Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/117

97 prostrate before him; and they redoubled in esteem for him and exceeding affection and excused themselves to him, marvelling at that which God had done with him and how He had given him the kingship by reason of his longsuffering and his patience and how he had raised himself by his patience from the bottom of the pit to the throne of the kingdom, what while God cast down the [late] king from the throne into the pit. Then Abou Sabir foregathered with his wife and said to her, ‘How deemest thou of the fruit of patience and its sweetness and the fruit of haste and its bitterness? Verily, all that a man doth of good and evil, he shall assuredly abide.’ On like wise, O king,” continued the young treasurer, “it behoveth thee to practise patience, whenas it is possible to thee, for that patience is of the fashion of the noble, and it is the chiefest of their reliance, especially for kings.”

When the king heard this from the youth, his anger subsided; so he bade restore him to the prison, and the folk dispersed that day.

VOL. I.