at I will visit
her to-morrow, that I may see where my good brother lived and died."

"You have no uncle," said Aladdin's mother when she had heard his
story. "Neither your father nor I ever had a brother."

Again the next day the magician found Aladdin playing in the streets,
and embraced him as before, and put two pieces of gold into his hand,
saying, "Carry this to your mother. Tell her I shall come to sup with
you to-night; but show me first where you live."

This done, Aladdin ran home with the money, and all day his mother
made ready to receive their guest. Just as they began to fear that he
might not find the house, the African magician knocked at the door,
and came in, bringing wine and fruits of every sort. After words of
greeting to them both, he asked only to be placed where he might face
the sofa on which Mustapha used to sit.

"My poor brother!" he exclaimed. "How unhappy am I, not to have come
soon enough to give you one last embrace!"

Then he told Aladdin's mother how he had left their native land of
China forty years ago, had traveled in many lands, and finally settled
in Africa. The desire had seized him to see his brother and his home
once more, and therefore he had come, alas! too late.

When the widow wept at the thought of her husband, the African
magician turned to Aladdin and asked, "What business do you follow?
Are you of any trade?"

The boy hung his head, and his mother added to his shame by saying,
"Aladdin is an idle fellow. He would not learn his father's trade, and
now will not heed me, but spends his time where you found him, in the
streets. Unless you can persuade him to mend his ways, some day I must
turn him out to shift for himself."

Again the widow wept, and the magician said,--

"This is not well, nephew. But there are many trades beside your
father's. What say you to having a shop, which I will furnish for you
with fine stuffs and linens? Tell me freely."

This seemed an easy life, and Aladdin, who hated work, jumped at the
plan. "Well, then," said the magician, "come with me to-morrow, and,
after clothing you handsomely, we will open the shop."

Soon after supper the stranger took his leave. On the next day he
bought the boy his promised clothes, and entertained him with a
company of merchants at his inn. When he brought Aladdin home to his
mother at night, she called down many blessings on his head for all
his kindness.

Early the next morning the magician came fo