than once again the wall opened, and the damsel, appearing as before, struck the frying-pan with her rod, and cried—
"O fish of my pond,
Are ye true to your bond?"
And immediately the fish stood up on their tails in the frying fat and replied—
"Even so, the bond holds yet;
Paid by thee, we pay the debt.
With give and take is the reckoning met."
Whereupon she upset the pan into the fire and departed as she had come.
The Vizier, perceiving that so strange an event might no longer be kept from the royal knowledge, went and informed the Sultan of all that had occurred; and the monarch, as soon as he had heard the tale, now rendered more eager for the satisfaction of his eyes than he had previously been for the indulgence of his appetite, sent for the fisherman, and promised him yet another four hundred pieces of gold if he could within a given time procure four more fishes similar to those he had already brought on the previous occasions.
11
