Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/25

9 carpenter! Of a truth thou art weak and hast no strength; so it is excusable in thee to fear the son of Adam.” Now the carpenter was exceeding wroth; but he dissembled his anger, for fear of the whelp, and sat up and smiled in his face, saying, “Well, I will make thee the house.” With this, he took the planks, and nailing them together, made a house in the form of a chest, after the measure of the young lion. In this he cut a large opening, to which he made a stout cover and bored many holes therein, leaving the door open. Then he took out some nails of wrought iron and a hammer and said to the young lion, “Enter this opening, that I may fit it to thy measure.” The whelp was glad and went up to the opening, but saw that it was strait; and the carpenter said to him, “Crouch down and so enter.” So the whelp crouched down and entered the chest, but his tail remained outside. Then he would have drawn back and come out; but the carpenter said to him, “Wait till I see if there be room for thy tail with thee.” So saying, he twisted up the young lion’s tail, and stuffing it into the chest, whipped the lid on to the opening and nailed it down; whereat the whelp cried out and said, “O carpenter, what is this narrow house thou hast made me? Let me out.” But the carpenter laughed and answered, “God forbid! Repentance avails nothing for what is passed, and indeed thou shalt not come out of this place. Verily thou art fallen into the trap and there is no escape for thee from duresse, O vilest of wild beasts!” “O my brother,” rejoined the whelp, “what manner of words are these?” “Know, O dog of the desert,” answered the man, “that thou hast fallen into that which thou fearedst; Fate hath overthrown thee, nor did thought-taking profit thee.” When the whelp heard these words, he knew that this was indeed the very son of Adam, against whom he had been warned by his father on wake and by the mysterious voice in sleep; and I also, O my sister, was