“By Allah, O master, I have indeed no money!
But give me bread enough for my family, and I will leave thee this net
in pawn till the morrow.” Rejoined the baker, “Nay, my poor fellow, this
net is thy shop and the door of thy daily subsistence; so an thou pawn
it, wherewithal wilt thou fish? Tell me how much will suffice thee?”;
and replied the fisherman, “Ten half-dirhams’ worth.”[235] So he gave
him ten Nusfs’ worth of bread and ten in silver saying, “Take these ten
Nusfs and cook thyself a mess of meat therewith; so wilt thou owe me
twenty, for which bring me fish to-morrow; but, an thou catch nothing
again, come and take thy bread and thy ten Nusfs, and I will have
patience with thee till better luck betide thee,——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.


        Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Forty-first Night,

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the baker said
to the fisherman, “Take whatso thou needest and I will have patience
with thee till better luck betide thee, after the which thou shalt bring
me fish for all thou owest me.” Said the fisherman, “Almighty Allah
reward thee, and requite thee for me with all good!” Then he took the
bread and the coins and went away, glad at heart, and buying what he
could returned to his wife whom he found sitting up, soothing the
children, who were weeping for hunger, and saying to them, “At once your
father will be here with what ye may eat.” So he set the bread before
them and they ate, whilst he told his wife what had befallen him, and
she said, “Allah is bountiful.”[236] On the morrow, he shouldered his
net and went forth of his house, saying, “I beseech thee, O Lord, to
vouchsafe me this day that which shall whiten my face with the
baker!”[237] When he came to the sea-shore, he proceeded to cast his net
and pull it in; but there came up no fish therein; and he ceased not to
toil thus till ended day but he caught nothing. Then he set out
homewards, in great conc