In the book, the children use the Psammead relentlessly for their wishes. They first wish to be “as beautiful as the day” and find that people detest them, thinking they look like Gypsies or worse: “They looked at each other in despair, and it was terrible to each… to meet only the beautiful eyes of perfect strangers, instead of the merry, friendly, commonplace, twinkling, jolly little eyes of its own brothers and sisters… True, they were all as beautiful as the day, but that is a poor comfort when you are as hungry as a hunter and as thirsty as a sponge… each of them still felt lonely and among strangers, and tried not to look at the others, for, though their voices were their own, their faces were so radiantly beautiful as to be quite irritating to look at.” When at sunset they finally return to their normal looks Anthea declares: “‘Oh, Cyril, how nice and ugly you do look, with your old freckles and your brown hair and your little eyes. And so do you all!’ she added, so that they might not feel jealous.” They seem to have learnt a valuable lesson.
Next they wish to be “rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” The whole gravel pit fills right up to the very top with new, shining gold pieces. “They all picked up the golden treasure by handfuls, and let it run through their fingers like water, and the chink it made as it fell was wonderful music.” They decide to go and buy a carriage and horses from Billy Peasemarsh at the Saracen’s Head. “Any grown-up persons would tell you that money is hard to get and easy to spend. But the fairy money had been easy to get, and spending it was not only hard, it was almost impossible. The tradespeople of Rochester seemed to shrink, to a tradesperson, from the glittering fairy gold. So, after one day of boundless wealth, “the children found themselves sent to bed in deep disgrace, and only enriched by two pairs of cotton gloves… an imitation crocodile-skin purse, and twelve penny buns, long since digested.”
They decide to be more careful in their third wish. But the Lamb is being a nuisance and Robert forgets himself: “It’s too bad. I only wish everybody did want him with all their hearts; we might get some peace in our lives.” Before they know it he is being kidnapped by the childless and normally child-hating Lady Chittenden who resolves to adopt him whilst her coachman and footman fight over the sleeping child. The children manage to rescue their little brother only to be followed by a boy carrying a bundle of faggots and a little girl in a blue-and-white checked pinafore. Finally they stumble across a gypsy encampment and only manage to extricate themselves when the sun sets and the wish expires.
Then they make a careful wish for wings. At first they love the lovely, iridescent feathers and the air running against their faces. But none of the farmers will give them anything to eat as they are too frightening. The children finally alight on a church tower, “miserably stiff and tired.” In desperation they steal cold meats and a siphon of soda-water from the vicarage. They awake at chilly twilight without wings to find they are locked in and have to be rescued by the bemused Vicar and the game-keeper who drives them home in disgrace.
The following day, Robert goes to visit the sandfairy on his own: “Nothing would come into his head but little things for himself, like toffee, a foreign stamp album, or a clasp-knife with three blades and a corkscrew… He could only think of things the others would not have cared for – such as a football, or a pair of leg-guards, or to be able to lick Simpkins minor thoroughly when he went back to school.” Meanwhile he returns to find that the others seem to have wished that they lived in a castle under siege: “For there the castle stood black and stately… with battlements and lancet windows, and eight great towers” surrounded by mushroom-like white tents filled with crowds of magnificent men in armour.
The following day Robert wishes he was bigger than the baker’s boy and gets his own back on his bullying tormentor. Now a huge giant, Robert ends up being put on show in a fun fair, finally managing to escape at sunset.
Then Cyril, fed up as ever with the Lamb, wishes he would grow up, which he does “suddenly and violently” before the horrified eyes of his brothers and sisters. He is a pretentious and languorous young man, called variously St Maur or Devereux or Hilary, although he does have a bicycle, much to Robert’s delight. At sunset they realise that if he grows up in the normal way, they can shape him into someone really quite nice.
Cyril is reading ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ and inadvertently wishes there were Red Indians in England “little ones, just about the right size for us to fight.” To their horror they realise they are probably going about scalping people all over the country. The children end up colouring their faces with red ochre to scare off the Indian braves.
Before long it is time for the last wish. The children like the idea of the ‘pony each wish’. “This had a great advantage. You could wish for a pony each during the morning, ride it all day, have it vanish at sunset, and wish it back again next day. Which would be an economy of litter and stabling.” But when they learn that Lady Chittenden has been robbed of all her diamonds and jewels, Jane dreamily wishes they could all turn up in their mother’s room – thereby inadvertently turning her into a receiver of stolen goods.
