possibilities. You please yourself. Follow your unquiet spirit. You'll
soon return, and I shall sleep soundly enough awaiting you."

So the man of ambition, or the money-grubber, whichever you like to call
him, took to the road, and arrived next day at a place where, if
anywhere, Dame Fortune should be found, namely, the court. He stayed at
court for some long time, never missing an opportunity to put himself in
the way of favours. He was in evidence when the king went to bed, when
he arose, and on all other propitious occasions.

"What's amiss?" he said at last. "Fortune, I am convinced, dwells here;
for I have seen her the guest now of this one and now of that one. How
is it that I cannot entertain the capricious creature? I must try her
elsewhere. I have already been told that the people of this place are
exceedingly ambitious. Evidently there is no room for me here. So,
adieu! gentleman of the court, and follow to the bitter end this
will-o'-the-wisp! They tell me that Dame Fortune has temples in Surat.
Very well! We will go there."

He embarked at once. What hearts of bronze have humankind! The man who
first attempted this awful route and defied its terrors must have had a
heart of adamant. Often did our traveller turn his eyes towards his
little home as first pirates, then contrary winds, then calms, then
rocks--all agents of death--in turn assailed him. Strange it is that men
should take such pains to meet death, since it will come only too
quickly to them in their homes!

Our adventurer arrived in India. There they told him that Japan was the
place where Fortune dispensed her favours. He hurried there. The sea
wearied of carrying him about. In the end all the profit his long