Page:The Dravidian Nights Entertainments.djvu/68

Rh out and get himself rid of their nuisance. Now the prince demanded the farmer the price of each of the kittens inside the bag. The farmer by his words well understood him to be a crack and so wanted five hundred pagodas on each of his valuable kittens as he represented them to be. Then the prince showed him his one hundred pagodas and begged of him to accept that sum and sell him one of the kittens. The farmer, though glad at heart, reluctantly parted with one of the kittens to the prince, who, greatly elated at his valuable purchase, returned to his mother. She was extremely vexed at the stupidity, which she thought must be invincible, of her own son. The former too praising all his Gods for their having given him one hundred pagodas for a worthless kitten returned to his cottage.

The widowed mother again left her son to himself and returned to her parent's house. The boy-prince with the kitten went abegging house by house. The people pitied the prince and his cat, and so, gave him always something more to feed his kitten also. Thus he passed some days. The mother, after a few days stay in her parent's house, returned for a second time with a hundred pagodas, thinking that her son must have improved by that time. She gave him the money and advised him to get better wares for trading,