utiful cloths and sold them at high prices.
Gradually the city became famous for her beautiful stuffs, the old
fakir's lame leg became straighter and stronger, and the hole under
the floor of the hut where they kept their money became fuller and
fuller of gold pieces. At last, one day, the princess said:

[Illustration: IMANI ATTENDS TO THE CRIPPLED FAKIR]

'I really think we have got enough to live in greater comfort.' And
she sent for builders, and they built a beautiful house for her and
the old fakir, and in all the city there was none finer except the
king's palace. Presently this reached the ears of the king, and when
he inquired whose it was they told him that it belonged to his
daughter.

'Well,' exclaimed the king, 'she said that she would make her own
fortune, and somehow or other she seems to have done it!'

A little while after this, business took the king to another country,
and before he went he asked his elder daughter what she would like him
to bring her back as a gift.

'A necklace of rubies,' answered she. And then the king thought he
would like to ask Imani too; so he sent a messenger to find out what
sort of a present she wanted. The man happened to arrive just as she
was trying to disentangle a knot in her loom, and bowing low before
her, he said:

'The king sends me to inquire what you wish him to bring you as a
present from the country of Dur?' But Imani, who was only considering
how she could best untie the knot without breaking the thread,
replied:

'Patience!' meaning that the messenger should wait till she was able
to attend to him. But the messenger went off with this as an answer,
and told the king that the only thing the princess Imani wanted was
'patience.'

'Oh!' said the king, 'I don't know whether that's a thing to be bought
at Dur; I never had it myself, but if it is to be got I will buy it
for her.'

Next day the king departed on his journey, and when his business at
Dur was completed he bought for Kupti a beautiful ruby necklace. Then
he said to a servant:

'The princess Imani wants some patience. I did not know there was such
a thing, but you must go to the market and inquire, and if any is to
be sold, get it and bring it to me.'

The servant saluted and left the king's presence. He walked about the
market for some time crying: 'Has anyone patience to sell? patience to
sell?' And some of the people mocked, and some (who had no patience)
told him to go away and not