"A true friend is the only thing in this world that is always faithful. Find this rare pearl, my son, and you will have found the rarest of gems. I want you, then, my son, to travel over the world, travel alone gives the real experience. The more we see of men the better we know how to live among them. The world is a great and a beautiful book, that instructs those who know how to read it. It is a faithful mirror that reflects all the objects we ought to see. "Go, my son," said the merchant of Bagdad; "take this travelling-stick, and in your journeyings think, above all other things, of the necessity of securing a true friend. In pursuing this object, sacrifice everything else, even what is most rare and most precious." The young man embraced his father and took his departure. He went to a foreign country and remained there some time, and then he returned to his own country. When he arrived, his father, astonished at his quick return, said: "I did not expect you so soon." "You told me to seek a friend," said the young man. "Well, I have returned with fifty who are all that you have described." "My poor child!" responded the old merchant, "do not speak so flippantly of so sacred a name. A true friend is so rare that he cannot be found in droves, and those who pretend to be such are only so in name. They resemble a summer-cloud that melts beneath the first rays of the sun." "Father!" exclaimed the young man, "your attack is unjust, and those that I look upon as my friends—those whom I regard as my friends—would not see me suffering or in adversity unless their hearts went out to me." "I have lived seventy years," responded the old man, "and I have been tried by good and bad fortune. I have known a great many men, and during these long years it has been well-nigh impossible for me to acquire a friend. How, at your age, and in such a short time, have you been able to find fifty friends? Learn from me, my son, to know human nature." The old merchant strangled a sheep, put the carcass in a sack, and stained his son's clothing with the blood of the animal. At night the young man was told what he must do, and he took the carcass of the sheep on his shoulder and went out of the city. Soon he arrived at the house of his first friend, and knocked at the door, which was promptly opened to him. His friend asked him what he wanted. "It is in the midst of misfortune that friendship is put to a trial," responded the young man. "I have often told you of an old feud that has existed between our family and that of a lord of the court. Not long ago we met in a secluded spot. Hatred placed arms in our hands, and he fell lifeless at my feet. For fear of being pursued by justice I seized his body; it is in the sack you see on my shoulders. I beg you to hide it in your house until this affair has blown over."