第48章 Not a Pin to Choose.(6)

The little taste that he had had of conquest had given him an appetite for more, so that with the armies the Genie provided him he conquered all the neighboring countries and brought them under his rule. So he became the greatest emperor in all the world; kings and princes kneeled before him, and he, Abdallah, the fagot-maker, looking about him, could say: "No one in all the world is so great as I!"

Could he desire anything more?

Yes; he did! He desired to be rid of the Genie!

When he thought of how all that he was in power and might--he, the Emperor of the World--how all his riches and all his glory had come as gifts from a hideous black monster with only one eye, his heart was filled with bitterness. "I cannot forget," said he to himself, "that as he has given me all these things, he may take them all away again. Suppose that I should lose my ring and that some one else should find it; who knows but that they might become as great as I, and strip me of everything, as I have stripped others. Yes; I wish he was out of the way!"

Once, when such thoughts as these were passing through his mind, he was paying a visit to his father-in-law, the king. He was walking up and down the terrace of the garden meditating on these matters, when, leaning over a wall and looking down into the street, he saw a fagot-maker--just such a fagot-maker as he himself had one time been--driving an ass--just such an ass as he had one time driven. The fagot-maker carried something under his arm, and what should it be but the very casket in which the Genie had once been imprisoned, and which he--the one-time fagot-maker--had seen the Genie kick over the tree-tops.

The sight of the casket put a sudden thought into his mind. He shouted to his attendants, and bade them haste and bring the fagot-maker to him. Off they ran, and in a little while came dragging the poor wretch, trembling and as white as death; for he thought nothing less than that his end had certainly come. As soon as those who had seized him had loosened their hold, he flung himself prostrate at the feet of the Emperor Abdallah, and there lay like one dead.

"Where didst thou get yonder casket?" asked the emperor.

"Oh, my lord!" croaked the poor fagot-maker, "I found it out yonder in the woods."

"Give it to me," said the emperor, "and my treasurer shall count thee out a thousand pieces of gold in exchange."

So soon as he had the casket safe in his hands he hurried away to his privy chamber, and there pressed the red stone in his ring.

"In the name of the red Aldebaran, I command thee to appear!" said he, and in a moment the Genie stood before him.

"What are my lord's commands?" said he.

"I would have thee enter this casket again," said the Emperor Abdallah.

"Enter the casket!" cried the Genie, aghast.

"Enter the casket."

"In what have I done anything to offend my lord?" said the Genie.

"In nothing," said the emperor; "only I would have thee enter the casket again as thou wert when I first found thee."

It was in vain that the Genie begged and implored for mercy, it was in vain that he reminded Abdallah of all that he had done to benefit him; the great emperor stood as hard as a rock--into the casket the Genie must and should go. So at last into the casket the monster went, bellowing most lamentably.

The Emperor Abdallah shut the lid of the casket, and locked it and sealed it with his seal. Then, hiding it under his cloak, he bore it out into the garden and to a deep well, and, first making sure that nobody was by to see, dropped casket and Genie and all into the water.

Now had that wise man been by--the wise man who had laughed so when the poor young fagot-maker wept and wailed at the ingratitude of his friend--the wise man who had laughed still louder when the young fagot-maker vowed that in another case he would not have been so ungrateful to one who had benefited him -- how that wise man would have roared when he heard the casket plump into the waters of the well! For, upon my word of honor, betwixt Ali the fagot-maker and Abdallah the Emperor of the World there was not a pin to choose, except in degree.

Old Ali Baba's pipe had nearly gone out, and he fell a puffing at it until the spark grew to life again, and until great clouds of smoke rolled out around his head and up through the rafters above.

"I liked thy story, friend," said old Bidpai--"I liked it mightily much. I liked more especially the way in which thy emperor got rid of his demon, or Genie."

Fortunatus took a long pull at his mug of ale. "I know not," said he, "about the demon, but there was one part that I liked much, and that was about the treasures of silver and gold and the palace that the Genie built and all the fine things that the poor fagot-maker enjoyed." Then he who had once carried the magic purse in his pocket fell a clattering with the bottom of his quart cup upon the table. "Hey! My pretty lass," cried he, "come hither and fetch me another stoup of ale."

Little Brown Betty came at his call, stumbling and tumbling into the room, just as she had stumbled and tumbled in the Mother Goose book, only this time she did not crack her crown, but gathered herself up laughing.

"You may fill my canican while you are about it," said St.

George, "for, by my faith, tis dry work telling a story."

"And mine, too," piped the little Tailor who killed seven flies at a blow.

"And whose turn is it now to tell a story?" said Doctor Faustus.

" Tis his," said the Lad who fiddled for the Jew, and he pointed to Hans who traded and traded until he had traded his lump of gold for an empty churn.

Hans grinned sheepishly. "Well," said he, "I never did have luck at anything, and why, then, d'ye think I should have luck at telling a story?"

"Nay, never mind that," said Aladdin, "tell thy story, friend, as best thou mayst."

"Very well," said Hans, "if ye will have it, I will tell it to you; but, after all, it is not better than my own story, and the poor man in the end gets no more than I did in my bargains."

"And what is your story about, my friend?" said Cinderella.

" Tis," said Hans, "about how--