The Children's Hour Volume V Part 18

With delight the Sultan replied,--

"Go and tell your son that I wait with open arms to embrace him; and the more haste he makes to come and receive the princess, my daughter, from my hands, the greater pleasure he will give me."

While he showed the slaves and the jewels to the princess, Aladdin's mother carried the good news to her son. "My son," she said, "you may rejoice, for the Sultan has declared that you shall marry the Princess Buddir al Buddoor. He waits for you with impatience."

Aladdin was overjoyed, but, saying little, retired to his chamber.

Here he rubbed the lamp, and when its slave appeared said,--

"Genie, convey me at once to a bath, and give me the richest robe ever worn by a monarch."

This was soon done, and he found himself again in his own chamber, where the genie asked if he had any other commands.

"Yes," answered Aladdin; "bring me a charger better than the best in the Sultan's stables. Fit him with trappings worthy of his value.

Furnish twenty slaves, clothed as richly as those who carried the presents to the Sultan, to walk by my side and follow me, and twenty more to go before me in two ranks. Besides these, bring my mother six women slaves, as richly dressed as any of the Princess Buddir al Buddoor's, each carrying a complete dress fit for a Sultan's wife. I want also ten thousand pieces of gold in ten purses: go, and make haste."

The commands were instantly fulfilled, and Aladdin gave the six women slaves to his mother, with the six dresses they had brought, wrapped in silver tissue. Of the ten purses he gave four to his mother, and the other six he left in the hands of the slaves who brought them, saying that they must march before him and throw the money by handfuls into the crowd as the procession moved to the Sultan's palace. Mounted on his horse, Aladdin, though he had never ridden before, appeared with a grace which the most practiced horseman might have envied. It was no wonder that the people made the air echo with their shouts, especially when the slaves threw out the handfuls of gold.

The Sultan met him at the palace with joy and surprise that the son of so humble a mother as the woman he had seen should have such dignity and good looks, and should be dressed more richly than he himself had ever been. He embraced Aladdin, held him by the hand, and made him sit near the throne. Then there was a great feast, and after it the contract of marriage between the princess and Aladdin was drawn up.

When the Sultan asked him if he would stay in the palace and complete the marriage that day, Aladdin answered,--

"Sire, though my impatience is great to enter on the honor your majesty has granted, yet I beg first to be allowed to build a palace worthy of the princess, your daughter. I pray you to give me ground enough near your own, and I will have it finished with the utmost speed."

The request was granted, and Aladdin took his leave with as much politeness as if he had always lived at court. Again, as he pa.s.sed through the streets, the people shouted and wished him joy. In his own chamber once more, he took the lamp, rubbed it, and there was the genie.

"Genie," said Aladdin, "build me a palace fit to receive the Princess Buddir al Buddoor. Let its materials be of the rarest. Let its walls be of ma.s.sive gold and silver bricks. Let each front contain six windows, and let the lattices of these (except one, which must be left unfinished) be enriched with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, beyond anything of the kind ever seen in the world. Let there be courts and a s.p.a.cious garden, kitchens, storehouses, stables,--well equipped,--offices, servants, and slaves. Above all, provide a safe treasure-house, and fill it with gold and silver. Go, and fulfill my wishes."

Early the next morning the genie returned, and bore Aladdin to the place where the palace had been built. Everything was done as Aladdin had commanded. The officers, slaves, and grooms were at their work in hall and stable. The hall, with the twenty-four windows, was beyond his fondest hopes.

"Genie," he said, "there is but one thing wanting,--a fine carpet for the princess to walk upon from the Sultan's palace to mine. Lay one down at once."

In an instant the desire was fulfilled. Then the genie carried Aladdin to his own home.

When the Sultan looked out of his windows in the morning, he was amazed to see a s.h.i.+ning building where there had been but an empty garden. "It must be Aladdin's palace," he said, "which I gave him leave to build for my daughter. He has wished to surprise us, and let us see what wonders can be done in a single night."

He was only a little less surprised when Aladdin's mother, dressed more richly than ever his own daughter had been, appeared at the palace. So good a son, he thought, must make a good husband. And soon the son himself appeared; and when in royal pomp he left his humble house for the last time, he did not fail to take with him the wonderful lamp which had brought him all his good fortune, or to wear the ring he had received as a talisman.

V

His marriage to the princess was performed with the utmost splendor.

There was feasting and music and dancing, and when the princess was brought to her new palace she was so dazzled by its richness that she said to Aladdin, "I thought, prince, there was nothing so beautiful in the world as my father's palace, but now I know that I was deceived."

The next day Aladdin with a troop of slaves went himself to the Sultan and asked him to come with the Grand Vizier and lords of the court to a repast in the palace of the princess. The Sultan gladly consented, and the nearer he came to the building the more he marveled at its grandeur. When he entered the hall of the twenty-four windows he exclaimed,--

"This palace is one of the wonders of the world. Where else shall we find walls built of gold and silver, and windows of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds? But tell me this. Why, in a hall of such beauty, was one window left incomplete?"

"Sire," said Aladdin, "I left it so, that you should have the glory of finis.h.i.+ng this hall."

"I take your wish kindly," said the Sultan, "and will give orders about it at once."

