Now as soon as the sun was up, in the morning, there was a great stir amongst the servants. Those who had been careful and watchful in the evening were ready with all their bales; and as soon as ever the city-gates were open, they marched in through them with their goods. It was a great wide city into which they entered,
and must hold, they thought, a vast multitude of men. Houses and streets of all sizes met their eyes here and there; but they passed easily along, because it was still so early in the morning, that few persons were in the streets, and those few were all bent upon business, as they were themselves. So they passed on to the great market where the merchants bought and sold, and here they set out all their goods; and the merchants came round them to look over their wares, and to shew them what they had to sell in return. Now they found it true as the king had foretold them. For they had the first choice of all that the merchants could offer. One of them opened his stores, and shewed them rubies, and diamonds, and pearls, such as they had never seen before for size and beauty. So they chose a pearl of great price, and they bought it for their prince, and they trafficked in their other wares, and gained for him
more than as many bags of treasure as he had given them at first. Thus they traded according to their skill, and every one had now secured something for his lord. The pearl of great price was stored by some; others had rich dresses adorned with gold and precious stones; others had bags of the most refined gold; others had the spices of Arabia and the frankincense of the islands of the East.
One there was amongst them who seemed to have got nothing to carry home with him; and yet he, as well as the rest, had laid out his master’s gifts. Then some of the other servants asked him, what he had stored up for the king? and he said that he had no riches which he could shew to them, but that he had an offering which he knew that the merciful heart of the king would make him love and value. Then they asked him to tell them his story; so he said that, as he was walking through the market, he had seen a poor
woman weeping and wringing her hands, as if her heart would break: he stopped, and asked her the cause of her sorrow; and she told him that she was a widow, and that some merchants, to whom her husband had owed large sums of money, had come that morning to her house and taken all that she had, and seized her children too; and that they were dragging them away to the slave-market to sell them for slaves in a far land, that they might pay themselves the debt which her husband had owed them. So when he heard her sad tale, he opened his bag of treasure, and found that all the gold which he had got in it would just pay the widow’s debt and set her children free. Then he went with her to the merchants, and he told out to them all that sum, and set the children of the widow free, and gave them back to their mother; “and I am taking,” he said, “to our merciful king the offering of the widow’s tears and gratitude; and I know
well that this is an offering which will be well-pleasing in his sight.”
So it fared with these faithful servants in their trading; and all the while they were cheerful and light-hearted, because they remembered constantly the love and kindness which their king had shewed to them; and they rejoiced that they were able to serve him and to trade for him with his gifts. They thought also of the goodness of the king’s son towards them; they remembered how he had sought them when they were prisoners in the dark dungeons of their tyrant enemy; and they were full of joy when they thought that they should be able to offer to him the goodly pearl, and the other curious gifts, which they had bought. They thought of these things until they longed to hear the trumpet sound, which was to call them out of the town and gather them together for their journey home. When that trumpet might sound, they knew not; but the
sun was now passed its noon, and the town, which had been so quiet when they came in the early morning along its empty streets, was now full of noise, and bustle, and confusion, as great towns are wont to be, when all the multitude of sleepers awaken and pour out for pleasure, or business, or idleness, into the streets, and squares, and market-places.
Heartily glad were they now that they had been so early at their traffic. Now the merchants had shut up all their richest stores; and the markets were full of others who brought false pearls and mock diamonds, instead of the costly gems for which they had traded in the morning. There seemed to be hardly any true traders left. Idlers were there in numbers, and shows and noisy revels were passing up and down the streets; and they could see thieves and bad men lurking about at all the corners, seeking whom they could catch, and rob, and plunder.
On all these things the servants looked; sometimes they saw beautiful sights pass by them, which gladdened their eyes; and sometimes sweet music would fill their ears, as bands of merry harpers and singers walked up and down through the market; and they rejoiced in all of these, but still their hearts were full of thoughts of their kind king, and recollections of his son their prince; and they longed to be at home with them, even when the sights round them were the gayest, and the sounds in their ears were the sweetest; and they were ever watching for the voice of the trumpet, which was to call them again homeward.