No New Thing (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. DISTRUST. Once upon a time there dwelt in the East a king so mighty and wealthy that he was the envy of all mankind. He had armies and palaces and treasure-houses, and shady gardens, where fountains rose and fell all the day long, and where neither roses nor bulbuls were lacking; not to mention sherbet, and jewels innumerable, and a plurality of wives?in short, all that the Oriental mind could find to desire. And this made him sad; for he was a thoughtful monarch, and he soon found out that the fact of having nothing left to wish for is not only insufficient to rende'r kings happy, but is apt to have a precisely opposite effect upon them. Therefore he summoned the wise men of his kingdom, one by one, and demanded of each of them privately how happiness might be gained. And some said one thing, and some said another; but the inquirer could find no suggestion to satisfy him till it came to the turn of a certaindervish to be heard. ' Happiness, 0 King, ' said this holy man, ' belongs not to our world; but I have with me a talisman which, if a man will but consent to wear it next his skin for a twelvemonth, will assuredly confer upon him as near an approach thereto as is obtainable by mortals.' And so, permission having been asked and given, he proceeded to place this wondrous charm upon his master's person. It consisted of a collar and a waistband, loosely united by a strip of leather so arranged as to follow the line of the wearer's backbone, and to the middle of this strip was affixed a good stout thorn. The thorn pierced his Majesty's august skin, and he smiled graciously, for he thought he had divined the dervish's meaning. For a year he wore the talisman; and it caused him all the suffering and inconvenience imaginable. He could not bow without receiving a sh...