They all went to the train station to see Derek off. Celia even brought Mr. Bunny, who was looking much better since Mother had mended him.

“You did a good job, Derek,” said Father as he paid for the ticket. “I still can hardly believe you mowed the whole hill with that rusty old thing.”

“I had a lot of help,” said Derek. He shouldered his duffel bag and grinned at his brother and sisters.

Mr. Willow looked at his four children. “Well, I’m proud of you all. I didn’t think it could be done, and yet somehow, some way, you did it. It was almost like—”

“Magic?” suggested Celia, stroking Mr. Bunny’s somewhat crooked ears.

Mr. Willow laughed. “Well, magic would explain what happened to the hedge.”

The children looked at one another guiltily.

“Now, Frank, don’t start in on the hedge again!” said Mrs. Willow. “Come on, kids, up the steps now.”

“But you’ve got to admit,” her husband argued, “that the stripe in the hedge is the exact width of the mower. And it did appear the day the kids mowed the hill.”

Mrs. Willow rolled her eyes as she climbed the stairs to the station platform. “So are you saying that the mower just drove itself straight up the hedge and then down again?”

Father looked embarrassed. “No, of course not.”

“Or that any of the children did it? Because if that’s what you think, then I’d like to see you explain how—”

“I’m not saying anything of the kind!” Father stamped up the train station stairs. “All I’m saying is, it’s a mystery. I’d like to know what happened.”

“Sometimes leaves fall off on their own,” Tate said. “It’s just one of those things.”

“Maybe it was some kind of plant disease?” Mother sat on a platform bench. “Perhaps a sudden hedge fungus. Good heavens, Frank! Give it up. The leaves will grow back in time, I’m sure. And the children couldn’t possibly have gotten that mower up and down the hedge, even if they’d tried.”

“I know it. That’s what’s so strange,” Mr. Willow muttered as the train pulled into the station with a metallic screech and a hiss of brakes.

“Here’s your train, Derek,” said his mother. “Hugs all around, and then off you go for a wonderful week in the old neighborhood!”

Hugs involving the Willow children were an energetic affair. But as Derek was getting his nose mashed and his shoulders squeezed and his foot stepped on, he suddenly felt glad that he would only be gone a week.

The whistle blew, and the conductor shouted, “All aboard!” Derek put his arms around his brother’s and sisters’ necks and pulled their heads close so that no one else could hear his whispered question. “What are you going to do if you find something else that’s magic? While I’m gone, I mean?”

There was a pause. Everyone knew what Derek was really asking.

Abner shrugged. “We’ll wait for you.”

“We need a rest from magic, anyway,” Tate said.

Celia gave her stuffed rabbit a squeeze. “Magic is tricky,” she said. “Mr. Bunny says we need the whole team.”

Derek grinned. “The rabbit’s got a point,” he said, and leaped onto the train.