haply they may solace and gladden the hearts of men."[FN#323] So the Chamberlain went forth and, after an absence of an hour or so he returned bringing all the King had commanded; upon which he and the suite brought in the Larrikin[FN#324] together with his two companions until they led them to the presence and seated the three together.  All this while none of the vagabonds knew that the personage before them was King of the city.  So they fell to conversing until the next night came on when the Sovran bade them tell their tales of themselves and what had befallen each and every of them.  They replied, “Hearkening and obedience;” and the foremost of them began to recite the

History of the First Larrikin.

Verily, O King, my tale is a rare and it is e’en as follows:—­I had a mother of whose flocks the World had left her but a single kid, and we owned ne’er another.  Presently we determined to sell it; and, having so done, we bought it with its price a young calf, which we brought up for a whole year till it grew fat and full-sized.  Then my mother said to me, “Take yon calf and go sell it;” so I went forth with it to the Bazar, and I saw that not one was like it, when behold, a body of vagabonds,[FN#325] who numbered some forty, looked at the beast, and it pleased them; so they said one to other, “Let us carry this away and cut its throat and flay it.”  Then one of them, as all were standing afar off, came near me and said, “O youth, wilt thou sell this kid?” and quoth I, “O my uncle, verily this is a calf and not a kid;” and the other rejoined, “Art thou blind?  This is a kid.”  Cried I, “A calf!” So he asked, “Wilt thou take from me a dollar?"[FN#326] and I answered, “Nay, O my uncle!” Thereupon he went away from me, and another came after him and said, “O youth, wilt thou sell this kid?” and said I, “This is a calf,” and quoth he “This is a kid,” and reviled me the while I held my peace.  Again quoth he, “Wilt thou take for this a dollar?” but I was not satisfied therewith, and they ceased not to wrangle with me, one after other, each coming up and saying, “O youth, wilt thou sell this kid?” At last their Shaykh[FN#327] accosted me and cried, “Wilt thou sell it?” and I rejoined, “There is no Majesty save in Allah!  I will sell it on one condition, to wit, that I take from thee its tail.”  Replied to me[FN#328] the Shaykh of the Vagabonds, “Thou shalt take the tail when we have slaughtered it;” then, paying me a dollar, he led off the beast, and returned to his own folk.  Presently they killed it and flayed it, when I took the tail and hastened back to my mother.  She said to me, “Hast thou sold the calf?” and said I, “Yes, I have sold it, and have taken a dollar and the calf’s tail.”  “And what wilt thou do for the tail?” asked she; and I answered, “I will do him brown[FN#329] who took it from me saying, This is a kid, and I will serve him a sleight which shall get out of him to its price ten times one hundred."[FN#330] With these words I arose and, taking the tail, I flayed