very sorrowful.

On the fourth day he went to a jungle on the fourth side. All day long
he went from tree to tree, asking each, "May I cut you down?" None
answered. At last, towards evening, he went and stood under a
mango-tree. "May I cut you down?" he said to it. "Yes, cut me down,"
answered the tree. God loved the merchant's son and wished him to grow
a great man, so he ordered the mango-tree to let itself be cut down.

Now the grain merchant's son was happy, for he was quite sure he could
make a bed, if he only had some wood; so he hewed down the mango-tree,
put it on his head, and carried it home. His wife saw him coming, and
said to herself, "He is bringing home a tree! What can he be going to
do with a tree?"

Next morning he took the tree into one of the rooms of his house. He
told his wife to put food and water to last him for a week in this
room, and to make a fire in it. Then he went up to the room, and said
to her, "You are not to come in here for a whole week. You are not to
come near me till I call you." Then he went into the room and shut the
door. The whole week long his wife wondered what he could be doing all
alone in that room. "I cannot see into it," she said to herself, "and
I dare not open the door. I wonder what he is about."

By the end of the week the grain merchant's son had carved a most
beautiful bed out of the mango-tree. Such a beautiful bed had never
been seen. Then he called his wife, and when she came he told her to
open the door, and when she opened it he said, "See what a beautiful
bed I have made." "Did _you_ make that bed?" she said. "Oh, what a
beautiful bed it is! I never saw such a lovely bed!"

He rested that day, and on the day following he took the bed to the
king's palace, and sat down with it before the palace gate. The king's
servants all came to look at the bed. "What a bed it is!" they said.
"Did any one ever see such a bed! It is a beautiful bed. Is it yours?"
they asked the merchant's son. "Is it for sale? Who made it? Did you
make it?" But he said, "I will not answer any of your questions. I
will not speak to any of you. I will only speak to the king." So the
servants went to the king and said to him, "There is a man at your
gate with a most beautiful bed. But he will not speak to any of us,
and says he will only speak to you." "Very good," said the king;
"bring him to me."

When the grain merchant's son came before the king with his bed, the
king asked him, "Is