Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/187

161 plenty, and houses and lands and gardens, till I was richer and in better case than before, and gave myself up to feasting and banqueting and making merry with my friends and companions more assiduously than ever, forgetting all I had suffered of fatigue and hardship and strangerhood and all the perils of travel. This, then, is the story of my first voyage, and to-morrow, God willing, I will tell you that of the second of my seven voyages.’

Then Sindbad the Sailor made the porter sup with him and gave him an hundred dinars, saying, ‘Thou hast cheered us with thy company this day.’ The porter thanked him and went his way, pondering that which he had heard and marvelling at the things that betide mankind. He passed the night in his own house and on the morrow repaired to the abode of Sindbad the Sailor, who received him with honour and seated him by himself. Then, as soon as the rest of the company were assembled, he set meat and drink beIore them and when they had well eaten and drunken and were merry and in cheerful case, he took up his discourse and bespoke them, saying, ‘Know, O my brethren, that THE SECOND VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR.

I abode a while, as I told you yesterday, in the enjoyment of all the comforts and pleasures of life, until one day the longing seized me to travel again and see foreign countries and traffic and make profit by trade. So I took a great sum of money and buying goods and gear fit for travel, packed them into bales. Then I went down to the river-bank, where I found a handsome new ship about to sail,

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