Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy & Magic

The five children found the Sand-fairy while they were exploring in the gravel pit. "Don't you know a Sand-fairy when you see one?" it asked them. The Sand-fairy smoothed his long ratlike whiskers and smiled between them. I daresay you have often thought what you would do if you had three wishes given you. "We want," said Robert slowly, "to be rich beyond the dreams of something or other." But we all know that wishes for avarice never work out the way they are supposed to. . . . and to his credit, the Sand-fairy was never mean spirited, nor vengeful, nor destructive. But he cartainly could be _weird_. . . . (Jacketless library hardcover.)