" ’Or what? asked the astonished tailor.

" ’Or I will grant the first wish that may be formed in your mind.  Now choose.’

“Thomas did not take long to choose.  His charge would amount to but a few dollars, while he might wish for a million.  He signified his decision.

" ‘Perhaps you have chosen wisely,’ said his visitor.  ’But mind that you are careful about your wish.  You may wish for something you don’t want.’

" ‘No fear of that,’ said the tailor cheerfully.

" ’At any rate, I will come this way six months hence, and should you then wish to be released from the consequences of your wish, and to receive instead the money stipulated as the price of the suit, I will give you the chance.’

“Of course, Thomas did not object, though he considered it rather a foolish proposition.

“His visitor disappeared, and the tailor was left alone.  He laid aside his work.  How could a man be expected to work who had only to wish, and he could come into possession of more than he could earn in a hundred or even a thousand years?

" ‘I might as well enjoy myself a little,’ thought Mr. Tubbs.  ’Let me see.  I think there is a show in the village to-day.  I’ll go to it.’

“He accordingly slipped on his hat and went out, somewhat to the surprise of his wife, who concluded that her husband must be going out on business.

“Thomas Tubbs wended his way to the marketplace.  He pressed in among the people, a crowd of whom had already assembled to witness the show.  I cannot tell you what the show was.  I am only concerned in telling you what Thomas Tubbs saw and did; and, to tell the plain truth, he didn’t see anything at all.  He was wedged in among people a foot or two taller than himself.  Now, it is not pleasant to hear all about you laughing heartily and not even catch a glimpse of what amuses them so much.  Thomas Tubbs was human, and as curious as most people. just as a six-footer squeezed in front of him he could not help framing, in his vexation, this wish: 

" ‘Oh, dear!  I wish I were ten feet high!’

“Luckless Thomas Tubbs!  Never had he framed a more unfortunate wish.  On the instant he shot up from an altitude of four feet six to ten feet.  Fortunately his clothes expanded proportionally.  So, instead of being below the medium height, he was raised more than four feet above it.

“Of course, his immediate neighbors became aware of the gigantic presence, though they did not at all recognize its identity with the little tailor, Thomas Tubbs.

“At once there was a shout of terror.  The crowd scattered in all directions, forgetting the spectacle at which, the moment before, they had been laughing heartily, and the little tailor, no longer little, was left alone in the market-place.

" ‘Good heavens!’ he exclaimed in bewilderment, stretching out his brawny arm, nearly five feet in length, and staring at it in ludicrous astonishment, ’who’d have thought that I should ever be so tall?’