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 Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:42 pm
[lays down on the floor and listens intently] Ooh! Interesting story!
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:43 pm
Then he got up and took a road that led straight past the palace, but he had not walked many steps before he met a man carrying a large silver dish, covered with a white cloth to cover the dates. And the young man said, `The dates are not ripe yet; you must return to-morrow.'
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:43 pm
Why must everything eat all the dates? -gasps-
yea yea congrats Jebbidiah Badcock
o.o so what happens next in the story?
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:45 pm
And the slave went with him to the palace, where the sultan was sitting with his four sons. `Greetings, master!' said the youth. The sultan answered, `Have you seen the man I sent?'
`I have, master; but the dates are not yet ripe.' But the sultan did not believe his words, and said; `This second year I have eaten no dates, because of my sons. Go your ways, you are my son no longer!'
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:46 pm
And the sultan looked at the four sons that were left him, and promised rich gifts to whichever of them would bring him the dates from the tree. But year by year passed, and he never got them.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:48 pm
One son tried to keep himself awake with playing cards; another mounted a horse and rode round and round the tree, while the two others, whom their father as a last hope sent together, lit bonfires. But whatever they did, the result was always the same. Towards dawn they fell asleep, and the bird ate the dates on the tree.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:49 pm
The sixth year had come, and the dates on the tree were thicker than ever. And the vizier went to the palace and told the sultan what he had seen. But the sultan only shook his head, and said sadly, `What is that to me? I have had seven sons, yet for five years a bird has devoured my dates; and this year it will be the same as ever.'
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:52 pm
Now the youngest son was sitting in the kitchen, as was his custom, when he heard his father say those words. And he rose up, and went to his father, and knelt before him. `Father, this year you shall eat dates,' cried he.
`And on the tree are five great bunches, and each bunch I will give to a separate nation, for the nations in the town are five. This time, I will watch the date tree myself.' But his father and his mother laughed heartily, and thought his words idle talk.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:55 pm
One day, news was brought to the sultan that the dates were ripe, and he ordered one of his men to go and watch the tree. His son, who happened to be standing by heard the order and he said, `How is it that you have bid a man to watch the tree, when I, your son, am left?'
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:56 pm
gonk But how will the youngest son do it? -twiddles her thumbs and waits- gonk
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:00 pm
The sultan answered, `Ah, six were of no use, and where they failed, will you succeed?' The boy replied, `Have patience today, and let me go, and tomorrow you shall see whether I bring you dates or not.'
`Let the child go, my Master,' said the sultan's wife; `perhaps we shall eat the dates -- or perhaps we shall not, but let him go.'
And the sultan answered `I do not refuse to let him go, but my heart distrusts him. His brothers all promised fair, and what did they do?', then he bid the boy away.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:03 pm
When the boy reached the garden, he told the slaves to leave him, and to return home themselves and sleep. When he was alone, he laid himself down and slept fast till one o'clock, when he arose, and sat opposite the date tree. Then he took some Indian corn out of one fold of his dress, and some sandy grit out of another. And he chewed the corn till he felt he was growing sleepy, and then he put some grit into his mouth, and that kept him awake till the bird came.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:06 pm
Oh..I see I see -eats her popcorn-
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:06 pm
The bird looked about at first without seeing the son, and whispered to itself, `There is no one here,' fluttered lightly on to the tree and stretched out his beak for the dates. Seeing this the boy stole softly up, and caught it by the wing. The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not even when they soared high into the air!
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:08 pm
`Son of Adam,' the bird said when the tops of the mountains looked small below them, `if you fall, you will be dead long before you reach the ground, so go your way, and let me go mine.'
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