"Tell me, O olive merchants," said the boy cadi, "how long can olives that are put up in this manner be kept fresh and fit to eat?"?

The first boy merchant answered, "O Cadi! it is impossible to preserve them longer than till the third year. They lose their flavor and color and are fit for nothing."

"Taste these olives," said the boy cadi.

The boy merchants pretended to taste. "O Cadi!" they said, "these olives are fresh and of the present year."

"You are mistaken," said the boy cadi. "This man Hassan tells me that they have been in this same jar for seven years.' The boy merchants looked at each other derisively." "It is impossible," they said. "The olives would have shrunken very much, but the jar as you see is quite full. Every olive merchant in Bagdad will tell you, O Cadi, that these olives were grown this year."

The boy Hassan tried now to say something, but the boy cadi bade him hold his tongue.

"Hassan, the case is a plain one, and there is no getting around it," he said. "Thou art a thief, and thou shalt be hanged."

At hearing this judgment, all the boys shouted their pleasure, and the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid joined in their acclamations.

"What do you think of the boy cadi, Jaffar?" he said. "I am surprised at his wisdom," answered Jaffar.

"Well, he shall judge the cause of the real Ali Cogia,” said the caliph. "Bring him to me to-morrow. Bring also the real cadi who acquitted Hassan; he shall learn wisdom from a child. Have also present a couple of olive merchants, and bid Ali Cogia bring his jar of olives."

III

On the morrow Jaffar conducted the young lad to Harounal-Raschid. The child was frightened, and trembled.

"Fear not," said the caliph. "I saw and heard thee last night when thou wert playing the cadi. I approve thy judgment."

Then the boy's fear departed, and Ali Cogia and Hassan were brought forward. The caliph called them by name, and each bowed low and touched the ground before the throne with his forehead.

"Now," said the caliph, "you may each plead his cause, and this child will hear and give judgment. If it needs amendment, I will see to it."

So Ali Cogia told his story and made his accusation; and Hassan answered it as before, and offered to take an oath. "Not so fast," said the boy. "The jar of olives must be examined before any oath is required of you."

Then to Hassan's great surprise the jar was carried in and placed at the feet of the caliph. Ali Cogia opened it.

"Hassan, is this the veritable jar?" asked the boy judge. "It is," answered Hassan.

The caliph tasted an olive and found it good and fresh. The two olive merchants were called and bidden to examine the olives.

"How old do you pronounce them to be?" asked the boy judge.

"They are of this year's growth," they answered.

"Nay!" said the boy judge. "This man, Hassan, declares that they are the same olives that were left in his charge by Ali Cogia seven years ago.

The merchants shrugged their shoulders and said that such was utterly impossible. Never could olives be preserved fresh for that length of time.

And now Hassan, pale and trembling, was called to stand before the judgment. He was so confused that he could not say a word in his own defense. The boy judge, after a moment's silence, looked up into the caliph's face and blushed. "O Prince of the Faithful," said he, "this is no child's

play, but a matter of life and death. I can give judgment only in make-believe sport; it is for you to give judgment in earnest.'

Then the caliph ascended the throne and solemnly pronounced judgment against the thieving merchant. And Hassan, overcome with shame, confessed his fault and told where he had hidden the thousand pieces of gold. Thereupon they were restored to Ali Cogia; and the caliph embraced the young boy and sent him home with a hundred pieces of gold to his mother.

-James Baldwin

Words: petition-formal request; veritable-same; derisivelymockingly; amendment-change, addition; accusation-charge.

Questions: Of what religious faith was Ali Cogia? What was his purpose in going to Mecca? Do you know to what place many Christians made pilgrimages during the Middle Ages? Where in this story have we a trace of a Barmecide feast? Do you recall another story of a cadi that you read last year? Which story do you prefer?

Dramatization: To secure thoroughly expressive reading of this story, it will be easy for pupils to take the parts of the characters, using only the actual conversations.

SPRING

(This beautiful tribute to Spring was written by Henry Timrod, one of the leading poets of the South. He lived at the time of the Civil War, and wrote several musical poems dealing with its events.)

PRING, with that nameless pathos in the air,

SPRI

Which dwells with all things fair,

Spring, with her golden suns and silver rain,

Is with us once again.

In the deep heart of every forest tree

The blood is all aglee,

And there's a look about the leafless bowers

As if they dreamed of flowers.

Yet still on every side we trace the hand
Of winter in the land,

Save where the maple reddens on the lawn,
Flushed by the season's dawn;

As yet the turf is dark, although you know
That, not a span below,

A thousand seeds are groping through the gloom,
And soon will burst their tomb.

Already, here and there, on frailest stems

Appear some azure gems,

Small as might deck, upon a gala day,

The forehead of a fay.

And there's a sense of blossoms yet unborn

In the sweet airs of morn ;

One almost looks to see the very street

Grow purple at his feet.

At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by,

And brings, you know not why,

A feeling as when eager crowds await

Before a palace gate

Some wondrous pageant; and you scarce would start,

If from some beech's heart,

A blue-eyed dryad, stepping forth, should say,

"Behold me, I am May!"

-Henry Timrod

Words: pathos - sadness; fay - fairy; pageant - parade, show; dryad a fairy that lives in a tree.

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

T

HOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

-The Bible