ght
hold of him. "You shall decide! You shall decide!" they shouted all
together.

"What is it you wish me to decide?" asked the lad.

Then the men told him they were three brothers, and that when their
father died he had left them these three things,--the turban, the
carpet, and the sword. Whoever placed the turban on his head would at
once become invisible. Whoever sat on the carpet had only to wish
himself wherever he would be, and the carpet would carry him there in
a twinkling, and the sword would cut through anything, and no magic
could stand against it.

"These things should belong to me, because I am the eldest," cried one
of the men.

"No, I should have them because I am the strongest and stoutest," said
the second.

"But I am the youngest and weakest and need them most," cried the
third. They then began to quarrel again and even came to blows.

"Stop, stop," cried the lad. "You said that I should decide this
matter for you, so why quarrel about it? But before I decide I must
try the things and see whether what you have told me is really so."

To this the brothers agreed. First they gave him the sword, and the
lad took it in his hand and aimed a blow at a rock near by, and the
sword cut through the rock as smoothly and easily as though it had
been a piece of cheese.

"Now give me the turban," said the lad.

The brothers gave him the turban, and he placed it upon his head and
at once became invisible!

"Now the carpet."

The brothers spread out the carpet on the ground, and the lad seated
himself upon it with the turban still upon his head and the sword in
his hand! Then he wished himself far away in some place where the
brothers would never find him.

Immediately he found himself in the outskirts of a large city. He
stepped from the carpet and rolled it up and took the turban from his
head and looked about him. He had no idea of going back to return the
things to the brothers, and if they waited for him they waited a long
time. "It will teach them not to quarrel but to live at peace with
each other," said the lad to himself. Then he made his way to the
nearest house, for he was hungry and meant to ask for a bite to eat.

He knocked, and an old woman opened the door, and she was so old that
her chin and her nose met.

"Good day, mother," said the lad.

"Good day to you," answered the crone.

"Will you give me a bite to eat, for the love of charity?"

Yes, the crone would do that. She gave