Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 5.djvu/3

tell him my Adventure which I did, and then deſired him to let me have an Apartment until I were cured: But, Sir, ſays he, won’t it be more convenient for you to go Home? I will not return thither, ſaid I, for the deteſtable Barber will continue plaguing me there, and I ſhall die of Vexation to be continually teaz’d by him. Beſides, after what has befallen me to Day, I cannot think of ſtaying any longer in this Town, I muſt go whither my ill Fortune leads me: And actually, when I was cur’d, I took all the Money I thought neceſſary for my Travels, and gave the reſt of my Eſtate among my Kindred.

Thus, Gentlemen, I left Bagdad, and came hither. I had Ground to hope that I ſhould not meet this pernicious Barber in a Country ſo far from my own, and yet I found him amongſt you: Don’t be ſurpriz’d then at my Haſte to be gone, you may eaſily judge how unpleaſant to me the Sight of a Man is, who was the occaſion of my Lameneſs, and of my being reduc’d to the melancholy Neceſſity of living ſo far from my Kindred, Friends, and Country. When he had ſpoke theſe Words; the lame young Man roſe up and went out; the Maſter of the Houſe conducted him to the Gate, and told him he was ſorry that he had given him, tho’ innocently, ſo great a Subject of Mortification.

When the young Man was gone, continued the Taylor, we were all aſtoniſh’d at the Story, and turning to the Barber, told him he was very much in the wrong, if what he had juſt now heard were true. Gentlemen, anſwers he, raiſing up his Head, which ’till then he had held down, my Silence during the young Man’s Diſcourſe is enough to teſtify, that he advanced nothing that was not true: But for all that he has ſaid to you, I maintain that I ought to have done what I did; I leave your- ſelves to be Judges of it. Did not he throw himſelf into Danger, and: could he have come off ſo well without my Aſſiſtance? He was too happy to get off with a lame Leg. Did not I expoſe my ſelf into a greater Danger to get him out of an Houſe, where I thought he was ill treated? Has he any Reaſon to complain of me, and to give me fo many bad Words? This is what one gets by ſerving unthankful People. He accuſes me of being a prating Fellow, which is a mere Slan-