was again covered with fine ripe melons, and again the woman who had bought those which had grown the day before came and bought them all. And this went on for several days. There were so many melons, and all the melons were so full of precious stones, that the woman who bought them had enough to fill the whole of one room in her house with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and pearls.
At last, however, the wonderful melon plant began to wither, and when the woman came to buy melons one morning, the Brahman's wife was obliged to say to her in a sad voice, 'Alas! there are no more melons on our melon plant.' And the woman went back to her own house very much disappointed.
That day the Brahman and his wife and children had no money in the house to buy food, and they all felt very unhappy to think that the fine melon plant had withered. But the Brahman's youngest daughter, who was a clever girl, thought, 'Though there are no more melons fit to sell on our melon plant, perhaps I may be able to find one or two shrivelled ones, which, if cooked, will give us something for dinner.' So she went out to look, and searching carefully amongst the thick leaves, found two or three withered little melons still remaining. These she took into the house and began cutting them up to cook, when, more wonderful than wonderful! within each little melon she found a number of small emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls! The girl called her father and mother, and her five sisters, crying, 'See what I have found! See these precious stones and pearls! I dare say inside the melons we sold there were as good or better than these. No wonder that woman was so anxious to buy them all. See, father—see, mother—see, sisters!!'
Then they were all overjoyed to see the treasure; but the Brahman said, 'What a pity we have lost the benefit of my son-in-law the Jackal's good gift, by not knowing its worth! I will go at once to that woman, and try and make her give us back the melons she took.'
So he went to the melon buyer's house, and said to her, 'Give me back the melons you took from me, who did not know their worth.' She answered, 'I don't know what you mean.' He replied, 'You are very deceitful; you bought melons full of precious stones from us poor people who did not know what they were worth, and you only paid for them the price of common melons—give me some of them back, I pray you.' But she said,
