"No, no," cried Abdallah, "you are welcome, but I want an opportunity to greet my benefactor. I cannot go with you."
But Death fixed his eyes on Abdallah, smiled a little, and said:
"Jump in my sack!"
X
A SEARCH FOR A FRIEND
A rich merchant of Bagdad had a son that he loved most tenderly. The child had been reared with the utmost care, and no pains were spared to cultivate his mind as well as his affections. When the young man's education was almost completed his father determined that he should travel in foreign parts.
"My son," said the old man, "I have gray hairs and a white beard, and in my long career it has been given to me to know and appreciate the real value of men and things. You must learn, then, my son, that among the pressing necessities of life the greatest of all is a good friend. Riches take wings—a touch of providence, a turn of the wheel of fortune, throws the richest into the depths of despair; but death alone, which carries all off, can take away a friend.
"A true friend is the only thing in this world that is always faithful. Find this rare pearl, my son, and you will have found the rarest of gems. I want you, then, my son, to travel over the world, travel alone gives the real experience. The more we see of men the better we know how to live among them. The world is a great and a beautiful book, that instructs those who know how to read it. It is a faithful mirror that reflects all the objects we ought to see.
"Go, my son," said the merchant of Bagdad; "take this travelling-stick, and in your journeyings think, above all other things, of the necessity of securing a true friend. In pursuing this object, sacrifice everything else, even what is most rare and most precious."