Journeys Through Bookland Volume Iii Part 30

What can be more delightful than to find harmony of opinion in those we love, when a great and momentous decision has to be taken?

My dear wife a.s.sured me that she desired nothing more earnestly than to spend the rest of her days in a place to which she had become so much attached, provided I, and at least two of her sons, also wished to remain.

From the other two she would willingly part, if they chose to return to Europe, with the understanding that they must endeavor to send out emigrants of a good cla.s.s to join us, and form a prosperous colony, adding that she thought the island ought to continue to bear the name of our native country, even if inhabited in future time by colonists from England, as well as from Switzerland.

I heartily approved of this excellent idea, and on consultation with my sons I found that Fritz, whose interest in Jenny was most apparent, and Franz, who longed for school life, earnestly desired to return to Europe, while Ernest and Jack were more than willing to remain. Mr.

Wolston, with his wife and elder daughter, decided to make New Switzerland their future home, and thus my wife and I were left far from solitary when our two sons parted from us.

ECHO

By JOHN G. SAXE

I asked of Echo, t'other day, (Whose words are few and often funny,) What to a novice she could say Of courtship, love and matrimony?

Quoth Echo, plainly,--"Matter-o'-money!"

Whom should I marry?--should it be A dashing damsel, gay and pert, A pattern of inconstancy; Or selfish, mercenary flirt?

Quoth Echo, sharply,--"Nary flirt!"

What if, aweary of the strife That long has lured the dear deceiver, She promise to amend her life, And sin no more; can I believe her?

Quoth Echo, very promptly,--"Leave her!"

But if some maiden with a heart On me should venture to bestow it, Pray should I act the wiser part To take the treasure, or forego it?

Quoth Echo, with decision,--"Go it!"

But what if, seemingly afraid To bind her fate in Hymen's fetter, She vow she means to die a maid, In answer to my loving letter?

Quoth Echo, rather coolly,--"Let her!"

What if, in spite of her disdain, I find my heart intwined about With Cupid's dear delicious chain So closely that I can't get out?

Quoth Echo, laughingly,--"Get out!"

But if some maid with beauty blest, As pure and fair as Heaven can make her.

Will share my labor and my rest Till envious Death shall overtake her?

Quoth Echo (sotto voce),--"Take her!"

THE STORY OF ALADDIN, OR THE WONDERFUL LAMP

NOTE.--The Arabian Nights' Entertainment, from which Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor are taken, is a celebrated collection of Eastern tales. It is supposed that the Arabians got them from the people of India, who in their turn are supposed to have received them from Persia. They were introduced into Europe in a French translation about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and have always been very popular, not only on account of the interest of the stories, but because they give excellent pictures of life and customs in the East.

In certain Mohammedan lands to-day people tell and believe stories of genii which are quite as extraordinary as some of those contained in the Arabian Nights.

The tales, although they are separate stories, are fancifully connected as follows:

A certain sultan, Schahriar, having found that his wife was unfaithful to him, had her put to death and vowed that each day thereafter he would marry a new wife, who should be put to death on the following morning. At length Scheherazade, a daughter of the vizier, determined to try by a clever device to stop the sultan's cruelty. By her own request she became the wife of the sultan, but in the morning, before he had a chance to order her beheaded, she began to tell him a most interesting story. In the middle of this tale she broke off, and the sultan was so curious as to what was to follow, that he declared she should live until the following day. Each day the sultaness practiced the same device, and each day the sultan's curiosity got the better of his cruelty, so that he allowed her to live on. For a thousand and one nights she kept up her story telling, and by the end of that time, the sultan had fallen so in love with his wife that he declared she should live. Thus by her heroism and her accomplishments she prevented the death of many girls, who might have become victims of the sultan's cruel vow.

In one of the great, rich cities of China, there once lived a poor tailor named Mustapha. Although his family consisted only of his wife and a son, he could scarcely by the hardest labor support them.

