n terms. He told me that he had not so much
money at home, but would pay it all to me on the morrow, that
very instant fetched two bags of a thousand pieces each, as an
earnest; and the next day, though I do not know how he raised the
money, whether he borrowed it of his friends, or let some other
jewellers into partnership with him, he brought me the sum we had
agreed for at the time appointed, and I delivered to him the
diamond.

Having thus sold my diamond, and being rich, infinitely beyond my
hopes, I thanked God for his bounty; and would have gone and
thrown myself at Saad's feet to express my gratitude, if I had
known where he lived; as also at Saadi's, to whom I was first
obliged, though his good intention had not the same success.

Afterwards I thought of the use I ought to make of so
considerable a sum. My wife, with the vanity natural to her sex,
proposed immediately to buy rich clothes for herself and
children; to purchase a house, and furnish it handsomely. I told
her we ought not to begin with such expenses; "for," said I,
"money should only be spent, so that it may produce a fund from
which we may draw without its failing. This I intend, and shall
begin to-morrow."

I spent all that day and the next in going to the people of my
own trade, who worked as hard every day for their bread as I had
done; and giving them money beforehand, engaged them to work for
me in different sorts of rope-making, according to their skill
and ability, with a promise not to make them wait for their
money, but to pay them as soon as their work was done.

By this means I engrossed almost all the business of Bagdad, and
everybody was pleased with my exactness and punctual payment.

As so great a number of workmen produced, as your majesty may
judge, a large quantity of work, I hired warehouses in several
parts of the town to hold my goods, and appointed over each a
clerk, to sell both wholesale and retail; and by this economy
received considerable profit and income. Afterwards, to unite my
concerns in one spot, I bought a large house, which stood on a
great deal of ground, but was ruinous, pulled it down, and built
that your majesty saw yesterday, which, though it makes so great
an appearance, consists, for the most part, of warehouses for my
business, with apartments absolutely necessary for myself and
family.

Some time after I had left my old mean habitation, and removed to
this, Saad and Saadi, who had scarcely though