ours' flight, "with
your permission I shall have to stop. You fly much too fast! And it is
now evening, and we should do well to look out for a place on which to
alight for the night."

Chasid harkened to the request of his follower, and, perceiving a ruin
that promised to afford a shelter, they flew down to it. The place they
had selected for the night bore the appearance of having once been a
castle. Beautiful columns rose out of the ruins, while several rooms
still in a fair state of preservation, testified to the former splendor
of the building. Chasid and his companion strolled through the
passages, seeking some dry sheltered spot, when suddenly the stork
Mansor stopped.

"Sire," whispered he softly, "I wish it were not so unbecoming in a
Grand Vizier, and even more in a stork, to fear ghosts! My courage is
fast failing me, for near here there was a distinct sound of sighing
and groaning!"

The Caliph also stopped, and very plainly heard a low sobbing that
seemed to proceed from a human being, rather than from an animal. Full
of curiosity, he was about to approach the place whence the sounds
came, when the Vizier caught him by the wing with his bill, and begged
him most earnestly not to plunge into new and unknown dangers. All in
vain! for the Caliph, who even under a stork's wing, carried a stout
heart, tore himself away with the loss of a few feathers, and hastened
into a dark passage. He shortly came to a door, through which he
plainly heard sighs intermingled with low groans. He pushed open the
door with his bill, but remained standing on the threshold in surprise.

In the ruined room, lighted but dimly by a small lattice window, he saw
a large owl sitting on the floor. Large tears fell from its great round
eyes, while in passionate tones it poured forth its complaints from its
curved beak. But when the owl saw the Caliph and his Vizier, who by
this time had stolen up, it raised a loud cry of joy. Daintily brushing
the tears from its eyes with the brown spotted wings, it exclaimed in
pure human Arabic, to the wonder of the listeners:

"Welcome, storks! You are a good omen, as it was once prophecied that
storks would be the bearers of good fortune to me."

As soon as the Caliph had sufficiently recovered from his astonishment,
he made a bow with his long neck, brought his slender feet into a
graceful position, and said--

"O owl of the night! from your words I believe I see in you a companion
in misfort