Page:Swahili tales.djvu/121

Rh good as this. "Ah, then," the gazelle said, "my master will be very glad about what I have done for him. For if my master has this house, and he a man that was so different, he will be as though he were born again, he will feel himself so fine."

And it stayed in the house, and conversed with the old woman, until after the third day it went away.

And it went, until it reached the town where its master was. And when the sultan heard that the gazelle was come, he rejoiced much, and seemed like a man who has his petition sent down to him. And when his master got the news where he was within, he felt himself like a man who has found the time when all prayers are granted. So he arose and kissed it much. "My father, you have been a long time, you have left sorrow with me, I have sat thinking, I cannot eat, I cannot drink, I cannot laugh; my heart felt no smile at anything, because of thinking of you."

And it said, "I am in health, and where I come from it is well, and I wish that after four days you should take your wife and let us go home." And he said, "It is as you choose; what you tell me, that I will follow." "Well then," it said, "I am going to your father-in-law to tell him this news." And he said, "Go."

And it went to the baraza, and said to him, "Master, I have come to you." He said, "May it be a good omen; tell me what you have come for." And it said, "I am come, sent by the master to come and tell you, that after four days he will go away with his wife, and I have brought you the news first." And he said, "I don't like his going away quickly, for we have not yet sat much together, I and Sultan Darai; nor have we yet talked much together; since he came till to-day it is fourteen days, and we have not yet got to sit together and converse,