The dervish did not dare to throw it back at the man who had assaulted him, for he knew the favourite was very powerful. So he picked up the stone and put it carefully in his pocket, saying to himself: “The time for revenge will come by-and-by, and then I will repay him for it.”
Not long afterwards this same dervish, in walking through the city, saw a great crowd coming towards him. He hastened to see what was the matter, and found to his astonishment that his enemy, the favourite who had fallen into disgrace with the king, was being paraded through the principal streets on a camel, exposed to the jests and insults of the populace.
The dervish, seeing all this, hastily grasped the stone which he carried in his pocket. “The time,” he said, “has now come for my revenge, I will repay him for his insulting conduct.”
But after considering a moment he threw the stone away, saying: “The time for revenge never comes, for if our enemy is powerful, revenge is dangerous as well as foolish; and if he is weak and wretched, then revenge is worse than foolish, it is mean and cruel. And in all cases it is wicked and forbidden.”
When Things go Wrong.
What’s the use of wooing trouble,
And of nursing every sorrow?
Though to-day is black as Egypt,
There’s another day to-morrow.
Lightly treat each hour’s distresses—
Sing a song for gloom to borrow;
Mirth and cheer can chase all phantoms—
There’s another day to-morrow.
Why They Hanged the Dogs.
On one of the early visits to Scotland of Sir Edwin Landseer, the famous animal painter, he stopped at a village and took a great deal of notice of the dogs, jotting down rapid sketches of them on a bit of paper.
Next day, on resuming his journey, he was horrified to find dogs suspended from trees in all directions, or drowned in the river with stones round their necks.
He stopped a weeping urchin who was hurrying off with a pet pup in his arms, and learned to his dismay that he was supposed to be an excise officer, who was taking note of all the dogs he saw in order to prosecute the owners for unpaid taxes.