battered limbs and
to think over his many misfortunes. He fell asleep fully determined to
give up trying to be great, but to lead the life of an honest workman.

Next morning he set to work to fulfil his good resolutions. He sold his
little box to a jeweller for a good price, bought a house and opened a
workshop. Then he hung up a sign with, 'Labakan, Tailor,' over his door,
and sat down to mend his own torn clothes with the very needle which had
been in the ivory box.

After a while he was called away, and when he went back to his work he
found a wonderful thing had happened! The needle was sewing away all by
itself and making the neatest little stitches, such as Labakan had never
been able to make even at his best.

Certainly even the smallest gift of a kind fairy is of great value, and
this one had yet another advantage, for the thread never came to an end,
however much the needle sewed.

Labakan soon got plenty of customers. He used to cut out the clothes,
make the first stitch with the magic needle, and then leave it to do the
rest. Before long the whole town went to him, for his work was both so
good and so cheap. The only puzzle was how he could do so much, working
all alone, and also why he worked with closed doors.

And so the promise on the ivory box of 'Wealth and Happiness' came true
for him, and when he heard of all the brave doings of Prince Omar, who
was the pride and darling of his people and the terror of his enemies,
the ex-prince thought to himself, 'After all, I am better off as a
tailor, for "Honour and Glory" are apt to be very dangerous things.'

The Colony Of Cats

Long, long ago, as far back as the time when animals spoke, there lived
a community of cats in a deserted house they had taken possession of not
far from a large town. They had everything they could possibly desire
for their comfort, they were well fed and well lodged, and if by any
chance an unlucky mouse was stupid enough to venture in their way, they
caught it, not to eat it, but for the pure pleasure of catching it. The
old people of the town related how they had heard their parents speak
of a time when the whole country was so overrun with rats and mice
that there was not so much as a grain of corn nor an ear of maize to be
gathered in the fields; and it might be out of gratitude to the cats who
had rid the country of these plagues that their descendants were allowed
to live in peace. No one knows where they got the