The Seven Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Fellah obeyed their bidding and took with him the scald-head youngster for house-service and on the second day the lad fell to grinding at the mill and carried the meal to his mistress and sat beside her and anon she rose and sifted and bolted the flour; still he stayed by her stealthily watching her while she kneaded it and balled it and breaded it. After this he carried off the early meal for his master and faring to the field set it before him and when the Fellah looked upon it he cried, "O Boy, by Allah this bread is white and 'tis clean unlike the foregone." Quoth he, "O my master, I have ground it with my own hands and I sat beside my mistress the while she got it ready, kneading it and baking it, wherefor she availed not to do aught else with it." Now when the servant-lad had left the hut her lover came in asking, "Hast thou made bread for me?" and she answered, "Indeed the boy with the scald-head ceased not sitting beside me, nor was I able to bake aught for thee." But when the lad had gone forth to the field with his master's dinner he set it before him and returned in hot haste and hurry to the house, where he found the friend of his mistress conversing with her; so he hid himself behind the door and fell to overhearing them and to noting whatso they said. Amongst other things quoth she, "Take this quartern of good wheat and clean grain and grind it in this mill and I will make thee a platter of bread from handrubbed flour[471] which I will send to thee on the morrow." Asked he, "How shalt thou know the field?" and she answered, "Carry with thee a basket of bran and drop the contents as thou walkest along the highway; then leave it hard by the land belonging to thee and I will follow the traces and find thee a-field; and so do thou remain at rest." All this and the scald-head boy was standing behind the door hearkening to their words until he had understood them all. On the next day the lad took a basket of bran which he scattered on the way to his master's land and then sat with him whilst the wife, after baking the platter full of scones, carried it upon her head and fared forth intending for her lover in the field. She marked the traces of the bran which the scald-head had dropped and she ceased not following them until she came to her husband's field. Hereupon the lad arose and taking the platter from her said, "By Allah, O my master, verily my mistress loveth thee and favoureth thee, for that she hath brought a bannock made from handrubbed grain;" and so saying he set it before him. Presently she looked out of the corner of her eye and saw her lover ploughing at a little distance from them; so she said to her husband, "Allah upon thee, O certain person, call aloud to so-and-so our neighbour that he may come and eat the noon-meal with thee." The man said, "'Tis well;" and presently added, "O Boy, go forth and shout to such-an-one." Now the lad had brought with him a parcel of green dates, so he arose and scattered them at intervals upon the highway; and when he came to his mistress's lover he cried aloud, "Do thou come dine with my master." But the man refused so to do wherefore the scald-head returned and said, "He will not;" and hereupon the wife bade her husband go himself and fetch him. The Fellah trudged along the highway and finding thereon the scattered dates bowed himself downwards to gather them when the lover said to himself, "This one is picking up stones wherewith to beat me;'"[472] and as he saw the man often stoop he fled and left the place, and the more the other cried to him, "Come hither, O certain person," the faster sped he in his running.—And Shahrazad was suprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was