smiled, and he shook the boy's hand.

"I will send word to your cousins up the river that you are
with me," he said, and thus was the invitation extended and
accepted.

"O'Brien," said the great man to Aladdin, "when you feel able,
come to my house; I have something to say to you."

Then Senator St. John, and Margaret, and Margaret's godlike
young friend, and the spaniel got into the carriage that was
waiting for them, and drove off. But Margaret turned and
waved to Aladdin.

"Good-by, Aladdin!" she called.




VI

They helped Aladdin back to the smithy, for his only covering
was a clumsy blanket; and there he put on his shrunken
clothes, which meanwhile had dried. The kindly men pressed
food on him, but he could not eat. He could only sit blankly
by the fire and nurse the numb, overpowering pain in his
heart. Another had succeeded where he had failed. Even at
parting, just now, Margaret's eyes had not been for him, but
for the stranger who had done so easily what he had not been
able to do at all. The voyage down the river had been mere