sea.

How Ali Came to the Black Country

Shooshan the barber went to Shep the maker of teeth to discuss the
state of England. They agreed that it was time to send for Ali.

So Shooshan stepped late that night from the little shop near Fleet
Street and made his way back again to his house in the ends of London
and sent at once the message that brought Ali.

And Ali came, mostly on foot, from the country of Persia, and it took
him a year to come; but when he came he was welcome.

And Shep told Ali what was the matter with England and Shooshan swore
that it was so, and Ali looking out of the window of the little shop
near Fleet Street beheld the ways of London and audibly blessed King
Solomon and his seal.

When Shep and Shooshan heard the names of King Solomon and his seal
both asked, as they had scarcely dared before, if Ali had it. Ali
patted a little bundle of silks that he drew from his inner raiment.
It was there.

Now concerning the movements and courses of the stars and the
influence on them of spirits of Earth and devils this age has been
rightly named by some The Second Age of Ignorance. But Ali knew. And
by watching nightly, for seven nights in Bagdad, the way of certain
stars he had found out the dwelling place of Him they Needed.

Guided by Ali all three set forth for the Midlands. And by the
reverence that was manifest in the faces of Shep and Shooshan towards
the person of Ali, some knew what Ali carried, while others said that
it was the tablets of the Law, others the name of God, and others that
he must have a lot of money about him. So they passed Slod and Apton.

And at last they came to the town for which Ali sought, that spot over
which he had seen the shy stars wheel and swerve away from their
orbits, being troubled. Verily when they came there were no stars,
though it was midnight. And Ali said that it was the appointed place.
In harems in Persia in the evening when the tales go round it is still
told how Ali and Shep and Shooshan came to the Black country.

When it was dawn they looked upon the country and saw how it was
without doubt the appointed place, even as Ali had said, for the earth
had been taken out of pits and burned and left lying in heaps, and
there were many factories, and they stood over the town and as it were
rejoiced. And with one voice Shep and Shooshan gave praise to Ali.

And Ali said that the great ones of the place must needs be gathered
together, and to t