Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/358

328 Now the keeper was a man of seventy years of age and had never in all his life possessed so much money. So, when he saw the two dinars in his hand, he was transported for joy and forthwith opening the garden gate to the prince and the Vizier, made them enter and sit down under the shade of a wide-spreading tree, laden with fruit, saying, ‘Sit here and go no further into the garden, for it hath a privy door communicating with the palace of the princess Heyat en Nufous.’ ‘We will not budge hence,’ answered they. Then he went out to buy what they had ordered and returned, after awhile, with a porter bearing on his head a roasted lamb and bread. They ate and drank together and talked awhile, till, presently, the Vizier, looking about him right and left, caught sight of a lofty pavilion in the midst of the garden; but it was old and the plaster was peeled from its walls and its coigns were broken down. So he said to the gardener, ‘O elder, is this garden thine own or dost thou hire it?’ ‘O my lord,’ answered the old man, ‘I am neither owner nor tenant of the garden, only its keeper.’ ‘And what is thy wage?’ asked the Vizier. ‘A dinar a month,’ replied the old man, and the Vizier said, ‘Verily, they wrong thee, especially if thou hast a family.’ ‘By Allah, O my lord,’ answered the gardener, ‘I have eight children.’ ‘There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme!’ exclaimed the Vizier. ‘Thou makest my heart bleed for thee, my poor fellow! What wouldst thou say of him who should do thee a good turn, on account of this family of thine?’ ‘O my lord,’ answered the old man, ‘whatsoever good thou dost shall be treasured up for thee with God the Most High!’

Then said the Vizier, ‘O old man, this garden of thine is a goodly place; but the pavilion yonder is old and ruinous. Now I mean to repair it and plaster it anew and paint it handsomely, so that it will be the finest thing in the garden; and when the owner of the garden comes and