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Английские сказки для мальчиков / English Fairy Tales for Boys - стр. 8

.[43]

Aladdin answered, “I have you! Please ask the Sultan about his daughter.”

His mother said, “Cast away[44] this thought and think whose son you are. You are the child of a poor tailor. And I am very poor, too. So how can you ask about marriage to a daughter of the Sultan?”

But at last she agreed to go.

His mother took a napkin and laid in it the magic fruits from the magical garden. They shone like the most beautiful jewels. She entered the palace hall. But the Sultan did not notice her.

She went every day and stood in the same place.

On the sixth day the Sultan said to his vizir, “Every day I see a woman. She carries something in a napkin. Who is she? Call her next time, I will see what she wants.”

Next day the Sultan said to her, “Good woman,[45] tell me what you want.”

She told him about her son’s love for the princess.

The Sultan asked her kindly what she had in the napkin. She unfolded the jewels and presented them to him.

The Sultan was very amazed. The vizir wanted the princess for his own son. So he begged the Sultan to withhold the woman for three months. During that time his son could make a richer present.

The Sultan told Aladdin’s mother, “I will think about it. But you must not appear before me again for three months. After that your son can marry my daughter.”

Aladdin waited patiently for nearly two months. But one day he heard the news: the son of the grand-vizir was going to marry the Sultan’s daughter.

Aladdin rubbed the Lamp. The Jinn appeared and asked, “What is your will?”

Aladdin replied, “The Sultan broke his promise[46] to me. The vizir’s son is going to marry the princess. My command is: tonight you must bring here the bride and bridegroom.”

“Master, I obey,” said the Jinn.

Aladdin went to his room, where the Jinn transported the bed with the vizir’s son and the princess.

“Take this newly-married man,[47]” said Aladdin, “put him outside[48] in the cold and return in the morning.”

“Fear nothing,” Aladdin said to the princess. “You are my wife. Your father promised you to me. No harm will come to you.[49]

The princess was very afraid. She passed the most miserable night of her life. Aladdin lay down beside her and slept very well.

In the morning the Jinn returned the bridegroom. He laid him in his place and transported the bed back to the palace.

The Sultan came to say his daughter good-morning. The unhappy vizir’s son jumped up and hid himself. The princess could not say a word.

The Sultan asked, “What happened?”

The princess told how during the night the bed travelled to a strange house. The Sultan did not believe her. He

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