ill begin in earnest and
tell about the cave of the Genie."

He watched Little Brown Betty until she had filled his mug, and the
froth ran over the top. Then he took a deep draught and began again.

Though Abdallah had affirmed that he did not believe what the wise man
had said, nevertheless the words of the other were a comfort, for it
makes one feel easier in trouble to be told that others have been in a
like case with one's self.

So, by-and-by, Abdallah plucked up some spirit, and, saddling his
ass and shouldering his axe, started off to the woods for a bundle of
fagots.

Misfortunes, they say, never come single, and so it seemed to be with
the fagot-maker that day; for that happened that had never happened to
him before--he lost his way in the woods. On he went, deeper and deeper
into the thickets, driving his ass before him, bewailing himself and
rapping his head with his knuckles. But all his sorrowing helped him
nothing, and by the time that night fell he found himself deep in the
midst of a great forest full of wild beasts, the very thought of which
curdled his blood. He had had nothing to eat all day long, and now
the only resting-place left him was the branches of some tree. So,
unsaddling his ass and leaving it to shift for itself, he climbed to and
roosted himself in the crotch of a great limb.

In spite of his hunger he presently fell asleep, for trouble breeds
weariness as it breeds grief.

About the dawning of the day he was awakened by the sound of voices and
the glaring of lights. He craned his neck and looked down, and there he
saw a sight that filled him with amazement: three old men riding each
upon a milk-white horse and each bearing a lighted torch in his hand, to
light the way through the dark forest.

When they had come just below where Abdallah sat, they dismounted and
fastened their several horses to as many trees. Then he who rode first
of the three, and who wore a red cap and who seemed to be the chief of
them, walked solemnly up to a great rock that stood in the hillside,
and, breaking a switch from a shrub that grew in a cleft, struck the
face of the stone, crying in a loud voice, "I command thee to open, in
the name of the red Aldebaran!"

Instantly, creaking and groaning, the face of the rock opened like
a door, gaping blackly. Then, one after another, the three old men
entered, and nothing was left but the dull light of their torches,
shining on the walls of the passage-way.