nt out fifty in cash, and refrain in the future
from joking over our imperial property; as for the rest, you have our
royal pardon."

The whole court were astonished at Abner's sagacity, and his majesty,
too, had declared him to be a clever fellow; but all this did not
recompense him for the anguish he suffered, nor console him for the
loss of his dear ducats. While groaning and sighing, he took one coin
after another from his purse, and before parting with it weighed it on
the tip of his finger. Schnuri, the king's jester, asked him jeeringly
whether all his zecchini were tested on the stone by which the bit of
Prince Abdallah's dun horse was proved. "Your wisdom to-day has brought
you fame," said the jester; "but I would bet you another fifty ducats
that you wish you had kept silent. But what says the Prophet? 'A word
once spoken can not be overtaken by a wagon, though four fleet horses
were harnessed to it.' Neither will a greyhound overtake it, Mr. Abner,
even if it did not _limp_."

Not long after this (to Abner) painful event, he took another walk in
one of the green valleys between the foot-hills of the Atlas range of
mountains. And on this occasion, just as before, he was overtaken by a
company of armed men, the leader of whom called out:

"Hi! my good friend! have you not seen Goro, the emperor's black
body-guard, run by? He has run away, and must have taken this course
into the mountains."

"I can not inform you, General," answered Abner.

"Oh! Are you not that cunning Jew who had seen neither the dog nor the
horse? Don't stand on ceremony; the slave must have passed this way;
can you not scent him in the air? or can you not discover the print of
his flying feet in the long grass? Speak! the slave must have passed
here; he is unequalled in killing sparrows with a pea-shooter, and this
is his majesty's greatest diversion. Speak up! or I will put you in
chains!"

"I can not say I have seen what I have yet not seen."

"Jew, for the last time I ask, where is the slave? Think on the soles
of your feet; think on your zecchini!"

"Oh, woe is me! Well, if you will have it that I have seen the
sparrow-shooter, then run that way; if he is not there, then he is
somewhere else."

"You saw him, then?" roared the general.

"Well, yes, Mr. Officer, if you will have it so."

The soldiers hastened off in the direction he had indicated; while
Abner went home chuckling over his cunning. Before he was twenty-four
h