool