Story of the Split-Mouthed Schoolmaster.137

Story of the Split-Mouthed Schoolmaster.137

I also began life, O King of the Age, as a Schoolmaster and had under my charge some eighty boys. Now I was strict with such strictness that from morning to evening I sat amongst them and would never dismiss them to their homes before sundown. But 'tis known to thee, O our lord the King, that boys' wits be short after the measure of their age, and that they love naught save play and forgathering in the streets and quarter. Withal, I took no heed of this and ever grew harder upon them till one day all met and with the intervention of the eldest Monitor they agreed and combined to play me a trick. He arranged with them that next morning none should enter the school until he had taught them, each and every, to say as they went in, "Thy safety, O our lord, how yellow is thy face!" Now the first who showed himself was the Monitor and he spoke as had been agreed; but I was rough with him and sent him away; then a second came in and repeated what the first had said; then a third and then a fourth, until ten boys had used the same words. So quoth I to myself, "Ho, Such-an-one! thou must be unwell without weeting it:" then I arose and went into the Harem and lay down therein when the Monitor, having collected from his school-fellows some hundred-and-eighty Nusfs,138 came in to me and cried, "Take this, O our lord, and expend the money upon thy health." Thereupon I said to myself, "Ho, Such-an-one! every Thursday139 thou dost not collect sixty Faddahs from the boys," and I cried to him, "Go, let them forth for a holiday." So he went and dismissed them from school to the playground. On the next day he collected as much as on the first and came in to me and said, "Expend these moneys, O our lord, upon thy health." He did the same on the third day and the fourth, making the boys contribute much coin and presenting it to me; and on such wise he continued till the tenth day, when he brought the money as was his wont. At that time I happened to hold in my hand a boiled egg which I purposed eating, but on sighting him I said in myself, "An he see thee feeding he will cut off the supplies." So I crammed the egg into my chops?And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night, an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was