Part 9

The poor girl did not wait till night, but sat down at once in the dust and cried. When she looked up she saw her father coming along on his donkey, for he had been to admire his melon beds on the river-bank some way off. She was so frightened that she began running away as fast as she could.

She ran and ran till she came to a great wall in which a door was standing open. Through it she went and found herself in a fine garden full of jessamine and orange trees. She was so tired that she looked about for water to bathe her hot face, and a shady place where she might rest and hide from the burning sun. Not far off she could see the shine of a lake, and a scarlet patch of high water plants in which a white Pelican dozed, half asleep.

“By the beard of the Prophet!” exclaimed the bird, “this is none other than the melon girl! O Master! Master! Would I could see your yellow kaftan approaching through the trees!”

But it was only Thursday, and there was no chance of the young man coming till the morrow.

When the girl had bathed her face and drunk some water he came forward, and, with much politeness, invited her to rest among the tall cannas, as the scarlet flowers were called. When he had heard her story his face grew subtle.

“If you are wise,” said he, “you will remain with me till to-morrow afternoon. To-day your father’s anger will not have cooled; in the morning he will go to the mosque (for it is Friday) and, when he has prayed, his heart will be softened. Then you can return in the afternoon and ask his forgiveness for losing the melons.”

This the Pelican said because he knew that the young man in yellow would come on the following day.

“But I have no food,” said the girl; “I shall be half-famished by to-morrow.”

“Are there not fruits in the garden?” asked the Pelican, “and have I not a bill a yard long? Lie down and rest and I will see that you do not starve.”

He gazed at her as she slept and saw that she was very beautiful. Her eyelashes were longer than a finger’s breadth, and her mouth scarlet like the canna-flowers over her head. When the evening was come, he went out and took as much fruit as he could get and brought it back in his pouch, washing it and giving it to the girl, who ate thankfully. Then the stars came out and they slept side by side among the cannas.

Next day, at the hour when he expected his friend, the bird went to the gate and stood watching. When he saw him approaching he went forward crying, “See what I have done for you! I have here got the melon girl for whom you spend your life in searching. Come in, and I will bring you to her.”

At this the young man was overjoyed and embraced the Pelican, and the two hurried into the garden.

At sight of the girl he fell more deeply in love than ever, and all the time he had meant to spend with his friend he sat with her by the water. The Pelican stood by. “See,” said he, “he has forgotten my very existence, though he has come all the way from the city for my company.”

But he understood too much to be angry, for he knew such things had been since the foundation of the world.

When the young man found that the girl was afraid to go back to her father, he saw a way by which he need not part with her. “Return with me,” said he, “my mother is old and lives with me; you shall wait upon her and cook the food for my house.”

So he took her back with him and presented her to his mother.

Now the young man’s mother was a jealous woman, and, though she liked the girl and was well pleased to have her work done for her, she soon began to do everything she could think of to make her miserable, because she saw that her son loved her. So unhappy did she make the household that the young man said, “I must go immediately and consult the Pelican, or there is no knowing what may happen.”

And, although it was not Friday, he went off to Prince Hassan’s garden and laid his difficulties before the bird.

“There is only one thing to be done,” said the Pelican; “I must come back to keep the peace.”

Now, wise as he was, he did not know that, where there is a jealous woman, not the Prophet himself and all the Khalifas can save a household. All the difference his coming made was that the old woman was jealous of two people instead of one, and there was no peace from morning till night.

It chanced, one day, that the young man had gone out and the Pelican was near the fountain. In a top room the girl sat at a window, looking down on the street where the merchants were lighting their lamps. The afterglow spread high over the roofs, and, in a patch of sky, she saw the evening star rising behind the mosque. She could hear the old woman’s voice talking to a butcher in front of the shop. “At noon my son will be out,” she was saying. “You must then come with your knife and slay the Pelican who lives in the courtyard. I will afterwards wash the blood from the stones and tell him that the impious and deceitful bird has flown away.”

Next morning the girl rose before anyone was stirring and hired an ass. “Come,” she said to the Pelican, “if you want to save your life, come with me. The old woman has hired the butcher, and, when the lord of this house has gone out, he is to come and kill you. Mount quickly in front of me and I will carry you through the town under my veil. When we get to the river you shall fly to Prince Hassan’s garden, and I will return before any one awakes and tell her that you have died in the night, and that I have buried you near the fountain. I will make a little mound beside it.”

