u lillah_!' Now a hundred piastres in the land
of the faithful, where the sand is and the palms grow, is equal
to a dollar in the land of Jonathan: and the expression he
concluded his sentence with is equivalent to--Praise be to
Allah!

Along came a blind fakir begging; then ACHMET gave him five
paras, although his charity was unseen; neither did he want it
to be seen, for he said to himself,--

'Do good and throw it into the sea--if the fishes don't know it,
God will.'

And as he handed the poor blind fakir the small coin, he said to
him, in a soothing voice,--

'_Fa'keer_' (which in the Arabic means poor fellow), 'the nest
of a blind bird is made by Allah.'

Then along came SULIMAN BEY, who was high in office in the land
of Egypt, and was wealthy, and powerful, and very much hated and
feared. And ACHMET bowed down before him, and performed
obeisance in the manner of the Turks, touching his own hand to
his lips, his breast, his head:--and the SULIMAN BEY went
proudly on. Then ACHMET smiled, and YUSEF, who had a stall in
the bazaar opposite to him, winked to ACHMET, saying, in a low
voice,--

'Kiss ardently the hands which you can not cut off:'--

and they smiled grimly one unto the other.

'Did you hear the music in the Esbekieh garden yesterday?' asked
YUSEF of ACHMET. 'I think it was horrible.'

'It cost nothing to hear it,' quoth ACHMET: 'there was no charge
made.'

'_Aio_! true,' answered YUSEF; 'but there were too many drums; I
wouldn't have one if I were Pacha.'

'Welcome even pitch, if it is gratis.'

'Wanting to make the eyebrows right, pull out the eyes,' said
ACHMET, contentedly. 'And as for your disliking the music,--A
cucumber being given to a poor man, he did not accept it because
it was crooked!'--'Come, let us shut up shop and go to the
mosque. It is fated that we sell no goods to-day. _Wajadna
bira'hmat allah ra'hah_--By the grace of Allah we have found
repose!'

* * * * *

Our correspondent gives us a pun in our last number over again. It is
none the worse, however, for its new coat, as set forth in

GETTING AHEAD OF TIME.

'Well now, I declare, this is too bad. Here it is five minutes
past ten and BUDDEN ain't here. Did anybody ever know that man
to keep an engagement?'

'Yes,' r