Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/108

66 so he might the better accomplish his device upon her, and said to him, “O my son Alaeddin, what hast thou learned of crafts and what is thy business? Hast thou learned thee a trade whereby thou mayst live, thou and thy mother?” At this Alaeddin was confounded and abashed and hung down his head, bowing it to the ground, whilst his mother said to the Maugrabin, “How? By Allah, he knoweth nought at all! So graceless a lad I never saw. All day long he goeth about with the vagabond boys of the quarter like himself; nay, his father, woe is me, died not but of his chagrin concerning him; and now, as for me, my case is woeful. I spin cotton and toil night and day, to earn two cakes of bread, that we may eat them together. This, then, is his condition, O my brother-in-law, and by thy life, he cometh not in to me save at eating-times, and I am thinking to bolt the door of my house and not open to him and let him go seek his living for himself, for that I am grown an old woman and have no strength left to toil and provide for the maintenance of a fellow like this. By Allah, I get mine own livelihood, I that need one who shall maintain me.”