The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1889-05-24

keep hidden, which concernx you a,
little as whether / work or rest ut mid
day"
Selim had a cloth beside him, IL
which he would have concealed his
work had not the merchant perceived
it before he was aware of him. He did
not hide it now, bat paused in his ham.
mering and looked 10 the other to 90
This the merchant evidently did not
intend to do without the perfume
holder, at which he continued to cas-,
greedy chances. He offered q price for
it, which Selim refused; he raised his
offer, and the craftsman told him that
this work of his was not for sale. Still
the merchant fingered incredulous; tell.
ing a tale of a rich islander from far
in the northern seas. for whom
his friend Marco, the Venetian, was
buying such samples of Eastern crafts
manship as this piece Of Selim's. That
artiticer was proof against even the
wealthy islander; in whom, by the way,
he no more believed than the importu-
nate merchant did that a piece of I'M
sold brasswork was not for sale. SelIm,
wrathful as his perseverance,, drove
him away at last by wrapping and
locking up the perfume-holder and
successfully pressing on him every
other piece of work-and they were
not many-that he possessed. The
woald-be customer at length departed,
saying aloud that he would come again
when Selim might be more in tho mind
to do business. And Selim, opening
his shop, set to work again on the lam
tern that had occupied him in the
morning.
The merchant paused for a few min
utes, when out of Selim's sight, but
still in the confines of the brass-work-
ers' bazaar, and, with a lowering and
complexioned face, seemed to call OF
unseen powers to attest a mental vow
The Egyptian lad watched from the
steps of the big shop the merchants
pantomime of irrepressible passion,
and seemed to ponder the possibility
of profit following such observation.
In spite of his simple attire there was
a suggestion of wealth about the mer-
chants person, for, however a%rtfully
disguised, the rich man stands revealed
to him who lusts for gold.
A strident voice from outside the
brass market proclaimed that the noon
day rest was ended.
Unhurrying the workers returned
to resume the days task. The meas
ured body of Gathering sound rose
again, half way towards silence in its
soporitic influence on the ear, like the
continual BUSINESS of insects and birds
in a wood.
Then came q buyer, and there was
one hammer the less at work and two
tongues the more; the more buyers,
buyers friends and sellers friends,
and gradually the chattering gained
upon the Gathering.
Selim, so intent when all had been
resting, seemed more Thoughtful and
less active now. The mere work-a-day
lantern that he labored at appeared to
grow distasteful to him, the blows of
his hammer followed one another with
less eagerness; once he covered his
eyes with his hand, clasping his fore
head convulsively as though it ached.
It was a glaring hot afternoon and
the bazaar was full of noise. Presently
through the din of trading penetrated
other sounds from outside the market.
The shouts of a moving crowd and the
sounds of their feet, and beating of
drums and gongs, and, from time to
time, loud trumpet blasts. LOitererS
decamped to join the throng outside,
buyers were carried away by their
curiosity to see what was happening in
the street, and some of the sellers fol-
lowed them, first charging their friends
who remained to keep a protecting
eye on their wares. The news diff
fused itself through the market that it
was the marriage procession of a great
man-no less than the son of the late
King, dignitied by the present Shah
with the title of The-Shadow-of-the-
Sultan's-Hand, though the low rank of
his beautiful mother prevented his
having any claim on the throne.
Selim hardly heard the gossip that
buzzed about him; he was too much
occupied with his own thoughts; the
shouted new that interested his neigh
bors made his head ache, hat was all.
Nobody asked him to mind their goods
for them-his reserve had made him
condemned as unsocialable, and if he
had cared to go, there was no one he
could ask to protect his little store of
brass lanterns and the like. He had
no wish to leave his shop; what was a
princes wedding to him that ne should
rejoice at it? But he was relieved by
the emptiness of the bazaar and the
comparative quiet about him. He laid
aside the incomplete lantern and look
ed at his left hand. Round the little
finger OF il was wrapped piece ofrag;
SeiIm unwound it, rPssaling a Ittl