self the hatred of the
people. For this gazelle is loved by all, by small and great, by women
and men. Ah, my husband! I thought you had great wisdom, and you have
not even a little!'

But he answered, 'You are mad, my wife.'

The old woman stayed no longer, and went back to the gazelle, followed
secretly by the mistress, who called a maidservant and bade her take
some milk and rice and cook it for the gazelle.

'Take also this cloth,' she said, 'to cover it with, and this pillow
for its head. And if the gazelle wants more, let it ask me, and not its
master. And if it will, I will send it in a litter to my father, and he
will nurse it till it is well.'

And the maidservant did as her mistress bade her, and said what her
mistress had told her to say, but the gazelle made no answer, but turned
over on its side and died quietly.

When the news spread abroad, there was much weeping among the people,
and Sultan Darai arose in wrath, and cried, 'You weep for that gazelle
as if you wept for me! And, after all, what is it but a gazelle, that I
bought for an eighth?'

But his wife answered, 'Master, we looked upon that gazelle as we looked
upon you. It was the gazelle who came to ask me of my father, it was the
gazelle who brought me from my father, and I was given in charge to the
gazelle by my father.'

And when the people heard her they lifted up their voices and spoke:

'We never saw you, we saw the gazelle. It was the gazelle who met with
trouble here, it was the gazelle who met with rest here.

So, then, when such an one departs from this world we weep for
ourselves, we do not weep for the gazelle.'

And they said furthermore:

'The gazelle did you much good, and if anyone says he could have done
more for you he is a liar! Therefore, to us who have done you no good,
what treatment will you give? The gazelle has died from bitterness of
soul, and you ordered your slaves to throw it into the well. Ah! leave
us alone that we may weep.'

But Sultan Darai would not heed their words, and the dead gazelle was
thrown into the well.

When the mistress heard of it, she sent three slaves, mounted on
donkeys, with a letter to her father the sultan, and when the sultan had
read the letter he bowed his head and wept, like a man who had lost his
mother. And he commanded horses to be saddled, and called the governor
and the judges and all the rich men, and said:

'Come now with me; let us go and bury it.'

Night and day