Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/244

214 much of me, and stablishing me in a pleasant place, set rich food before me, of which I ate my fill and returned thanks to God the Most High for my deliverance. Then his pages brought me hot water, and I washed my hands, and his handmaids brought me silken napkins, with which I dried them and wiped my mouth. Moreover, he assigned me an apartment in his house and charged his pages and women to wait upon me and do my will. So they were assiduous in my service, and I abode with him in the guest-chamber three days, taking my ease of good eating and drinking and sweet scents, till I recovered from my fatigues and life and strength returned to me.

On the fourth day, my host came in to me and said, “Thou cheerest us with thy company, O my son, and praised be God for thy safety! But wilt thou now come down with me to the bazaar and sell thy goods? Belike with their price thou mayst buy thee wherewithal to traffic.” When I heard this, I was silent awhile for amazement and said in myself, “What mean these words and what goods have I?” Then said he, “O my son, be not troubled nor careful, but come with me, and if any offer thee what contenteth thee for thy goods, take it; but, if not, I will lay them up for thee in my storehouses, against a fitting occasion.” So I bethought me and said to myself, “Let us do his bidding and see what are these goods of which he speaks.” And I said to him, “O my old uncle, I hear and obey; I may not gainsay thee in aught, for God’s blessing is on that which thou dost.”

So he carried me to the market, where I found that he had taken the raft in pieces and delivered the sandal-wood of which it was made to the broker, to cry for sale. Then the merchants came and bid for the wood, till its price reached a thousand dinars, when they left bidding and my host said to me, “O my son, this is the current price of thy goods: wilt thou sell them for this or shall