“I give her anything?” he exclaimed incredulously.  “It was she who gave, not I. What was there I could have given her?  And yet . . .  I remember once when I was a child I brought her a pretty trifle, and her eyes grew bright and she drew me to her and laid her cheek against my hair.  And there were other things—­but they were only trifles, after all.”

“Trifles?” she echoed passionately, “trifles?”

He began, “There was——­” And then he broke off.  “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.