house and garden by the river, where I live in peace
and contentment with my granddaughter as my only companion; she is my
treasure and the brightness of my house."

"The young lady," said the Caliph, "must by this time be old enough to be
married: if I find her a husband will you provide her a dower?"

"Sire," said Abdurrahman, "when I die, and I am now old, what little I
have will be hers, but till then her only dower consists of two small
jars of ointment."

"What jars are those?" asked the Caliph; "and where did you get them?"

"The jars," answered Abdurrahman, "were entrusted to me by my
daughter-in-law just before her death.

"'Preserve them carefully,' she said, 'and unopened, for the ointment
they contain is most precious, and of a rare and even magical efficacy.
When my little girl is old enough for marriage offer them for sale, but
take not less than a thousand pieces of gold for the one jar, and not
less than ten thousand pieces for the other. If no one can be found
willing to pay that price for them do not part with them, keep them
rather, and direct that they be buried with you.'

"I have never yet," continued the old man, "offered the jars of ointment
for sale, and truly it seems so improbable that any one will ever be
inclined to pay so preposterous a price for them, that doubtless they
will be interred with me as the princess, my daughter-in-law, requested."

"By Allah, not so!" said the Caliph; "I will buy them myself. And your
granddaughter, who I take it on your word is a very charming young lady,
I give with her dower of eleven thousand pieces of gold to the son of
Giafer."

The Grand Vizier and Abdurrahman bowed and touched their foreheads in
token of entire submission to the will of the Prince of the Faithful.

The Caliph then dismissed them with the injunction to make preparations
for solemnizing the marriage as soon as possible.

The Caliph and the First Jar of Ointment.

FIRST ADVENTURE:

THE CALIPH AND THE EMIR.

A few days after the marriage of Abdurrahman's daughter with the son of
the Grand Vizier, the Caliph ordered his treasurer to bring him the two
jars of ointment which he had bought of Abdurrahman.

When he saw them they were so very small that he could not avoid an
exclamation of surprise.

"By Allah," said Haroun, "but the old man has had a good price!"

Although the jars were both very small, yet they were not of the same
size, one being half as large aga