ALAEDDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP.



It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that there dwelt in a city
of the cities of China a man which was a tailor, withal a pauper,
and he had one son, Alaeddin hight. Now this boy had been from
his babyhood a ne'er-do-well, a scapegrace; and, when he reached
his tenth year, his father inclined to teach him his own trade;
and, for that he was over indigent to expend money upon his
learning other work or craft or apprenticeship, he took the lad
into his shop that he might be taught tailoring. But, as Alaeddin
was a scapegrace and a ne'er-do-well and wont to play at all
times with the gutter boys of the quarter, he would not sit in
the shop for a single day; nay, he would await his father's
leaving it for some purpose, such as to meet a creditor, when he
would run off at once and fare forth to the gardens with the
other scapegraces and low companions, his fellows. Such was his
case; counsel and castigation were of no avail, nor would he obey
either parent in aught or learn any trade; and presently, for his
sadness and sorrowing because of his son's vicious indolence, the
tailor sickened and died. Alaeddin continued in his former ill
courses and, when his mother saw that her spouse had deceased,
and that her son was a scapegrace and good for nothing at
all[FN#66] she sold the shop and whatso was to be found therein
and fell to spinning cotton yarn. By this toilsome industry she
fed herself and found food for her son Alaeddin the scapegrace
who, seeing himself freed from bearing the severities of his
sire, increased in idleness and low habits; nor would he ever
stay at home save at meal-hours while his miserable wretched