r connecting with the student's room. The countess, a
lady some forty years of age, came in to the student, pale with terror,
and had him repeat his suspicions to her. Then they consulted together
as to what steps they had better take in this critical situation,
finally deciding to summon the two servants, the wagoner and the
journeymen, so that in case of an attack they might all make common
cause.

The door that opened on the hall in the countess's room was locked and
barricaded with tables and chairs. She, with her maid, sat down on the
bed, and the two servants kept watch by her, while the huntsman, the
student, the journeyman and the wagoner sat around the table in the
student's room, and resolved to await their fate.

It was now about ten o'clock; every thing was quiet in the house,
and still no signs were made of disturbing the guests, when the
compass-maker said: "In order to remain awake it would be best for us
to take up our former mode of passing the time. We were telling all
kinds of stories; and if you, Mr. Huntsman, have no objections, we
might continue." The huntsman not only had no objections, but to show
his entire acquiescence he promised to relate something himself, and
began at once with the following tale:

SAID'S ADVENTURES.

In the time of Haroun-al-Raschid, the ruler of Bagdad, there lived in
Balsora a man named Benezar. He was possessed of considerable means,
and could live quietly and comfortably without resorting to trade. Nor
did he change his life of ease when a son was born to him. "Why should
I, at my time of life, dicker and trade?" said he to his neighbors,
"just to leave Said a thousand more gold pieces if things went well,
and if they went badly a thousand less? 'Where two have eaten, a third
may feast,' says the proverb; and if he is only a good boy, Said shall
want for nothing." Thus spake Benezar, and well did he keep his word,
for his son was brought up neither to a trade nor yet to commerce.
Still Benezar did not omit reading with him the books of wisdom, and as
it was the father's belief that a young man needed, with scholarship
and veneration for age, nothing more than a strong arm and courage, he
had his son early educated in the use of weapons, and Said soon passed
among boys of his own age, and even among those much older, for a
valiant fencer, while in horsemanship and swimming he had no superior.

When he was eighteen years old, his f