returned to his father's house; he went up, and his father said to
him:

"Welcome! O my handsome son.
What merchandise of women have you made?"
"My father, I bring you a handsome ring,
I bring it for your reward;
It cost me neither city nor castle,
But the most beautiful woman you have ever seen:
The daughter of the Sultan, who is in Turkey,
Her I bring for my first cargo!"

"Ah, you miserable knave!" cried his father. "Is this the cargo you have
brought?" He ill-treated them both, and drove them from the house. Those
poor unfortunate ones did not know where to find shelter. They went
away, and at a short distance from their town there were some rooms at a
villa. They went to live in one of those. He said: "What shall we do
here? I do not know how to do anything; I have no profession or
business!" She said: "Now I can paint beautiful pictures; I will paint
them, and you shall go and sell them!" He said: "Very well!" "But,
remember, you must tell no one that I paint them!" "No, no!" he said.

Now let us go to Turkey. The Sultan, meanwhile, had sent out many
vessels in search of his daughter. These ships went here and there in
quest of her. Now it happened that one of these vessels arrived in the
town near where she lived, and many of the sailors went on land. Now one
day the husband said to his wife: "Make many pictures, for to-day we
shall sell them!" She made them, and said to him that he should not sell
them for less than twenty _scudi_ apiece. She made a great many, and he
carried them to the public square. Some of the Turks came there; they
gave a glance at the paintings, and said to themselves: "Surely, it must
be the Sultan's daughter who has painted these." They came nearer, and
asked the young man how he sold them. He said they were dear; that he
could not let them go for less than twenty _scudi_. They said: "Very
well! we will buy them; but we want some more." He answered: "Come to
the house of my wife who makes them!" They went there, and when they saw
the Sultan's daughter, they seized her, bound her, and carried her far
away to Turkey. This husband, then, unhappy, without wife, without a
trade, alone in that house, what could he do?

Every day he walked along the beach, to see if he could find a ship
that would take him on board; but he never saw any. One day he saw an
old man fishing in a little boat; he cried: "Good old man, how much
better off you are than I!" The ol