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being opened, begged for leave to enter and say her prayers there, giving as the reason for the request that she could not reach home in time. She was, she explained, a devotee of mature age, ceremonially clean, and no longer subject to the infirmities of women. The servant told her mistress, who, happy to receive so venerable a visitor, herself came to greet her, and showed her up to a room, where she might perform her devotions.

But the old woman was not easy to please. “ My dear,” she objected, “the men have been smoking in this room. Now, I have just bathed myself and am perfectly pure, but if I took off my yellow boots here my feet would be defiled.”

She was taken to a different room. “ Ah, my daughter,” she complained, “meals have been eaten here. My mind would be distracted by carnal things. Have you not some quiet chamber?” “I am sorry,” answered the hostess: “‘ there is no other chamber except our bedroom.” “Take me there,” said the old woman.

When shown the bedroom, she professed herself satisfied, and asked to be left alone at her prayers, promising to include in them the petition that her hostess might bear a son. As soon as she was alone, the old woman hid the parcel containing the silken dress under the pillow of the bed, waited long enough to have said her prayers, and then took her leave, with blessings on the house and its kind owners.

The merchant came home as usual, supped, smoked his pipe, and went to bed. Finding the