for a few moments. Then it said, 'The elders
said, "One that does good like a mother," and I have done him good, and
I have got this that the elders said. But go up again to the master, and
tell him the gazelle is very ill, and it has not drunk the gruel of red
millet.'

So the old woman returned, and found the master and the mistress
drinking coffee. And when he heard what the gazelle had said, he cried:
'Hold your peace, old woman, and stay your feet and close your eyes,
and stop your ears with wax; and if the gazelle bids you come to me, say
your legs are bent, and you cannot walk; and if it begs you to listen,
say your ears are stopped with wax; and if it wishes to talk, reply that
your tongue has got a hook in it.'

The heart of the old woman wept as she heard such words, because she saw
that when the gazelle first came to that town it was ready to sell its
life to buy wealth for its master. Then it happened to get both life and
wealth, but now it had no honour with its master.

And tears sprung likewise to the eyes of the sultan's wife, and she
said, 'I am sorry for you, my husband, that you should deal so wickedly
with that gazelle'; but he only answered, 'Old woman, pay no heed to the
talk of the mistress: tell it to perish out of the way. I cannot sleep,
I cannot eat, I cannot drink, for the worry of that gazelle. Shall a
creature that I bought for an eighth trouble me from morning till night?
Not so, old woman!'

The old woman went downstairs, and there lay the gazelle, blood flowing
from its nostrils. And she took it in her arms and said, 'My son, the
good you did is lost; there remains only patience.'

And it said, 'Mother, I shall die, for my soul is full of anger and
bitterness. My face is ashamed, that I should have done good to my
master, and that he should repay me with evil.' It paused for a moment,
and then went on, 'Mother, of the goods that are in this house, what do
I eat? I might have every day half a basinful, and would my master be
any the poorer? But did not the elders say, "He that does good like a
mother!"'

And it said, 'Go and tell my master that the gazelle is nearer death
than life.'

So she went, and spoke as the gazelle had bidden her; but he answered,
'I have told you to trouble me no more.'

But his wife's heart was sore, and she said to him: 'Ah, master, what
has the gazelle done to you? How has he failed you? The things you do
to him are not good, and you will draw on your