uired why they were so much more
numerous here than in any other part of the garden.

"Sire," answered the princess, "do you see that cage hanging in one of
the windows of the saloon? that is the Talking Bird, whose voice you
can hear above them all, even above that of the nightingale. And the
birds crowd to this spot, to add their songs to his."

The Sultan stepped through the window, but the bird took no notice,
continuing his song as before.

"My slave," said the princess, "this is the Sultan; make him a pretty
speech."

The bird stopped singing at once, and all the other birds stopped too.

"The Sultan is welcome," he said. "I wish him long life and all
prosperity."

"I thank you, good bird," answered the Sultan, seating himself before
the repast, which was spread at a table near the window, "and I am
enchanted to see in you the Sultan and King of the Birds."

The Sultan, noticing that his favourite dish of cucumber was placed
before him, proceeded to help himself to it, and was amazed to and that
the stuffing was of pearls. "A novelty, indeed!" cried he, "but I do
not understand the reason of it; one cannot eat pearls!"

"Sire," replied the bird, before either the princes or the princess
could speak, "surely your Highness cannot be so surprised at beholding
a cucumber stuffed with pearls, when you believed without any
difficulty that the Sultana had presented you, instead of children,
with a dog, a cat, and a log of wood."

"I believed it," answered the Sultan, "because the women attending on
her told me so."

"The women, sire," said the bird, "were the sisters of the Sultana, who
were devoured with jealousy at the honour you had done her, and in
order to revenge themselves invented this story. Have them examined,
and they will confess their crime. These are your children, who were
saved from death by the intendant of your gardens, and brought up by
him as if they were his own."

Like a flash the truth came to the mind of the Sultan. "Bird," he
cried, "my heart tells me that what you say is true. My children," he
added, "let me embrace you, and embrace each other, not only as
brothers and sister, but as having in you the blood royal of Persia
which could flow in no nobler veins."

When the first moments of emotion were over, the Sultan hastened to
finish his repast, and then turning to his children he exclaimed:
"To-day you have made acquaintance with your father. To-morrow I will
bring you