“Alack! Alack! I shall never see my master again!” cried the Pelican.

“I will tell him the truth privately,” said she, “and on Friday he will go to see you as before.”

So the two fled before the cocks crowed.

When they reached the banks of the Nile the Pelican flew away across the bridge to the garden, and the girl turned about and set her face to the city.

But, before she had gone ten yards, a hand was laid on her, for her father had seen her ride by from his boat. He dragged her on board, beating her, and took her away to his melon beds on the river-bank where he set her to drive the ox that worked the well.

When the young man in yellow rose and found that his friend and the melon girl had both disappeared, he made a great to-do and caused the bazaar to be searched from end to end. Criers went about describing them and calling on all who might have seen them to bring news to the jeweller’s shop, where they would be rewarded handsomely. But no one had seen them pass. The mother was as much astonished as anybody.

“Son,” she said, “no doubt the Pelican, in his wonderful wisdom, will return, and certainly, no one will run away with that ugly slut of a girl. She will come back fast enough.”

But the young man would not be comforted. He bethought him of Prince Hassan’s garden, and, next day, he set out to see if haply the bird had gone back to the scarlet cannas and the fresh grass growing by the lakes. He had no sooner entered than he saw him in his accustomed place.

“Friend!” he cried, “this is a sorry trick you have played me! My heart has despaired, and the voice of the crier, searching the bazaar with beat of drum, has not ceased since yesterday morning!”

“One day longer and he would have found my skin in the butcher’s shop,” replied the Pelican. And he related everything that had happened.

The young man was so enraged at what he heard that he beat the grass with his staff till the sods flew. “When I get home,” said he, “I will hire a house in a different street for my mother, and she shall abide there; and when I meet the butcher, I will make every bone in his body ache.”

“That is right,” said the Pelican, enjoying the thought.

“It is; and I will do it,” said the young man; “but oh! where is the beautiful one? Her eyes were like stars shining on the Nile, and her mouth like the canna-flowers. When she walked, her passing was as the wind in the lebbek-tree, and when she drew her veil across her face, it was as though a trail of river-mist crossed the moon.”

And he wept bitterly, making many holy vows that, when he had found her, he would marry her, taking none other to wife. The Pelican was much moved.

“Through silence everything is heard,” said he, “and by waiting everything is attained. May the young Pelicans laugh at my pouch if I do not find her for you yet again.”

Now it chanced, very soon, that Prince Hassan, with all the beauties of his harem, returned to the palace which had stood empty more than a year. Among the ladies was one who surpassed all the others, and with whom Prince Hassan was deeply in love. One day, while walking in the garden, she fell into conversation with the Pelican, becoming so much charmed with his polite manners and sentiments that she would spend some time daily in his company.

“My lord,” she said to Prince Hassan, “I beg of you to come with me into the garden and divert yourself with the conversation of the Pelican who lives there. He is the most wonderful bird, and he assures me that he knows the whole of the Koran by heart.”

When the Prince was made acquainted with the bird he commended the lady’s wit in discovering such a companion, and he gave orders that nothing he desired should be denied him. But, in spite of the honour paid him, the Pelican never ceased to think of the young man in yellow and the melon girl, and to wonder how he could bring them together.

“Lady,” he said one day, “it is long since I looked upon the world. When you are carried abroad in your litter by the banks of the Nile I have a desire to go with you. While you remain inside, veiled, I can put my head through the curtains and see something of the river-life I once knew. If you will allow this my gratitude will not die while I breathe.”

The lady laughed heartily at the strange request, but she did not refuse it, thinking of the Prince’s orders; and, one evening, when the sun was low behind the Pyramids, she set forth in her gilded litter with the Pelican beside her.

While they went along the Nile bank they passed many places where melons were sold, and at last he saw the girl he sought beside a cloth spread on the ground and full of fruit. As the litter passed he stretched out his neck and cried: “The Sheikh’s tomb by the Nile! The Sheikh’s tomb by the Nile!”

She jumped up and would have approached the litter, but the slaves surrounding it pushed her away.

