“After a long time had passed, the rajah again called his three servants; and after they had made their saláms, thus he spake to the first: ‘To what use hast thou put that fair sheet of blank paper which I committed to thy charge, for I wish to look on it now?’
“‘I wrapped seed in it, O your highness!’ replied the first servant, ‘and carried it into the field. The paper fell on the earth, damp with the rains, and was marred; my ox placed his foot upon it; it was trampled down into the clay. It is therefore impossible that I should lay it at your majesty’s foot-stool.’
“Then said the rajah to his second servant, ‘To what use hast thou put that goodly sheet of blank paper which I committed to thy charge, for I wish to behold it again?’
“‘I put the paper to no use whatsoever, O maharajah!’ replied the man, with a profound salám. ‘I rolled it up, and put it carefully on a shelf in an inner apartment, where no man could see it. But the damp spotted and stained it, and the white ants fretted it; the paper is no longer fit to be looked upon by the eyes of your highness.’
“Then the rajah turned to his third servant, and said, ‘To what use hast thou put that fair sheet of blank paper which I committed to thy charge?’
“Then the servant, after making obeisance, took from his bosom a roll, which he then slowly unfolded before the rajah. And lo! upon the roll, in letters of scarlet, and blue, and gold, appeared a beautiful illumination, fit for the walls of a palace. And these were the words inscribed:—Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (Prov. xxxi. 10-12).
“‘O faithful and wise servant!’ cried the rajah, ‘thou alone hast made a good use of my gift, thou only hast known its worth. Thou shalt reap a rich reward; and the paper which thy diligence hath made so fair, shall be framed in gold, and have an honourable place in my palace.’
“My friends,” continued the sage, “see ye the meaning of my story? The blank sheets of paper are the minds of our young daughters; and he who hath trusted them to your care is the mighty King, to whom ye must one day render a strict account. Ignorance is as the treading down of the ox in the field, or as the mould that mars the roll on the shelf. For the soul to be without knowledge is not good. But happy the father who causes to be traced on the mind of his young daughter lessons of purity, wisdom, and truth! Those lessons shall shine forth as in characters of gold; and she who has learned in youth to serve and obey the great King, shall find an honourable place in that heaven which He hath prepared for them that love Him.”