The Old Genie Hottabych

ICE-CREAM AGAIN

No sooner had the friends found their seats, than a girl in a white apron carrying a white lacquered box approached them.

“Would you like some ice-cream?” she asked and shrieked. We must be fair. Anyone else in her place would have been just as frightened, for what answer could an ice-cream vendor expect?

In the best of cases: “Yes, thank you. Two, please.” In the worst of cases: “No, thank you.”

Now, just imagine that upon hearing the young lady’s polite question, a little old man in a straw boater turned as red as a beet, his eyes became bloodshot and he bristled all over. He leaned over to her and whispered in a fierce voice:

“A-a-ah! You want to kill me with your foul ice-cream! Well, you won’t, despicable thing! The forty-six ice-creams which I, old fool that I am, ate in the circus nearly sent me to my grave.

They have been enough to last me the rest of my life. Tremble, wretch, for I’ll turn you into a hideous toad!”

At this, he rose and raised his dry wrinkled arms over his head. Suddenly a boy with sun-bleached eyebrows on his freckled face hung onto the old man’s arms and shouted in a frightened voice, “She’s not to blame if you were greedy and stuffed yourself with ice-cream! Please sit down, and don’t be silly!”

“I hear and I obey,” the old man answered obediently. He let down his arms and resumed his seat. Then he addressed the frightened young lady as follows, “You can go now. I forgive you. Live in peace and be grateful to this youth till the end of your days, for he has saved your life.”

The young lady did not appear in their section again for the remainder of the afternoon.