“No, no!” I cried. “Please don’t, please don’t!”
“Then you had better sell me the chain. What would you like best in the world?”
“Oh, I want to be happy! I want to be happy! I’m so miserable!”
“You really wish to be happy?”
“Oh, yes! If I could only be happy, always happy!”
“Think well. I can grant you that wish, if you really wish it.”
“I wish I could be happy, always happy!”
“The wish is granted. You shall be happy; after this day you shall be nothing but happy, always. It is done. The chain is mine.”
“Oh, please! If you will only wait one moment! Just one! I must call my mother!”
I ran to the door of the back room, and called my mother. She came at once, alarmed by my outcry. Together we turned back into the shop, toward the spot where I had left the old man. He was gone.