Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/384

 was very much tired, which a merchant perceiving civilly invited him to sit down in his shop, and he accepted; but had not been sat down long before he saw a crier pass by with a piece of tapestry on his arm, about six feet square, and cried at thirty purses. The Prince called to the crier, and asked to see the tapestry, which seemed to him to be valued at an exorbitant price, not only for the size of it, but the meanness of the stuff; when he had examined it well, he told the crier that he could not comprehend how so small a piece of tapestry, and of so indifferent appearance, could be set at so high a price.



The crier, who took him for a merchant replied: ‘If this price seems so extravagant to you, your amazement will be greater when I tell you I have orders to raise it to forty purses, and not to part with it under.’ ‘Certainly,’ answered Prince Houssain, ‘it must have something very extraordinary in it, which I know nothing of.’ ‘You have guessed it, sir,’ replied the crier, ‘and will own it when you come to know that whoever sits on this piece of tapestry may be transported in an instant wherever he desires to be, without being stopped by any obstacle.’