“‘Well,’ said he a little less roughly but with no humanity in his tone, ‘you may crawl up forward among the cordage if you like and give me forty-five of your coins; the five you shall keep to feed yourself with when you land.’
“I thanked him humbly for his unexpected kindness. I tried to find some warmth in the chilly night, huddled amid coils of rope on the little deck forward. At dawn the last of the crew came aboard, two great sails were hoisted and we passed out upon the sea.
“Before the sun was high we had dropped over the horizon, and left behind us the palaces of the land where I had thought to find security and repose. There I was, I who had so lately had the world at my disposal, a beggar, hopeless for the coming days, and wondering where on my landing I should find food to keep me living for a week together.”
As Mahmoud was concluding there rose a loud wail, piercing and prolonged which startled him and all the file of boys aligned cross-legged before him upon the floor. It proceeded from the youngest of the nephews.
“What is it, my little fellow?” said his uncle in real alarm.
“Ah! Ah!” sobbed out the poor infant. “Lost! lost! All lost! All that lovely money lost! I cannot bear it, uncle. I cannot bear it!” and he burst into floods of tears.
“For heaven’s sake,” said the old man, rolling upon his seat in his concern for the child, “do not take on so! There is no cause for such a bother. You make too much of it. It is but part of a tale. Do you not see how I have been restored to great fortune? Are you not in this palace of mine with all my slaves around you? and splendid hangings upon the wall? Come, look about you and do not mix up these words of the past with real things that you can touch and see to-day.”
The little boy tried to stifle his sobs, but they returned with increased violence.
“Oh, uncle, to think that you, who had been so rich, should become so poor; to think that those who gain great wealth cannot keep it for ever! Consider all your wealth! Oh, it is terrible, the death and destruction of it!” Throwing himself down upon the marble floor he buried his face in his crossed arms and kicked either foot alternately in the air, in the violent paroxysm of his grief.