er! See now the awful
result of this mistake! Go you now to this heartless Princess whom men
call Flower o' the World or else our poor defenseless city will have to
pay the penalty."

So the second prince was taken to the tent of the Warrior Maiden and she
put to him the same questions and he fared even worse than his brother
had fared. So his head, too, was sent to the Sultan with this message:

"_Send me no more liars and cowards but the son who actually did steal
from me my glorious Nightingale Gisar._"

In despair the Sultan went to the mosque to pray. As he bowed his head
he heard the Nightingale burst forth in song. Then when he looked up he
saw a beggar youth standing near the fountain.

When his prayers were finished the Sultan went outside to the Dervish
and said to him:

"The Warrior Princess, Flower o' the World, demands that I send her
another son. I know not where my Third Son is. What shall I do?"

Without looking at the Sultan the Dervish answered in his sing-song
voice:

"Send her the son for whom the Nightingale sings."

The Sultan turned away in disappointment, not understanding what the
Dervish meant, but one of his attendants plucked his sleeve and
whispered:

"The Nightingale sings for yonder beggar youth. Perhaps it is he the
Dervish means. Why not ask him if he will go to Flower o' the World in
place of your Youngest Son?"

[Illustration: _The Flower o' the World Asleep_]

The Sultan nodded, so the attendant called the beggar youth and the
Sultan asked him would he go to the Warrior Princess as the Youngest
Prince.

"Allah alone knows where my Youngest Son is," the Sultan said, "but he
is just about your age and if you were washed and anointed and dressed
in fitting garments you would not be unlike him."

The beggar youth said he would go but he insisted on going just as he
was. The Sultan begged him to go dressed as a prince or the Flower o'
the World might not receive him.

"No," said the youth, "I shall go as a beggar or not at all. It is for
the Flower o' the World to know me whether or not I am the Sultan's
Youngest Son and the man who stole from her the Nightingale Gisar."

So he went as he was to the tent of the Flower o' the World and her
warriors when they saw him coming said to the Princess:

"This Sultan mocks you and sends you a beggar when you demand his Third
Son."

But the Flower o' the World ordered them all out and bade the beggar
enter alone. She looked at