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 before you come to a decision. I hope before that time that my son, on whom you have had the goodness to look with a favourable eye, will be able to make a nobler present than Aladdin, who is an entire stranger to your majesty.'

Though the sultan was very sure that it was not possible for the vizier to provide so considerable a present for his son to make, he hearkened to him, and granted the favour. So turning to Aladdin's mother, he said to her, 'Good woman, go home, and tell your son that I agree to the proposal you have made me; but I cannot marry the princess my daughter till some furniture I intend for her be got ready, which cannot be finished for three months; but at the end of that time come again.'

Aladdin's mother returned home much more overjoyed than she could have imagined, and told Aladdin all that had happened.

Aladdin thought himself the most happy of all men at hearing this news, and thanked his mother for all the pains she had taken. When two of the three months were past, his mother one evening went to light the lamp, and finding no oil in the house, went out to buy some, and when she came into the city, found a general rejoicing. The shops, instead of being shut up, were open. The streets were crowded with officers in robes of ceremony, mounted on horses richly caparisoned, each attended by a great many footmen. Aladdin's mother asked the oil-merchant what was the meaning of all these doings. 'Whence come you, good woman,' said he, 'that you don't know that the grand vizier's son is to marry the Princess Badroulboudour, the sultan's daughter, to-night? These officers that you see are to assist at the procession to the palace, where the ceremony is to be solemnised.'

This was news enough for Aladdin's mother. She ran till she was quite out of breath home to her son, who little suspected any such thing. 'Child,' cried she, 'you are undone! you depend upon the sultan's fine promises, but they will come to nothing.' Aladdin was terribly alarmed at these words. 'Mother.' replied he, 'how do you know the sultan has been guilty of breaking his promise?'

'This night,' answered his mother, 'the grand vizier's son is to marry the Princess Badroulboudour.' She then related how she