!"

Then he turned to the Grand Vizier and said, "Behold, admire, wonder!
and confess that your eyes never beheld jewels so rich and beautiful
before. What sayest thou to such a present? Is it not worthy of the
princess, my daughter? Ought I not to bestow her on one who values her
at so great a price?"

"I cannot but own," replied the Grand Vizier, "that the present is
worthy of the princess. But wait for three months. Before that time I
hope my son, whom you regard with favor, will be able to make a nobler
present than this Aladdin, of whom your majesty knows nothing."

The Sultan granted this request, and said to Aladdin's mother,--

"Good woman, go home, and tell your son that I agree to what you have
proposed, but I cannot marry the princess, my daughter, for three
months. At the end of that time come again."

The news which Aladdin's mother brought home filled him and her with
joy. From that time forth he counted every week, day, and hour as they
passed. When two of the three months were gone, Aladdin's mother went
out one evening to buy some oil, and found the streets full of joyful
people, and officers busy with preparations for some festival.

"What does it mean?" she asked the oil merchant.

"Whence came you, good woman," said he, "that you do not know that the
Grand Vizier's son is to marry the Princess Buddir al Buddoor, the
Sultan's daughter, to-night?"

Home she ran to Aladdin and cried, "Child, you are undone! the
Sultan's fine promises will come to nought. This night the Grand
Vizier's son is to marry the Princess Buddir al Buddoor."

Aladdin was thunderstruck, but wasted no time in idle words against
the Sultan. He went at once to his chamber, took the lamp, rubbed it
in the same place as before, when instantly the genie appeared, and
said to him,--

"What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave,--I and
the other slaves of the lamp."

"Hear me," said Aladdin; "thou hast hitherto obeyed me, but now I am
about to impose on thee a harder task. The Sultan's daughter, who was
promised me as my bride, will this night be wed to the son of the
Grand Vizier. Bring them both hither to me when they are married."

"Master," replied the genie, "I obey you."

Aladdin did not have to wait long after supping with his mother and
going to his chamber to be shown again that the genie was indeed his
faithful slave. On this night and the next the princess and the Grand
Vizier's son were borne