Part 18

The lad asked these real merchants the same questions he had asked of the feigned merchants the night before. "How long," said he, "is it possible to keep olives good?"

And the merchants answered, as had the boys, "Not more than three years, for no matter how carefully they have been packed, after that time they lose both color and flavor."

"Look in that jar," said the lad, "and tell us how long you think those olives have been kept there."

The merchants examined the olives with the greatest care, and then they all agreed that the olives were of that year's growth and quite fresh.

"And do you not think it possible they may have been kept a year or so?"

"No, it is not possible," answered the merchants. "We know, of a surety, as we have already said, that these olives are of this year's growth, and have only recently been packed in the jar."

When Ali Cogia heard this he gave a cry of surprise, but Abul Hassan was silent; his face grew as pale as ashes, and his legs failed under him, for he knew that the merchants, in saying this, had pronounced sentence against him.

But the lad turned to the Caliph and begged that he might now be allowed to hand over the case to him. "When I pronounced sentence last night, it was but in play," said he. "But this is not play. A man's life is at stake, and I dare not pronounce sentence upon him."

To this request the Caliph agreed. "Abul Hassan, you have condemned yourself," he said. He then bade the guards take Abul Hassan away and execute him according to the law.

Before the wretched man was hanged, however, he confessed his guilt and told where he had hidden the thousand pieces of gold that belonged to Ali Cogia.

After Abul had been led away the Caliph caressed and praised the lad for conducting the case so wisely and with so much judgment.

"As for you," said he to the Cadi, "you have not shown the wisdom I demand from my judges. Learn from this child that such cases are not to be dismissed lightly, but to be inquired into with judgment and care. Otherwise it may go ill with you."

The Cadi retired, full of shame, but the Caliph ordered that a hundred pieces of gold should be given to the boy and that he should be sent home to his mother with honor.

OH!

A COSSACK STORY

There was once a man who had one son, and he was so lazy that he would not work at all. The father apprenticed him to a tailor, but the lad went to sleep between the stitches. He apprenticed him to a cobbler and the lad only sat and yawned instead of driving pegs. What to do with him the man did not know.

"Come," said the father one day, "we will go out into the wide world. It may be that somewhere or other we will find a master who can make you work."

The lad was very good-natured. "Very well," said he, "I am willing"; and he arose and stretched himself and yawned, and then he was ready to set out.

The father put on his cap and took a staff in his hand, and then he was ready, too.

The two of them journeyed along together, in step and out of step, and after a while they came to a deep wood. When they were well into it, the father grew so weary that he had to sit down and rest.

"Oh! what have I done that I should have such a lazy son!" he cried.

At once a little old, wrinkled, weazened man, all dressed in green, with a green face, green hair, and a green beard stood before them.

"Why did you call me," said he, "and what do you want?"

"I did not call you," answered the man.

"But you did call me, for I heard you. Did not you call 'Oh'? And that is my name."

"I said, 'Oh, what have I done to have such a lazy son,'" replied the man, "but I did not call you, for I did not know that was your name."

The Green one looked closely at the lad. "Is he so lazy?" he asked. "He looks a stout, healthy fellow."

"That is the worst of it," answered the father. "He is so stout and healthy that he eats me out of house and home, and not one stroke will he do to pay for it. I have tried to apprentice him to different masters, but they soon weary of him and drive him out."