place."

And the Demon said, "It shall be done." He smote his hands together, and
instantly there came a cloud of mist that covered and hid the spot where
the palace was to be built. Out from the cloud there came such a banging
and hammering and clapping and clattering as the people of that town
never heard before. Then when evening had come the cloud arose, and
there, where the king had pointed out, stood a splendid palace as white
as snow, with roofs and domes of gold and silver. As the king stood
looking and wondering at this sight, there came five hundred young men
riding, and one in the midst of all who wore a golden crown on his head,
and upon his body a long robe stiff with diamonds and pearls. "We come,"
said he, "from the Tailor of Tailors, and Master of Masters, and One
Greater than a King, to ask you to let him have your daughter for his
wife."

"Tell him to come!" cried the king, in admiration, "for the princess is
his."

The next morning when the Demon came he found the Tailor dancing and
shouting for joy. "The princess is mine!" he cried, "so make me ready
for her."

"It shall be done," said the Demon, and thereupon he began to make the
Tailor ready for his wedding. He brought him to a marble bath of water,
in which he washed away all that was coarse and ugly, and from which the
little man came forth as beautiful as the sun. Then the Demon clad
him in the finest linen, and covered him with clothes such as even the
emperor of India never wore. Then he smote his hands together, and the
wall of the tailor-shop opened as it had done twice before, and there
came forth forty slaves clad in crimson, and bearing bowls full of money
in their hands. After them came two leading a horse as white as snow,
with a saddle of gold studded with diamonds and rubies and emeralds
and sapphires. After came a body-guard of twenty warriors clad in gold
armor. Then the Tailor mounted his horse and rode away to the king's
palace, and as he rode the slaves scattered the money amongst the crowd,
who scrambled for it and cheered the Tailor to the skies.

That night the princess and the Tailor were married, and all the town
was lit with bonfires and fireworks. The two rode away in the midst of
a great crowd of nobles and courtiers to the palace which the Demon had
built for the Tailor; and, as the princess gazed upon him, she thought
that she had never beheld so noble and handsome a man as her husband. So
she and the Tailor were