“Full moon!” cried the Pelican. “The Sheikh’s tomb by the Nile at full moon!”

Next day, when the lady came out to talk to the Pelican, he made a new request.

“Lady,” said he, “if you will make me your debtor once more, you will grant me another wish. Send a slave to the young man in the yellow kaftan who keeps a jeweller’s shop in the street of Selim Baba’s Mosque to tell him to go to the Sheikh’s tomb by the Nile at full moon.”

The lady marvelled, for she had fallen asleep in the litter, and had not heard the words he had cried to the girl.

“I will do what you please,” she said, “but, first, tell me who is the young man in the yellow kaftan?”

Then the Pelican began to describe his friend in such terms that the lady was filled with admiration, and calling a black slave, sent him immediately to the city. All that night she could not sleep for thinking of the young man in yellow, and, on the evening of full moon, she determined to see him for herself. So she bribed a servant to bring her the blue gown and black veil of a peasant woman, and, having dressed herself in them, she hid her own clothes in the jessamine-arbour in the garden and slipped out by a little hidden gate in the wall.

Now the black slave whom she had sent with the message was full of greed and cunning, so he went straight to the Prince on his return and said, “My lord, give me money, for I have discovered an infamous plot.”

And he told him how the lady had summoned a young man from the bazaar to meet her, at full moon, at the Sheikh’s tomb by the Nile. Prince Hassan was filled with rage, for in Egypt it is not the custom that ladies go alone to meet strange young men; and he also dressed himself and mounted his horse to ride to the tomb, having wrapped himself in a cloak that none might know him. The only person who was not on the road, journeying to the spot, was the Pelican.

The first to arrive at the tomb was the young man in yellow; his heart glowed, for he knew that the Pelican had sent the message and guessed that the wise bird had made this plan that he might meet his love. So he sat down to wait under the palm-trees and listened to the creak of the well-wheels in the fields. Presently he heard a footstep and saw a woman come gliding between the stems, but as he rushed forward to embrace her, he perceived that it was not the melon girl but a stranger.

[Illustration: HE RAN FORWARD AND HELD HER IN HIS ARMS]

“What are you doing here?” he cried, in wrath at his disappointment. “Off with you, or I will throw you into the river!”

The lady, who had hoped that her beauty would have made him fall in love with her on the spot, was terrified and ran away; but when she had gone a few yards, curiosity overcame her and she turned back, unnoticed by the young man, and slipped behind the tomb.

He sat waiting till he saw the melon girl approaching softly like a shadow in the moonlight; then he ran forward and held her in his arms, kissing her and praising the Pelican who had brought them together.

While they sat under the palm-trees thus happily employed, a sound of galloping hoofs drew near, and Prince Hassan, in his dark cloak, rode into the palm grove, and, drawing his sword, rushed upon them. But, when he found the melon girl and not the lady he expected, he stood still.

“Where is the lady who was to come here at full moon?” he cried.

“Sir, there is no such person,” replied the young man. “A peasant woman came by not long ago, but she has gone into the fields.”

At the sound of Prince Hassan’s voice the lady behind the tomb nearly died of terror, for she knew that if he caught her he would certainly cut off her head. So she slipped away and ran to the river-bank while the Prince remained behind, questioning the lovers, and it chanced that the first person she met was a man on a trotting camel.

“If you will take me as fast as you can to the wall of Prince Hassan’s garden,” she said, “I will give you as much money as will make you rich for the rest of your life.”

The camel-driver asked nothing better, so he took the lady up behind him and went like a flash of lightning to the place to which she directed him.

Then, having asked his name, she entered by the little door in the wall and went to the jessamine-arbour, where she put on her own clothes, hid the others, and sat cooling herself in the night air and thanking heaven which had protected her.

In a short time Prince Hassan came riding back and entered the palace, calling her loudly.

“She is not here,” said the slaves, “we do not know where she has gone.”

Then the Prince ran, raging and stamping, into the garden, and as he passed the arbour, the lady called him softly.

“Where have you been all this time, my lord?” she cried. “It is but dull work sitting alone thinking of you as the stars wane and you do not come. Alas! what a hard fate it is to have a cold-hearted lover!”

