Aladdin showed the African magician the house, and carried the two
pieces of gold to his mother, who went out and bought provisions; and
considering she wanted various utensils, borrowed them of her
neighbours. 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 her to show him the place where his
brother Mustapha used to sit on the sofa; and when she had so done, 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 to 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 made choice of a place, and sat down, he began to
enter into discourse with Aladdin's mother. "My good sister," said he,
"do not be surprised at your never having seen me all the time you have
been married to my brother Mustapha of happy memory. I have been forty
years absent from this country, which is my native place, as well as my
late brother's; and during that time have travelled into the Indies,
Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, and afterward crossed over into
Africa, where I took up my abode. At last, as it is natural for a man, I
was desirous to see my native country again, and to embrace my dear
brother; and finding I had strength enough to undertake so long a
journey, I made the necessary preparations, and set out. Nothing ever
afflicted me so much as hearing of my brother's death. But God be
praised for all things! It is a comfort for me to find, as it were, my
brother in a son, who has his most remarkable features."

The African magician perceiving that the widow wept at the remembrance
of her husband, changed the conversation, and turning toward her son,
asked him, "What business do you follow? Are you of any trade?"

At this question the youth hung down his head, and was not a little
abashed when his