Everychild | Page 8

want."
He immediately regretted having said this; for Aladdin took up his
lamp. "Very well," he said, placing the lamp in Everychild's hands. And
there was a malicious gleam in his slanting eyes as he added, "Suppose
you make a wish. But I charge you!--think twice before you wish."
Everychild could not take back his words; and besides, he was tempted.

He touched the lamp with trembling fingers. He rubbed it, hoping that
Aladdin would not laugh at him for being awkward or inexperienced.
And sure enough, the genie of the lamp appeared.
Everychild became quite dumb. He cast an appealing glance at Aladdin.
"Won't you make a wish?" he begged. "After all, it's very hard,
knowing what to wish for."
"It is," admitted Aladdin. "No, I'll not make a wish. It was you who
summoned the genie. You shall make your own wish!"
At this Everychild glanced at the genie as if in search of assistance. But
he received no encouragement at all. The genie really looked like a
person who had come to bring evil rather than good. And Everychild
felt his heart pounding painfully, and his head throbbing. But at last a
happy thought occurred to him. He might make a very little wish!
"It is getting dark," he said to the genie, trying to speak as if he were
thoroughly experienced in making wishes, "I wish I had a nice place to
sleep, here in the forest."
He had scarcely spoken when he realized that he was all alone: Aladdin
with his Oriental rug and his lamp was gone; the genie was gone. His
hand was resting upon something very soft and cool. It seemed like a
carpet, though finer than any carpet he had ever seen. And he
remembered how his mother had scolded him more than once for lying
on the carpet at home.
"But no one will scold me for lying here," he reflected.
So it came about that on his first night away from home he slept on the
beautiful green carpet, with the Road of Troubled Children hard by.
And he could not know that the thing he had wished for, and which had
been given him was the very thing which poor beggars, beloved of God,
are granted every tranquil summer night.
CHAPTER IV

EVERYCHILD IS JOINED BY HANSEL AND GRETTEL
In the morning he went on his way along the Road of Troubled
Children; and it seemed to him that he had gone a very great distance
when he heard voices by the roadside. They were the voices of children,
and it was plain to Everychild that they were in trouble.
He waited until they came close, and then his heart bounded, because
he recognized them. He had often seen their pictures. They were Hansel
and Grettel.
Hansel was saying sorrowfully, "I am afraid they are all gone, Grettel,
and we shall never be able to find our home again."
It was then that Everychild stepped forward. "I know you," he said,
trying to seem really friendly. "_You are Hansel and Grettel. Your
parents lost you in the woods to be rid of you_--because there wasn't
enough to eat at home."
[Illustration: "You are Hansel and Grettel."]
Hansel and Grettel looked at each other with round eyes. "It is true,"
they replied in unison. "But to think it should have got about already!
Who are you?"
Everychild addressed himself to Hansel--who, by the way, was a fat
boy with wooden shoes and a tiny homespun jacket and trousers of the
same stuff, the trousers being very floppy about the ankles. "I am
Everychild," he said. "And if I were you I'd not try to go home to such
a father and mother. You know, they still had half a loaf left."
"At least," said Hansel, "I'd like to go home until that half a loaf is
gone!"
For a second Grettel looked at her brother as if she really could not
think of a suitably severe rebuke. "Our poor father and mother!" she
exclaimed. "No doubt they thought we should find food in the forest, or
that we should encounter travelers who'd have a bite to spare."

"At any rate," said Everychild, "it's no use your searching any more.
You're looking for the crumbs you dropped, so you'd find the way
home. But I should think you could guess the birds had eaten them all
up!"
Hansel turned to Grettel, his eyes more round than ever. "It must be
true!" he exclaimed.
"Where you made your mistake was in not dropping pebbles, the way
you did the first time--though I suppose you couldn't have got the
pebbles, being locked up in your room the night before. Anyway, it's no
use your trying to go back. Even if you found the way, the