The children of the first book are now grown up, but Martha and her husband have children of
their own, Roger and Ann, who spend a summer with their cousins Jane and Mark (sprung from
Katharine). It was that summer that the oldest of Roger’s toy soldiers came to life and
took them all to the age of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, chivalry, and knights.
It happened just the other day, to a boy named Roger.
Most of it happened to his sister
Ann, too, but she was a girl and didn’t count, or at least that’s what Roger thought,
or at least he thought that in the beginning.
Part of it happened to his cousins Jack
and Eliza, too, but they didn’t come into it till later.
DEBUT
Magic by the Lake (Harcourt, Brace, April 1957).
VARIANTS
Debut. Magic by the Lake (Harcourt, Brace, April 1957).
It happened just the other day, to a boy named Roger.
1 English variant