Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/56

40 had come to beg. The servants would not let him enter the palace, saying that the Rajah's sons had all gone away, and they feared that they were dead, and their widows must not be interrupted by his begging. But he said, "I am a holy man and you must let me in." Then the stupid servants let him walk through the palace; they did not know that he was no Fakir, but a wicked Magician named Punchkin.

He wandered through the palace, looking at the beautiful things there, and at length reached the room where Balna sat singing to her little boy. The Magician thought her more beautiful than all the other beautiful things he had seen, and he asked her to go home with him and to marry him. But she said: "I fear my husband is dead, but my little boy is still very young; I will stay here and teach him to grow up to be a clever man, and when he is old enough he shall go out into the world and seek news of his father. Heaven forbid that I should ever leave him, or marry you."

This made the Magician very angry, so he turned her into a little black dog, and