Everychild | Page 6

sighing in the great trees. A winding road stretched before him like a gray ribbon.
Soon he came to where a boy sat by the side of the road. The boy sat on a small Oriental rug, and by his side stood a very peculiar lamp. The boy was clad in a purple garment made of silk, with slippers to match. He wore a very fine skull-cap, also of silk, and a pig-tail hung down his back. His eyes were very peculiar. They were placed in his head a little on end; but they were bright and friendly. His mouth was like a little bow. The lips were merry and red. His cheeks were like peaches.
Everychild stopped and looked at the boy, and the boy smiled at him. "I am trying to think of your name," said Everychild, pondering. Surely he had seen this boy before--but where?
"Everychild knows me," returned the boy. "My name is Aladdin."
"Aladdin--of course!" said Everychild. He sat down by Aladdin on the Oriental rug. "And this is your lamp," he said, his eyes shining.
"Alas!--yes," replied Aladdin sadly; and Everychild was surprised that Aladdin could speak sadly. But Aladdin said no more about the lamp just then. He turned his eyes, which seemed a bit askew, upon Everychild. "You were marching bravely as you came along," he said. "I was watching you. And I thought to myself, 'How can any one walk bravely along a road like this?'"
For an instant Everychild's heart was troubled. "Isn't it a good road to walk on?" he asked.
Aladdin's reply was: "It is called The Road of Troubled Children."
Everychild thought a moment. That was a strange name, certainly. "It seems a little lonely," he ventured, thinking that perhaps Aladdin would explain why he did not like the road.
"It is lonely," said Aladdin; "yet all children walk here sometimes. You see, it is a very long road, so that many may walk on it without encountering one another."
Neither spoke for a moment, and there was no sound save the wind in the trees.
Then Aladdin said, "When you have walked here a little longer perhaps you will not walk so bravely." There was an obscure smile on his lips as he said this.
But Everychild replied quickly, "Oh, yes, I shall. You see, I shall remember my friends."
"Your friends?" asked Aladdin.
"Father Time, for one. I wish you could have seen how he took my part!"
Aladdin nodded slowly. "I am hoping he will be a friend to me some day," he said.
"And then there is the Masked Lady," continued Everychild.
"The Masked Lady?" repeated Aladdin in a puzzled tone.
"She lent me her sword."
But Aladdin mused darkly until his eyes rested upon his lamp. "I'd rather persons didn't wear masks--of any sort," he said. "Sometimes they are dangerous enemies."
He seemed so troubled as he said this that Everychild asked him, "But you, Aladdin--why are you making a journey on the Road of Troubled Children?"
"I?" replied Aladdin in surprise. "Why, because I am the most troubled child of all!"
Everychild could scarcely believe this. "And yet," he said, "with your wonderful lamp you have only to wish for things, and they are yours!"
Aladdin made ready to tell his story. He adjusted himself more comfortably on the Oriental rug, and at last he sighed deeply. "The child who has everything is never happy," he said.
Everychild simply could not believe this; and Aladdin read the disbelief in his eyes.
"It is true," he said. "Having everything you wish for is like having more money than any one else. And in such a case, how could one be happy? How many things would be denied one!--pleasant solitude, simple friendships, even a good name. Those who had too little would envy you and hate you; and if you sought to relieve their distress they would hate you more than ever in their hearts, because you would have degraded them. You would have to be a spendthrift, which is vulgar, or you would have to be a miser, which is mean. There is an old saying in Chinese . . . how shall I put it in your language? Runnings fleet, unhampered feet. You see? The rich have pampered feet. At best they tread soft places. No, it is an evil thing to have too much. I would that the lamp had never been mine."
"If it were mine," said Everychild, unconvinced, "I think I should be happy."
"To be happy," said Aladdin, "means to want something and believe you are going to get it after awhile. But when you've got everything it is a good deal worse than not having anything. Because there's nothing left for you to wish for. And wishing for things is really the greatest pleasure in the world."
"But to wish for things, and never to get them?" said Everychild, deeply puzzled.
"Let me explain," said