. He stopped
short. His song ended. He stood there smiling.

"Good morning!" said Everychild. He added in a voice which faltered
just enough to make his question seem in good taste, "Have you got your
lamp?"

Aladdin moved a little, so that they might all see his lamp. He held
it aloft and looked at it, and then at Everychild.

"And so you haven't been able to think of the best thing of all?" asked
Everychild.

"Alas, no," replied Aladdin, his eyes suddenly becoming somber.

Everychild thought again, as he had done before, how strange it was
that Aladdin should wish to be rid of his lamp. But he thought it best
to speak cheerfully. "We were just wishing for breakfast," he said.
"But of course it didn't do any good, because we hadn't any lamp."

Aladdin's eyes began to twinkle again. "What did you wish for
breakfast?" he asked.

Hansel made haste to say, "Sausages--and plenty of them!"

Grettel reflected and said: "Eggs. Some nice poached eggs."

They all looked at Cinderella, who hesitated and then said
reluctantly--"If I could just have a little marmalade and seed-cake----"

The giant said nothing at all; and at last Everychild spoke: "I'm not
particular," he said. "Just anything that happens to be convenient."

This response pleased Aladdin best of all. He said, "Well, I'll wish
for you." He pushed his soft loose sleeves back and held his lamp up.
He rubbed it in a certain fashion, and sure enough a great genie
appeared.

"If you'd just kindly prepare something nice for breakfast," said
Aladdin to the genie courteously. And the genie made a salaam which
delighted Grettel particularly, and then he began to pluck things out
of the air--just as the magician in the theater does: a small stove
from which a blue flame arose; a sauce-pan; a nice table covered with a
white cloth; plates and knives and forks--everything. He placed a
white cap on his head and held the sauce-pan over the blue flame. He
kept smiling mischievously all the while; and at last he carried the
sauce-pan to the table and poured something into every dish. Then he
made another salaam, and that was all there was to him.

The children all eagerly took their places. They looked excitedly to
see what the genie had prepared for them.

It was bread and milk in every case.

They all shouted gleefully because of the trick the genie had played on
them. Then they looked about for Aladdin, who for the moment was
nowhere to be see