ee laden with delicious fruit, he climbed up among
the branches and began to help himself.

Whilst he was eating the apricots the owner of the garden came in and
discovered him.

"What are you doing up there, Khoja?" said he.

"O my soul!" said the Khoja, "I am not the person you imagine me to be.
Do you not see that I am a nightingale? I am singing in the
apricot-tree."

"Let me hear you sing," said the gardener.

The Khoja began to trill like a bird; but the noise he made was so
uncouth that the man burst out laughing.

"What kind of a song is this?" said he. "I never heard a nightingale's
note like that before."

[Illustration: THE KHOJA SINGS.]

"It is not the voice of a native songster," said the Khoja demurely,
"but the foreign nightingale sings so."

_Tale_ 16.--The Khoja's Donkey and The Woollen Pelisse.

One day the Khoja mounted his donkey to ride to the garden, but on the
way there he had business which obliged him to dismount and leave the
donkey for a short time.

When he got down he took off his woollen pelisse, and throwing it over
the saddle, went about his affairs. But he had hardly turned his back
when a thief came by who stole the woollen pelisse, and made off with
it.

When the Khoja returned and found that the pelisse was gone, he became
greatly enraged, and beat the donkey with his stick. Then, dragging the
saddle from the poor beast's back, he put it on his own shoulders,
crying, "Find my pelisse, you careless rascal, and then you shall have
your saddle again!"

_Tale_ 17.--A Ladder To Sell.

There was a certain garden into which the Khoja was desirous to enter,
but the gate was fastened, and he could not.

One day, therefore, he took a ladder upon his shoulder, and repaired to
the place, where he put the ladder against the garden-wall, and having
climbed to the top, drew the ladder over, and by this means descended
into the garden.

As he was prying about in came the gardener.

"Who are you?" said he to the Khoja. "And what do you want?"

"I sell ladders," replied the Khoja, running hastily back to the wall,
and throwing the ladder once more upon his shoulders.

[Illustration: THE KHOJA TRESPASSES.]

"Come, come!" said the gardener, "that answer will not do. This is not a
place for selling ladders."

"You must be very ignorant," replied the Khoja gravely, "if you do not
know that ladders are salable anywhere."

_Tale_ 18.--The Cat and the Khoja's Supper.

The