Aladdin, the son, was an idle fellow, careless and disobedient. Every morning early he would go out into the streets, and there he would stay all day, playing in the public places with other shiftless children of his own age.

When he was old enough to learn a trade, his father took him into his own shop and taught him how to use a needle, but no sooner was the father's back turned than Aladdin was gone for the day. Mustapha punished him again and again, but everything failed to keep Aladdin off the street, and finally his father was compelled to abandon him to his evil ways. The poor old tailor felt his son's disobedience so keenly that he fell sick, and in a few months died of sorrow.

Aladdin, no longer restrained by the fear of his father, was never out of the streets by day, and gave himself up wholly to idleness and play till he was fifteen years old.

At about that time, as he was one day playing with some rough boys in the street, a stranger who was pa.s.sing stopped and eyed the boy keenly. Though the stranger looked like any other man, he was in reality an African magician, who had but recently arrived in the Chinese city. Aladdin was an attractive boy, and because of his habits the sorcerer felt that the boy was well suited to his purposes.

Accordingly, after talking with the other boys and learning Aladdin's history, he called the youngster away from his playmates.

"Child," he asked, "was not your father called Mustapha the tailor?"

"Yes, sir," said the boy, "but he has been dead for some time."

At these words the magician threw his arms about Aladdin's neck, and, with tears in his eyes, kissed the boy several times, saying, "I am your uncle; your father was my own brother. I knew you as soon as I saw you, you are so much like him. Go, my son," he continued, handing the boy some money, "to your mother! Give her my love and tell her that I will visit her to-morrow."

Overjoyed with the money his uncle had given him, Aladdin ran to his home.

"O mother," he cried, "have I an uncle?"

"No, my son," she replied, "you have no uncle either on your father's side or on mine."

"I am just now come," said Aladdin, "from a man who says he is my uncle and my father's brother. He cried and kissed me when I told him my father was dead, and gave me money, sending his love to you, and promising to come and pay you a visit, that he may see the house my father lived and died in."

"Indeed, child," replied the mother, "your father had no brother, nor have you an uncle."

The next day the magician found Aladdin playing in another part of the town, and embracing him as before, put two pieces of gold into his hand, and said to him, "Carry this, child, to your mother; tell her that I will come and see her to-night, and bid her get us something for supper; but first show me the house where you live."

Aladdin showed the African magician the house, and carried the two pieces of gold to his mother, who went out and bought provisions.

She spent the whole day in preparing the supper; and at night, when it was ready, said to her son, "Perhaps the stranger knows not how to find our house; go and bring him, if you meet with him."

Aladdin was just ready to go, when the magician knocked at the door, and came in loaded with wine and all sorts of fruits, which he brought for a dessert. After he had given what he brought into Aladdin's hands, he saluted his mother, and desired to show him the place where his brother Mustapha used to sit on the sofa; and when she had done so, he fell down, and kissed it several times, crying out, with tears in his eyes, "My poor brother! how unhappy am I, not to have come soon enough to give you one last embrace!"

Aladdin's mother desired him to sit down in the same place, but he declined.

"No," said he, "I shall not do that; but give me leave to sit opposite it, that although I see not the master of a family so dear to me, I may at least behold the place where he used to sit."

When the magician had comfortably seated himself, he began to talk with Aladdin's mother.

"My good sister," said he, "do not be surprised that you have never seen me in all the time you were married to my brother Mustapha, blessed be his memory. I have been forty years traveling in India, Persia, Arabia, Syria and Egypt. In Africa I lived for many years, but at last I wished to see my native country again, and to embrace my dear brother. Nothing ever afflicted me so much as hearing of my brother's death. But G.o.d be praised for all things! It is a comfort for me to find in my nephew one who has my brother's most remarkable features."

The widow wept so sorrowfully at these kind allusions to her husband, that the sorcerer changed the conversation.

"What business do you follow, my nephew," he asked; "have you any trade?"