Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/211

Story CXLI

a companion with whom I had travelled for years and eaten salt. Boundless intimacy subsisted between us, till at last he suffered my mind to be grieved for the sake of some paltry gain, and our friendship closed: despite of all this, however, mutual attachment of heart still subsisted between us, because I heard him one day reciting in an assembly the following two distichs of my composition:

Some friends bore witness, not so much to the gracefulness of these verses as to the beauty of my conduct, which they approved; and among the rest the said friend likewise added his share of praise, regretting the loss of our former companionship, and confessing his fault, so that his affection became known. Accordingly I sent the following distichs, and made peace: