y," interrupted one of the last
speaker's friends. "It was you who created in us the desire for stories
of all kinds. One of your slaves knew as many as a camel-driver could
tell on the trip from Mecca to Medina. And when he was through with his
work, he had to sit down with us on the grassplot before the house, and
there we would tease until he began a story; and so it went on and on
until night overtook us."

"And was there not then disclosed to us a new, an undiscovered realm?"
said the young writer. "The land of genii and fairies, containing, too,
all the wonders of the vegetable kingdom, with palaces of emeralds and
rubies, inhabited by giant slaves, who appear when a ring was turned
around on the finger and back again, or by rubbing a magical lamp, and
brought splendid food in golden shells? We felt that we were
transported to that country; we made those marvelous voyages with
Sinbad, we accompanied Haroun-al-Raschid, the wise ruler of the
Faithful, on his evening walks, and we knew his vizier as well as we
knew each other; in short, we lived in those stories, as one lives in
his nightly dreams, and for us there was no part of the day so
enjoyable as the evening, when we gathered on the grass-plot, and the
old slave told us stories. But tell us, old man, why it is that this
craving for stories is as strong in us to-day as it was in our
childhood?"

The commotion that had arisen in the room, and the request of the
steward for silence, prevented the old man from replying. The young men
were uncertain whether they ought to rejoice at the prospect of hearing
another story, or to feel vexed that their entertaining conversation
with the old man had been broken off so suddenly. When silence had been
restored, a second slave arose and began his story.

ABNER, THE JEW,
WHO HAD SEEN NOTHING.

Sire, I am from Mogadore, on the coast of the Atlantic, and during the
time that the powerful Emperor Muley Ismael reigned over Fez and
Morocco, the following incident occurred, the recital of which may
perhaps amuse you. It is the story of Abner, the Jew, who had seen
nothing.

Jews, as you know, are to be found every-where, and every-where they
are Jews--sharp, with the eye of a hawk for the slightest advantage to
be gained; and the more they are oppressed the more do they exhibit the
craft on which they pride themselves. That a Jew may sometimes,
however, come to ha