TWILIGHT LAND

trouble to be told that others have been in a like case
with one’s self.

So, by-and-by, Abdallah plucked up some spirit, and,
saddling his ass and shouldering his axe, started off to the
woods for a bundle of fagots.

Misfortunes, they say, never come singly, and so it
seemed to be with the fagot-maker that day; for that
happened that had never happened to him before—he
lost his way in the woods. On he went, deeper and
deeper into the thickets, driving his ass before him, be-
wailing himself and rapping his head with his knuckles.
But all his sorrowing helped him nothing, and by the
time that night fell he found himself deep in the midst of .
a great forest full of wild beasts, the very thought of which
curdled his blood. He had had nothing to eat all. day
long, and now the only resting-place left him was the
branches of some tree. So, unsaddling his ass and leav-
ing it to shift for itself, he climbed to and roosted himself
in the crotch of a great limb.

In spite of his hunger he presently fell asleep, for
trouble breeds weariness as it breeds grief.

About the dawning of the day he was awakened by the
sound of voices and the glaring of lights. He craned his
neck and looked down, and there he saw a sight that
filled him with amazement: three old men riding each
upon a milk-white horse and each bearing a lighted
torch in his hand, to light the way through the dark
forest.

When they had come just below where Abdallah sat,
they dismounted and fastened their several horses to as
many trees. Then he who rode first of the three, and

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