"I am ashamed to
say," he said. "It was nothing."

She reflected earnestly. And at length she said, with new eagerness in
her voice, "But if you ever find your mother, and fail to know her, and
she shall tell you what those trifles were--you shall know that it is
she. Is it not so?"

"It is true," he said.

A rapturous smile began to illumine her face. "Trifles, dear child!"
she cried. "Should you call them trifles?--One was the first song ever
sung; and one was the first tale ever told----"

She paused, because he had clasped his hands together in ecstacy and
seemed almost to cease to breathe.

"And one," she continued, "was the first picture; and one----" Her
voice became all but inaudible, "--one was the first prayer."

His voice arose in a great shout of triumph. "You are she!" he cried
"You are indeed she!"

And he reached forth and clasped her in his arms. At last they were
united again.

CHAPTER XXXI

HOW ALADDIN MADE A WISH

And now the time had come for Truth to determine whether, indeed, the
children might be reunited with their parents--for there yet remained
the need of exacting a pledge from the parents themselves.

But the parents were far away and in many places, and it must needs be
a difficult task to consult them all to learn if they were ready to
enter upon a just and binding covenant.

Everychild drew near, after Truth and the giant had been reunited, in
the hope of being able to help in the next great step which lay before
them. However, there was something else to be attended to first: There
was the pleasant duty of congratulating the giant, not only upon being
reunited with his mother, but also upon having regained his sight. For
it was now apparent that a great happiness, following after a period of
dark distress, had enabled Will o'Dreams to see again perfectly!

After this unexpected consummation had been gratefully discussed, there
was much to say about the great reunion which they all had at heart.

Everychild was of the opinion that it might prove all but impossible to
retrace their steps over the way they had come. And the other
children, one after another, agreed that it was too much to hope that
they might find their way back over the devious paths by which they had
come.

It was then that they were all aware that one of their number had
remained apart and was now regarding them almost piteously.

It was Aladdin!--Aladdin, holding his accursed lamp t