should arrive to claim
it; but, in order to make sure that the claimant was really the son, he
was not to deliver up the property until the applicant had proved his
wisdom by performing three ingenious actions. Shortly after having given
his friend these injunctions the merchant died, and the melancholy
intelligence was duly transmitted to his son, who in the course of a few
weeks left Jerusalem to claim his property. On reaching the town where
his father's friend resided, he began to inquire of the people where his
house was situated, and, finding no one who could, or would, give him
this necessary information, the youth was in sore perplexity how to
proceed in his quest, when he observed a man carrying a heavy load of
firewood. "How much for that wood?" he cried. The man readily named his
price. "Thou shalt have it," said the stranger. "Carry it to the house
of ---- [naming his father's friend], and I will follow thee." Well
satisfied to have found a purchaser on his own terms, the man at once
proceeded as he was desired, and on arriving at the house he threw down
his load before the door. "What is all this?" demanded the master. "I
have not ordered any wood." "Perhaps not," said the man; "but the person
behind me has bought it, and desired me to bring it hither." The
stranger had now come up, and, saluting the master of the house, told
him who he was, and explained that, since he could not ascertain where
his house was situated by inquiries of people in the streets, he had
adopted this expedient, which had succeeded. The master praised the
young man's ingenuity, and led him into the house.

When the several members of the family, together with the stranger, were
assembled round the dinner-table, the master of the house, in order to
test the stranger's ingenuity, desired his guest to carve a dish
containing five chickens, and to distribute a portion to each of the
persons who were present--namely, the master and mistress, their two
daughters and two sons, and himself. The young stranger acquitted
himself of the duty in this manner: One of the chickens he divided
between the master and the mistress; another between the two daughters;
the third between the two sons; and the remaining two he took for his
own share. "This visitor of mine," thought the master, "is a curious
carver; but I will try him once more at supper."

Various amusements made the afternoon pass very agreeably to the
stranger, until supper-time, when