!" cried I, "you know not the injury you
have done me, yourself, and our children, by making that bargain,
which has ruined us for ever. You thought you only sold the bran,
but with the bran you have enriched the sandman with a hundred
and ninety pieces of gold, which Saadi with his friend came and
made me a second present of."

My wife was like one distracted, when she knew what a fault she
had committed through ignorance. She cried, beat her breast, and
tore her hair and clothes. "Unhappy wretch that I am," cried she,
"am I fit to live after so dreadful a mistake! Where shall I find
this sandman? I know him not, I never saw him in our street
before. Oh! husband," added she, "you were much to blame to be so
reserved in a matter of such importance This had never happened,
if you had communicated the secret to me." In short, I should
never finish my story were I to tell your majesty what her grief
made her say. You are not ignorant how eloquent women often are
in their afflictions.

"Wife," said I, "moderate your grief: by your weeping and howling
you will alarm the neighbourhood, and there is no reason they
should be informed of our misfortunes. They will only laugh at,
instead of pitying us. We had best bear our loss patiently, and
submit ourselves to the will of God, and bless him, for that out
of two hundred pieces of gold which he had given us, he has taken
back but a hundred and ninety, and left us ten, which, by the use
I shall make of them will be a great relief to us."

My wife at first did not relish my arguments; but as time softens
the greatest misfortunes, and makes them more supportable, she at
last grew easy, and had almost forgotten them. "It is true," said
I to her, "we live but poorly; but what have the rich which we
have not? Do not we breathe the same air, enjoy the same light
and the same warmth of the sun? Therefore what conveniences have
they more than we, that we should envy their happiness? They die
as well as we. In short, while we live in the fear of God, as we
should always do, the advantage they have over us is so very
inconsiderable, that we ought not to covet it."

I will not tire your majesty any longer with my moral
reflections. My wife and I comforted ourselves, and I pursued my
trade with as much alacrity as before these two mortifying
losses, which followed one another so quickly. The only thing
that troubled me sometimes was, how I should look Saadi in the
face when he should c