THE BOY JUDGE1

(Here is another story from The Arabian Nights, retold by James Baldwin, whom you will remember as the author of The Story of the Golden Age, The Story of Siegfried, The Story of Roland, The Horse Fair, and other delightful books.)

IN

IN THE days of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid,* there lived in Bagdad a merchant whose name was Ali Cogia.* He had been very successful in business, and at length decided to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He therefore disposed of his shop and merchandise, rented his dwelling house, and made ready to join the next caravan to the holy city of Arabia.

Now he had a thousand pieces of gold over and above the sum he had set aside for his pilgrimage; and not knowing what else to do with them, he put them in a jar and then filled it with olives. The next day he carried the jar to a merchant named Hassan,* who was his friend.

"Brother," he said, "you know that I am about to start to Mecca. Here is a jar of olives which I beg you to take care of till my return.

Hassan answered: "Certainly, my friend. Here is the key to my warehouse. Carry the jar thither yourself, and place it where you choose. As you leave it, so shall you find it."

Ali Cogia therefore set his jar on a shelf in his friend's warehouse, and soon afterwards started to Mecca. He made the pilgrimage in safety, and then, desiring to see still more of the world, he journeyed to many other famous cities, and then proceeded to India. Thus seven years passed before he set his face homeward.

Meanwhile the jar of olives stood in its place in the warehouse of the merchant Hassan, who had almost forgotten his friend Ali Cogia. But one evening, about the time that Ali Cogia was returning to Bagdad, Hassan was eating supper with his wife when she happened to speak of olives.

'From Baldwin and Bender's Seventh Reader. Copyrighted by the American Book Company.

"You know I am so fond of them," she said, "and now I have not tasted one for more than a year!"

"Well, well!" said Hassan, "that reminds me of something. When Ali Cogia went to Mecca he left a jar of olives in my charge. Seven years have now passed, and nobody has heard from him. He is no doubt dead and will never return to claim his olives. Give me a dish and a light, and I will go and fetch some. I think we might as well eat them."

"But, Hassan, will that be honest?" said his wife. "A trust should be regarded, whether for a long time or a short. We have left the olives alone these seven years, and can't we do without them still? Think no more about them."

Hassan would not listen to the words of his wife. He found for himself a lamp and a dish, and started out. Again his wife warned him: "Remember, Hassan, that I have no share in what you are about to do."

Hassan laughed and went straightway to his warehouse. When he had opened the jar, he found that the olives were spoiled. Hoping that some good ones might remain towards the bottom, he emptied the jar upon the floor, and to his great surprise, a number of gold pieces fell out.

Now, Hassan was not uncommonly honest. He put the money in a bag which he hid carefully away, returned the rotted olives to the jar, and quitted the warehouse.

"O wife," he said, "you were right about those olives; they are all spoiled. So I put the cover on the jar again, so that Ali Cogia, if he returns, will never notice that it has been touched."

"You did wisely," answered his wife; "but you would have done better still if you had never meddled with the olives."

Hassan lay awake all night, planning what he would do with the gold. In the morning he went out very early and bought a quantity of fresh, sound olives of that year's growth. Returning to his warehouse, he threw away the old olives and

filled the jar with the fresh. Then he covered it as it had been before, and set it in its place.

Not long after this Ali Cogia arrived at home, much to the surprise of his friends. The next day he went to see his friend Hassan, and the two spent a pleasant hour together. Then, at length, Ali Cogia said,

"Brother, you remember the jar of olives which I left with you. I will now trouble you for it again."

"Yes, certainly," said Hassan. "I had really forgotten about it. But it stands just where you placed it. As you left it, so you find it."

Ali Cogia thanked him and carried the jar to the inn where he was staying. He shut the door of his room, took a large dish, and poured the olives into it. What was his astonishment when he found no gold, but only olives! "Is it possible that the man whom I trusted has robbed me?" he cried.

He hastened back to the merchant's house. "O Hassan,' he said, "there were a thousand pieces of gold in that jar when I left it with you; but when I emptied it just now, there was nothing but olives."

"Indeed!" answered Hassan. "What do I know about any gold? You said that the jar contained olives. And as you left it, so you found it."

Then Ali Cogia besought him to confess that he had taken the money; but he angrily denied having so much as touched the jar, and was finally about to drive his old friend from his door.

Some of the neighbors, hearing loud words between the two men, came forward and tried to pacify them. "Refer the matter to the cadi," they said.

So to the cadi they went.

"This man, Hassan, has stolen a thousand pieces of gold which I intrusted to him," said Ali Cogia; and he told the whole story of the jar.

"Have you any witnesses?" asked the cadi.

Ali Cogia answered that he had not taken the precaution to have any, because he had firmly trusted in his friend's honesty.

Then the cadi bade Hassan state his side of the case. The merchant thereupon declared that he had neither taken the gold nor so much as opened the jar; and he offered to take an oath to that effect. The cadi accepted the oath and dismissed Hassan as innocent.

II

Ali Cogia was not at all satisfied with the cadi's decision. He drew up a petition to the caliph, Haroun-al-Raschid, and contrived to have it presented to him. The caliph read the petition carefully, pondered upon it, and then commanded that both Ali Cogia and Hassan should appear before him the following morning.

That same evening the caliph, with his friend Jaffar,* went out in disguise for a stroll through the city. As he was walking down a back street, he heard a clamor of children's voices in a vacant yard, and looking in, saw several small boys at play.

"See, Jaffar," he said. "You and I often played together in that way when we were boys. Let us wait here by the wall and watch those little fellows a while."

So they sat down on a stone bench, and looked at the boys playing in the moonlight.

Presently one of the lads said, "Let's play Cadi's Court, boys."

"Yes! yes!" cried the others. "That will be great fun. Who will be the cadi?”

"I will," answered the boy who had proposed the game. "I am the cadi. Now bring before me Ali Cogia and the merchant who stole the gold pieces from him."

At hearing this the caliph whispered to Jaffar, "Now we're

going to have some rare sport. Perhaps I will learn a lesson in judgment"; and he smiled and stroked his beard.

The boy cadi took his seat with great pomp and dignity. Then his chief officer led forward two other boys whom he presented as Ali Cogia and Hassan.

The boy cadi spoke and said, "O Ali Cogia! wherefore comest thou before me? What is thy complaint?"

The boy Ali Cogia bent low, and told the story of the jar and the olives and the gold. After this the boy cadi demanded of the boy Hassan why he had not returned the jar of olives as he had found it. The boy Hassan declared that he had really done so; no one had so much as opened the jar, and he was ready to take oath that such was true.

Here Haroun, the caliph, jogged the elbow of Jaffar and whispered, "Now see what will happen.'

"Not so fast, Hassan!" said the boy cadi. "Before you take any oath, I wish to see and taste some of those olives. Hast thou brought the jar with thee, Ali Cogia?"

The boy Ali Cogia answered that he had not. The boy cadi therefore bade him run and fetch it, which he did without delay.

Not to omit any formality, the boy cadi then said, "Hassan, dost thou admit that this is the veritable° jar that was left with thee?"

"Yes," said the boy Hassan, "I do."

"Open it then, Ali Cogia."

The boy Ali Cogia obeyed.

Then said the boy cadi, looking into the jar, "The jar is indeed quite full of olives, and it appears that none have been taken out. I will taste some of them. Ah! they are fine; but rather fresh to have been in this jar seven years. Go! bring hither some olive merchants; we much have their opinion."

Soon two boys came forward who said they were olive merchants.