Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/73

 loss of on his account. I should think yours were the same, did I not know she was dead. Sell her to me, I beseech you: I will give you more than she is worth, and thank you too.'

'Good woman,' replied King Beder, 'I am heartily sorry I cannot comply with your request: my mare is not to be sold.'

'Alas! sir,' continued the old woman, 'do not refuse me this favour. My son and I will certainly die with grief if you do not grant it.'

'Good mother,' replied the king, 'I would grant it with all my heart, if I was disposed to part with so good a beast; but if I were so disposed, I believe you would hardly give a thousand pieces of gold for her, and I could not sell her for less.'

'Why should I not give so much?' replied the old woman: 'if that be the lowest price, you need only say you will take it, and I will fetch you the money.'

King Beder, seeing the old woman so poorly dressed, could not imagine she could find the money; therefore to try her, he said, 'Go, fetch me the money, and the mare is yours.' Ths old woman immediately unloosed a purse she had fastened to her girdle, and desiring him to alight, bade him tell over the money, and in case he found it came short of the sum demanded, she said her house was not far off, and she could quickly fetch the rest.

The surprise of King Beder, at the sight of this purse, was not small. 'Good woman,' said he, 'do you not perceive I have been bantering you all this while? I assure you my mare is not to be sold.'

The old man, who had been witness to all that was said, now began to speak. 'Son,' quoth he to King Beder, 'it is necessary you should know one thing, which I find you are ignorant of; and that is, that in this city it is not permitted to any one to tell a lie, on any account whatsoever, on pain of death. You cannot refuse taking this good woman's money, and delivering your mare, when she gives you the sum according to the agreement; and this you had better do without any noise, than expose yourself to what may happen.'

King Beder, sorely afflicted to find himself thus trapped by his rash offer, alighted with great regret. The old woman stood ready