"Thou hast called me, and I am here at thy command," he said to Ellen. "Wilt thou now have the castle, the treasures, the slaves and horsemen that I promised thee?"
"Not the treasures and all that," answered Ellen, and her voice sounded very little and soft after the genie's, "but I should like the castle now if I may have it?"
"It shall be thine. And where wilt thou have it?"
"I'd like it in a golden jar over in that room," said Ellen, pointing over to the forgotten story room.
"In a jar!" cried the genie in amaze, and he scowled as though he thought Ellen was making fun of him. But when she explained how it was, and why she wanted the castle, he burst into a roar of laughter that echoed and re-echoed against the blue dome. "I have heard of a genie in a bottle, but never of a castle in a jar," he cried. "However, it shall be thine. But hast thou no further wishes?"
"No, that's all," said Ellen.
"Then look in the jar and thou wilt find it there. Henceforth I appear to thee no more."
Immediately, and with another crash as of thunder, the genie was resolved into air and disappeared. For a moment the hall seemed clouded with a thin gray vapor and then that too faded away and all was as it had been before.
Ellen and the others looked at each other while the gander craned its neck this way and that, as if to make sure that the genie had really gone.
The Queerbody was the first to speak. She drew a long breath. "I shouldn't like to see him again," she said. "But I wonder if he really put the castle there."