TWILIGHT LAND

Stuck knew what had happened to him, the Genie had
seized him and was flying with him through the air
“swifter than the wind. On and on he flew, and the
earth seemed to slide away beneath. On and on flew
the flame-coloured Genie until at last he set Jacob down
in a great meadow where there was a river. Beyond
the river were the white walls and grand houses of the
king’s town.

“Hast thou any further commands ?” said the Genie.

‘Tell me what you can do for me?” said Jacob Stuck.

“TI can do whatsoever thou mayest order me to do,”
said the Genie.

“Well, then,” said Jacob Stuck, “I think first of all I
would like to have plenty of money to spend.”

“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie, and, as he
spoke, he reached up into the air and picked out a purse
from nothing at all. “Here,” said he, “is the purse of
fortune ; take from it all that thou needest and yet it will
always be full. As long as thou hast it thou shalt never
be lacking riches.”

‘I am very much obliged to you,” said Jacob Stuck.
““Pve learned geometry and algebra and astronomy and
the hidden arts, but I never heard tell of anything like
this before.”

So Jacob Stuck went into the town with all the money
he could spend, and such a one is welcome anywhere.
He lacked nothing that money could buy. He bought
himself a fine house; he made all the friends he wanted,
and more; he lived without a care, and with nothing to
do but to enjoy himself. That was what a bit of good
luck did for him.

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