fear not knowing where they
went.

Mohandas was greatly frightened at all this; but Shekh Farid explained
everything to him, so he went on to the palace, and the fakir went
too. There Mohandas asked Dumkas Raja to give him his daughter as his
wife, and the Raja consented. So he was married to Champakali Rani,
and her father gave them a great many elephants, and horses, and
camels, and a great deal of money and many jewels. And Mohandas and
his wife set off with the fakir to his father Fakir-achand's house,
and they took all the elephants, camels, horses, money and jewels with
them. On the way Mohandas told Champakali Rani that he was not a great
Raja's son, but the son of poor people. Champakali's heart was very
sad at this; however, she was not angry, only sorry.

When they reached Hamansa Raja's country, and had come to
Fakir-achand's house, the fakir said to Mohandas's mother, "See, you
lent me one child, and I have brought you back two children. Does this
please you?" "Indeed it does please me," she answered; "I am very
happy."

They built a beautiful palace and all lived in it together. The mother
begged Shekh Farid to stay with them, saying, "Only stay with us; I
will give you a bungalow, and you shall have everything you want." But
Shekh Farid said, "I am a fakir, and so cannot stay with you, as I may
never stay in one place, and must, instead, wander from country to
country and from jungle to jungle." So he said good-bye to them and
went on his wanderings, and never returned to them.

Mohandas, his wife, and his father and mother, all lived happily
together.

Told by Dunkni.

[Decoration]

XVII.

THE MOUSE.

There was a mouse who wanted something to eat; so he went to a garden,
where many kinds of grain, and fruit, and cabbages, and other
vegetables were growing. All round the garden the people to whom it
belonged had planted a hedge of thorns, that nothing might get in. The
mouse scrambled through the hedge, but great thorns pierced his tail,
and he began to cry. He came out of the garden again through the
hedge, and on his way home he met a barber.

"You must take out these thorns," said he to the barber.

"I cannot," said the barber, "without cutting off your tail with my
razor."

"Never mind cutting off my tail," said the mouse.

The barber cut off the mouse's tail. But the mouse was in a rage. He
seized the razor and ran away with it. At this the poor barber was
very unhappy