Then the Prince, who was so much relieved in his mind that he could almost have cried, rushed into the arbour and embraced the lady, vowing that he would never leave her again for so much as an hour. The Pelican looked on from his canna-flowers by the lake. Wise as he was, he did not understand what was happening, for the subtlety of woman was a thing too great even for him.

And the young man in yellow took the girl home and married her next day; and when he grew rich, which he soon did, he built a house by the Nile and raised a fine garden of oranges and pomegranates. In it the Pelican lived to a ripe old age, sustaining the household by his wisdom, and standing sponsor to the children.

THE CHERRY TREES

There were once two little boys who played in the great gardens of a palace; one was the son of the King to whom the palace belonged, and one was the son of the King’s head gardener. The palace lay at the mouth of a valley, and the garden had a stone balustrade surrounding it on which the two would sit when they were tired of their play. They were both of the same age, and, as the Prince had neither brothers nor sisters, the gardener’s son was allowed to come every day and keep him company. They learned the same lessons and amused themselves with the same games; and, at nightfall, the gardener’s boy would go back to his father’s cottage to return early next morning. The gardener was a wise man, and brought him up very well, but the King was foolish and spoilt the Prince most dreadfully, which was all the worse, as he was selfish and rude by nature, and sometimes very unkind to his friend. But his friend loved him dearly in spite of that.

[Illustration: THE DAFFODIL PRINCESS]

The King lived all the year in this palace, although he had another fine house in his capital city; for he hated business, and liked the idle life he led with his Queen and all the beautiful ladies and gentlemen who formed his court. He never troubled himself about anything; he did not even hunt, nor fish, but sat the whole day listening to the gossip of his fools and jesters, and writing very silly poetry. Then he would read it aloud to all the beautiful ladies and gentlemen, who threw up their hands and said: “How clever!” But behind his back they laughed at him.

One day, when the little boys were playing, the head gardener came by and gave each of them a fine branch of ripe cherries, so they stopped their games and sat on the balustrade to eat the fruit.

Suddenly a poor old beggar man passed by outside the garden and looked up at them; he was tattered and torn and he had no shoes on his feet; his face was lined with fatigue and misery.

“I am very hungry,” said the beggar, addressing the Prince, “and I have got nothing to eat. Please, young gentleman, get me something from the palace, for, if I have to go any further without food, I am really afraid I shall die.”

“What? _I_ go in and fetch you things from the palace? A pretty idea! I tell you I am the King’s son. I never heard of such impudence.”

“You may be the King’s son,” said the poor old man; “but I am starving, for all that.”

For answer the Prince leaned down and struck the beggar with the end of his cherry-branch.

The gardener’s son had eaten every one of his cherries but three, and he held them out to the old man. “I have nothing else to give,” he said, “but you may have these.”

The beggar ate all three cherries and laid the stones in a row on the ground; he chose one, and, when he had polished it on his ragged coat, he gave it back to the gardener’s son.

“Take that,” he said, “and plant it in the earth somewhere outside this garden. I will keep the other two.”

Then he bade him good-day, taking no notice of the Prince, and was soon out of sight.

When the boys grew into young men they still remained friends; as they had been practically brought up together, and had learned the same things, strangers often took them for brothers, more especially as they were not unlike in face. But the curious thing was, that, when the strangers found out that one was the King’s son and one the son of the head gardener, they always took the gardener’s son for the Prince. It was very awkward sometimes, and it used to make the Prince rather cross.

As time went on the King did not grow any wiser; he was very foolish and self-indulgent. He never attended to his business, and let everything in the kingdom get into a dreadful mess. At last his subjects became so much disgusted that they broke into rebellion, and rushed to the palace meaning to put an end to him altogether. He had heard rumours of discontent, but he did not mind them, and would not believe people when they told him that his life was in danger; so, one day, thousands of rebels came pouring down the valley brandishing knives and spears and great flaring torches, and set fire to his palace, murdered him and the Queen, and took all the beautiful ladies and gentlemen prisoner. Then they rushed about searching for the Prince, but could not find him as he was walking with his friend, the gardener’s son, in the park which surrounded the palace garden. At last a dozen men on horseback set off with their swords to look for him, and saw the two young men strolling about together some way off.