"'This man to the dungeons! What ho! my guard!' And yet they moved not, for the lad was now a child.
"Still the stern will worked, and the child-King said faintly, 'My guards! my guards!' till his voice broke into baby lispings, and now it was an infant who sat upon the throne.
"Then the changes seemed to cease, and the ancient counsellor who had so wisely warned the King cried aloud, 'Allah il Allah! great and wonderful are thy ways!'
"When one man had thus broken silence a mighty tumult arose, amidst which the baby King looked right and left with blue eyes of wonder.
"But Ali drew his sword and in a terrible voice ordered the guard to clear the hall. Instantly he was obeyed, and then there was great counsel held as to what should be done with the King. At length it was decided that he should be sent to the island where Ali had lived, and be kept there all his days. These indeed proved few, for it is recorded in the chronicles of the kingdom that he took teething rather hard, and died in his second summer of malignant whooping-cough.
"As to Prince Ali he married his cousin the Princess Jessalie, and the mermen and the mermaids came to the wedding and brought with them for presents pearls and amber and tortoise shells such as folks never see now-a-days.
"They lived long together, and loved one another well, and they both died at one and the same moment, which was the happiest thing of all their happy lives."
The sun was not yet down on the next evening when the young spiders began to collect around Fuz-buz.
"Tell us," said one of them, "a story about giants."