f takes things from other people, it is never right."

When the goblin heard this, he went back home as before. And the king
stuck to his purpose. He went back again, put the goblin on his
shoulder, and started from the sissoo tree.

FIFTEENTH GOBLIN

_The Fairy Prince Cloud-chariot and the Serpent Shell-crest. Which is
the more self-sacrificing?_

So the king walked along with the goblin. And the goblin said: "O king,
listen to a story the like of which was never heard."

There is a mountain called Himalaya where all gems are found. It is the
king of mountains. Its proud loftiness is everywhere the theme of song.
The sun himself has not seen its top.

On its summit is a city called Golden City, brilliant like a heap of
sunbeams left in trust by the sun. There lived a glorious fairy-king
named Cloud-banner. In the garden of his palace was a wishing-tree
which had come down to him from his ancestors.

King Cloud-banner had worshipped the tree which was really a god, and
by its grace had obtained a son named Cloud-chariot. This son
remembered his former lives. He was destined to be a Buddha in a future
life. He was generous, noble, merciful to all creatures, and obedient
to his parents.

When he grew up, the king anointed him crown prince, persuaded thereto
by his counsellors as well as by the remarkable virtues of the youth.
While Cloud-chariot was crown prince, his father's counsellors came to
him one day and kindly said: "Crown prince, you must always honour this
wishing-tree in your garden; for it yields all desires, and cannot be
taken away by anybody. As long as it is favourably disposed to us, the
king of the gods could not conquer us, and of course nobody else could."

Then Cloud-chariot thought: "Alas! The men of old had this heavenly
tree, yet they did not pluck from it any worthy fruit. They were
mean-spirited. They simply begged it for some kind of wealth. And so
they degraded themselves and the great tree too. But I will get from it
the wish which is in my heart."

With this thought the noble creature went to his father. He showed such
complete deference as to delight his father, then when his father was
comfortably seated, he whispered: "Father, you know yourself that in
this sea of life all possessions, including our own bodies, are
uncertain as a rippling wave. Especially is money fleeting, uncertain,
fickle as the twilight lightning. The only thing in life which does not
perish is servic