'Then why did you tell me to look?' said Hassan.
'Anything you see you may ask for,' said the Magician, as if he were muttering to himself, 'and anything you ask for you may have.'
Hassan felt so cross at hearing these words again that he flung himself on the grass and kicked his legs about and began to cry. He always made a great noise when he cried, but the Magician seemed not to mind in the least. Presently Hassan fell asleep and dreamed he was at a great feast, where the table was loaded with large joints of meat, and with turkeys and pheasants, with a round Christmas pudding at one end. The Magician was just going to carve, and he said that Hassan might ask for whatever he saw. 'I'll have turkey first,' Hassan dreamed he said, 'and then pheasant and then Christmas pudding.' All the things he named were placed upon a plate at once; only, just as he was going to taste the turkey, the plate fell to the ground and Hassan awoke. He felt so hungry and the dream seemed so real, that he sat up and began to feel on the grass for his plate.
'Hullo!' cried the Magician, 'have you lost anything?'
'I dreamed I was just going to have some turkey,' said Hassan.
'Ah, well!' answered the Magician, 'you may ask for anything you see, you know.' But it seemed darker than ever; Hassan could see nothing and he began to feel very miserable indeed. He never learned how long he stayed with the Magician, though it appeared a long time while it lasted, and he began to think it would never come to an end. He did not know whether it was days or weeks, only he felt hungry all the time, and at last he could think of nothing but home. He wished he was back there, and he made up his mind that if ever he did get back, he would not grumble any more.
Now it was a strange thing that whilst Hassan sat on the grass, with his hands clasped round his knees and his eyes on the ground, although of course he could see nothing, it began to grow a little lighter. And the more he made up his mind not to grumble the lighter it grew, so that at last he fancied he could see the Magician. And the Magician was sitting cross-legged on the ground eating some dinner which looked exactly like what Hassan had seen in his dream.
'I'll have that!' cried Hassan the moment he could see it.
'With pleasure,' said the Magician, and he rose and brought the plate to Hassan. Unfortunately Hassan was so much in the habit of grumbling at everything the moment he received it that, as soon as he took the plate in his hand, he said—
'This must have been a poor old turkey and very badly cooked too.'