my freedom
I shall serve thee from gratitude and love, and not from compulsion and
with fear."

"So be it!" said Abdallah. "I have no choice in the matter, and thou
mayest go whither it pleases thee."

No sooner had the words left his lips than the Genie gave a great cry
of rejoicing, so piercing that it made Abdallah's flesh creep, and then,
fetching the black casket a kick that sent it flying over the tree tops,
vanished instantly.

"Well," quote Abdallah, when he had caught his breath from his
amazement, "these are the most wonderful 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.

"I 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 woods."

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 knew very well
where he was, and that he was upon the road that led to the city. At the
sight his heart grew light within him, and off he stepped briskly for
home again.

But the sun shone hot and the way was warm and dusty, and before
Abdallah had gone very far the sweat was running down his face in
streams. After a while he met a rich husband-man riding easily along on
an ambling nag, and when Abdallah saw him he rapped his head with his
knuckles. "Why did I not think to ask the Genie for a horse?" said he.
"I might just as well have ridden as to have walked, and that upon
a horse a hundred times more beautiful than the one that that fellow
rides."

He steppe