152 LITTLE WHITEBEARD THE SHOEMAKER KING

mollah did his best to teach me, but I got so little
food that I did not make very rapid progress.
Indeed, had it not been for the kindness of Gulchin,
the money-changer’s daughter, I should very
probably have sunk under the miseries I endured.
Often I determined to run away, but I was prevented
by my affection for Gulchin; and as we advanced
in years we became united by ties of more than
brotherly and sisterly affection.

“Tt is difficult to say in what capacity I was
brought up. I was treated as a slave—frequently
as a child of the house, and as I grew older the
money-changer placed more confidence in me than
in any one else. At the proper time I was debarred
from seeing Gulchin, for she then was shut up in
the harem, whilst I became a man; but at this
juncture her father died, and to my great grief |
was separated from her. She was conveyed to the
house of her uncle, with whom she lived, and then
it was only with great difficulty that I could
communicate with her. The money - changer’s

brothers did not care to inherit me as a possession,