e). "'And leave us in a
flat as good as this one.'"

With Big Tom out of his life, oh, how he would work!--violet-making,
bead-stringing, and, yes, boarders! He could fetch Grandpa's bed out
into the new kitchen, and put three roomers into the little bedroom,
just as several tenants in this building did. And what he could earn,
added to Cis's wages at some factory, and Grandpa's pension (this a
princely income which was now regularly drawn and spent by Big Tom)
would take care of the three splendidly.

Having settled upon the supreme wish, and fairly holding his breath, he
reached out in the darkness and rubbed the lamp.

Nothing happened.

He waited a little. In this lamp business perhaps time figured
prominently; though his own friends--Buckle, the four millionaires,
David, Goliath, the Prince, and any number of others always appeared in
the kitchen promptly.

But no genie of the lamp arrived. To make sure that his test was fair,
he rubbed the lamp a second time, all the way around. Still no huge,
hideous, helpful figure loomed out of the dark.

He grinned sheepishly, tugged at his hair a few times, then went back to
his mattress and sat down. He was not disappointed, for though he had
been hopeful, he had not been over-sure. And, anyhow, he had his book.
He lifted it out, placed it upon his knees, and rested his forehead upon
it. And the next moment, as if whisked to him by a genie all his own,
Cathay was about him; and he was with the boy, Aladdin, plunging down a
flight of steps on his way to a garden that yielded fruit which was all
diamonds and rubies and pearls.

CHAPTER VII

A SERIOUS STEP

HE awoke with such a feeling of happiness--a fluttery feeling, which was
in his throat, and also just at the lower end of his breastbone, where
he seemed to have so many kinds of sensations. For a moment he did not
remember what made him so happy. But as he moved, something hard pressed
against his ribs, whereupon the fluttery feeling suddenly spread over
the whole of him, so that the calves of those lead-pipe legs got creepy,
and his shoulder-blades tingled. Then he knew it was all because of the
book.

The process of getting up of a morning was always a simple one. As he
slept in his big clothes, all he had to do was scramble to his feet,
roll up his bedding, splash a little water upon the central portion of
his countenance, dry it away with the apron, and put the apron on.

As a rule he never so muc