it that you have bidden a man to watch the tree, when I, your
son, am left?'

And his father answered, 'Ah, six were of no use, and where they failed,
will you succeed?'

But the boy replied: 'Have patience to-day, and let me go, and to-morrow
you shall see whether I bring you dates or not.'

'Let the child go, Master,' said his wife; 'perhaps we shall eat the
dates--or perhaps we shall not--but let him go.'

And the sultan answered: 'I do not refuse to let him go, but my heart
distrusts him. His brothers all promised fair, and what did they do?'

But the boy entreated, saying, 'Father, if you and I and mother be alive
to-morrow, you shall eat the dates.'

'Go then,' said his father.

When the boy reached the garden, he told the slaves to leave him, and
to return home themselves and sleep. When he was alone, he laid himself
down and slept fast till one o'clock, when he arose, and sat opposite
the date tree. Then he took some Indian corn out of one fold of his
dress, and some sandy grit out of another.

And he chewed the corn till he felt he was growing sleepy, and then
he put some grit into his mouth, and that kept him awake till the bird
came.

It looked about at first without seeing him, and whispering to itself,
'There is no one here,' fluttered lightly on to the tree and stretched
out his beak for the dates. Then the boy stole softly up, and caught it
by the wing.

The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not
even when they soared high into the air.

'Son of Adam,' the bird said when the tops of the mountains looked small
below them, 'if you fall, you will be dead long before you reach the
ground, so go your way, and let me go mine.'

But the boy answered, 'Wherever you go, I will go with you. You cannot
get rid of me.'

'I did not eat your dates,' persisted the bird, 'and the day is dawning.
Leave me to go my way.'

But again the boy answered him: 'My six brothers are hateful to my
father because you came and stole the dates, and to-day my father shall
see you, and my brothers shall see you, and all the people of the town,
great and small, shall see you. And my father's heart will rejoice.'

'Well, if you will not leave me, I will throw you off,' said the bird.

So it flew up higher still--so high that the earth shone like one of the
other stars.

'How much of you will be left if you fall from here?' asked the bird.

'If I die, I die,' said the boy, 'but I will not lea