Master Labakan worked so much better and cheaper than any other tailor in Alexandria that everybody wished to have their clothes made by him; only one thing puzzled them, he employed no assistants and he always worked with his door shut.
So after all the motto on his casket came true, for happiness and riches came to him, though in a different guise to what he had expected them. From time to time he heard news of Prince Omar. It was said that he was the bravest of the brave, the pride and glory of his people, and the terror of his enemies. At such times as he heard of him Labakan would say to himself: “I am better off as a tailor, for to win honour and glory one must risk one’s life.”
And so he lived happy and contented all the days of his life, and as for the magic needle, for all I know to the contrary, it may be sewing busily away to this very day.
THE DWARF LONG-NOSE.
MANY years ago, in a certain city in Germany, there lived an honest cobbler and his wife. The good man sat all day and mended boots and shoes; he made new ones too, if he could get a customer to trust him with the job, but then he had first to buy the leather, for he was too poor to keep a stock in hand. His wife sold fruit and vegetables, which she grew in a little plot of ground outside the city gates. She had many customers, for she was clean and tidy, and had a knack of setting out her wares to the best advantage.
Jacob.
The cobbler and his wife had a beautiful little boy, named Jacob. Although he was but eight years of age he was tall and well grown, and so he sat by his mother’s side in the market-place, and acted as errand boy to the housewives and cooks who made large purchases from his mother, carrying the fruit and vegetables home for them. Very often he came back with a piece of money in his pocket, or at least with a cake, or some sweetmeats, for he was so pretty and obliging that people liked to see him in their homes.
One morning the cobbler’s wife was sitting in her accustomed place in the market. She had a supply of cabbages and other vegetables, fresh herbs and seeds, and a smaller basket of early pears and apricots.