nd you can reckon up how
many days you were in his claws. Away with this wretch!"

The two offenders were led away, and the caliph conducted Benezar and
Said to another apartment, where he related to Benezar his rescue by
Said, interrupted by the shrieks of Kalum-Bek, upon the soles of whose
feet a hundred gold pieces of full weight were being counted out.

The caliph invited Benezar to come to Bagdad and live with him and
Said. Benezar consented, and made only one more journey home in order
to fetch his large possessions. Said lived in the palace which the
grateful caliph built for him, like a prince. The caliph's brother and
grand vizier's son were his constant companions; and it soon became a
proverb in Bagdad: "I would that I were as good and as fortunate as
Said, the son of Benezar."

"I could keep awake for two or three nights without experiencing the
least sensation of sleepiness, with such entertainment," said
the compass-maker, when the huntsman had concluded. "And I have
often proved the truth of what I say. I was once apprentice to a
bell-founder. The master was a rich man and no miser, and therefore our
wonder was all the more aroused on a certain occasion, when we had a
big job on hand, by a display of parsimony on his part. A bell was
being cast for a new church, and we apprentices had to sit up all night
and keep the fire up. We did not doubt that the master would tap a cask
of the best wine for us. But we were mistaken. He began to talk about
his travels, and to tell all manner of stories of his life; then the
head apprentice's turn came, and so on through the whole row of us, and
none of us got sleepy, so intent were we all in listening. Before we
knew it, day was at hand. Then we perceived the master's stratagem of
keeping us awake by telling stories; for when the bell was done he did
not spare his wine, but brought out what he had wisely saved on those
nights."

"He was a sensible man," said the student. "There is no remedy for
sleepiness like conversation. And I should not have cared to sit alone
to-night, for about eleven o'clock I should have succumbed to sleep."

"The peasantry have found that out also," said the huntsman. "In
the long Winter evenings the women and girls do not remain alone at
home to spin, lest they should fall asleep in the middle of their task;
but a large number of them meet together, in a well-lighted room, and
tell stories over their work."

"Yes," added the wagon