When the jewelers and goldsmiths were called they undertook to finish the window, but needed all the jewels the Sultan could give and the Grand Vizier lend for the work. Even the jewels of Aladdin's gift were used, and after working for a month the window was not half finished.

Aladdin therefore dismissed them all one day, bade them undo what they had done, and take the jewels back to the Sultan and Vizier. Then he rubbed his lamp, and there was the genie.

"Genie," he said, "I ordered thee to leave one of the four and twenty windows imperfect, and thou hast obeyed me. Now I would have thee make it like the rest." And in a moment the work was done.

The Sultan was greatly surprised when the chief jeweler brought back the stones and said that their work had been stopped, he could not tell why. A horse was brought, and the Sultan rode at once to Aladdin's palace to ask what it all meant. One of the first things he saw there was the finished window. He could hardly believe it to be true, and looked very closely at all the four and twenty to see if he was deceived. When he was convinced he embraced Aladdin and kissed him between the eyes and said,--

"My son, what a man you are to do such things in the twinkling of an eye! there is not your fellow in the world; the more I know of you the more I admire you."

Aladdin won not only the love of the Sultan, but also of the people.

As he went to one mosque or another to prayers, or paid visits to the Grand Vizier and lords of the court, he caused two slaves who walked by the side of his horse to throw handfuls of money to the people in the streets. Thus he lived for several years, making himself dear to all.

VI

About this time the African magician, who had supposed Aladdin to be dead in the cave where he had left him, learned by magic art that he had made his escape, and by the help of the genie of the wonderful lamp was living in royal splendor.

On the very next day the magician set out for the capital of China, where on his arrival he took up his lodging in an inn. There he quickly learned about Aladdin's wealth and goodness and popularity. As soon as he saw the palace he knew that none but genies, the slaves of the lamp, could have built it, and he returned to his inn all the more angry at Aladdin for having got what he wanted himself. When he learned by his magic that Aladdin did not carry the lamp about with him, but left it in the palace, he rubbed his hands with glee, and said, "Well, I shall have it now, and I shall make Aladdin return to his low estate."

The next morning he learned that Aladdin had gone with a hunting party, to be absent eight days, three of which had pa.s.sed. He needed to know no more, and quickly formed his plans. He went to a shop and asked for a dozen copper lamps. The master of the shop had not so many then, but promised them the next day, and said he would have them, as the magician wished, handsome and well polished.

When the magician came back and paid for them, he put them in a basket and started directly for Aladdin's palace. As he drew near he began crying, "Who will change old lamps for new ones?" The children and people who crowded around hooted and scoffed at him as a madman or a fool, but he heeded them not, and went on crying, "Who will change old lamps for new ones?"

The princess was in the hall with the four and twenty windows, and, seeing a crowd outside, sent one of her women slaves to find out what the man was crying. The slave returned laughing, and told of the foolish offer. Another slave, hearing it, said, "Now you speak of lamps, I know not whether the princess may have observed it, but there is an old one upon a shelf of the Prince Aladdin's robing room.

Whoever owns it will not be sorry to find a new one in its stead. If the princess chooses, she may have the pleasure of seeing whether this old man is silly enough to make the exchange."

The princess, who knew not the value of this lamp, thought it would be a good joke to do as her slave suggested, and in a few moments it was done. The magician did not stop to cry, "New lamps for old ones!"

again, but hurried to his inn and out of the town, setting down his basket of new lamps where n.o.body saw him.

When he reached a lonely spot he pulled the old lamp out of his breast, and, to make sure that it was the one he wanted, rubbed it.

Instantly the genie appeared and said, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands,--both I and the other slaves of the lamp."

"I command thee," replied the magician, "to bear me and the palace which thou and the other slaves of the lamp have built in this city, with all the people in it, at once to Africa."

The genie made no reply, but in a moment he and the other slaves of the lamp had borne the magician and the palace entire to the spot where he wished it to stand.

Early the next morning, when the Sultan went as usual to gaze upon Aladdin's palace, it was nowhere to be seen. How so large a building that had been standing for some years could disappear so completely, and leave no trace behind, he could not understand. The Grand Vizier was summoned to explain it. In secret be bore no good will to Aladdin, and was glad to suggest that the very building of the palace had been by magic, and that the hunting party had been merely an excuse for the removal of the palace by the same means. The Sultan was persuaded, therefore, to send a body of his guards to seize Aladdin as a prisoner of state. When he appeared the Sultan would hear no word from him, but ordered him put to death. This displeased the people so much that the Sultan, fearing a riot, granted him his life and let him speak.

"Sire," said Aladdin, "I pray you to let me know the crime by which I have lost thy favor?"

"Your crime!" answered the Sultan; "wretched man! do you not know it?

Follow me, and I will show you."

Then he led Aladdin to a window and said, "You ought to know where your palace stood; look, and tell me what has become of it."

Aladdin was as much amazed as the Sultan had been. "True, it is vanished," he said after a speechless pause, "but I have had no concern in its removal. I beg you to give me forty days, and if in that time I cannot restore it, I will offer my head to be disposed of at your pleasure."

"I give you the time you ask," answered the Sultan, "but at the end of forty days forget not to present yourself before me."