TWILIGHT LAND

Abdallah’s flesh creep, and then, fetching the black casket
a kick that sent it flying over the tree-tops, vanished
instantly.

“Well,” quoth Abdallah, when he had caught his
breath from his amazement, ‘‘these are the most won-
derful things that have happened to me in all of my life.”
And thereupon he fell to at the bread and cheese, and ate
as only a hungry man can eat. When he had finished
the last crumb he wiped his mouth with the napkin, and,
stretching his arms, felt within him that he was like a
new man.

Nevertheless, he was still lost in the woods, and now
not even with his ass for comradeship.

He had wandered for quite a little while before he
bethought himself of the Genie. ‘What a fool am I,”
said he, ‘not to have asked him to help me while he was
here.” He pressed his finger upon the ring, and cried in
a loud voice, “ By the red Aldebaran, I command thee to
come!”

Instantly the Genie stood before him—big, black, ugly,
and grim. ‘ What are my lord’s commands?” said he.

“T command thee,” said Abdallah the fagot-maker, who
was not half so frightened at the sight of the monster this
time as he had been before—‘‘I command thee to help
me out of this wood.”

Hardly were the words out of his mouth when the
Genie snatched Abdallah up, and, flying swifter than the
lightning, set him down in the middle of the highway on
the outskirts of the forest before he had fairly caught his
breath.

When he did gather his wits and looked about him, he
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