"O thou true son of my heart!" exclaimed the sultana. "Now, I can embrace thee, and call thee son! Pardon me, my Husband and Lord," continued she, turning to the sultan, "that I have plotted this stratagem against you. Do you not now see which is the prince, and which the tailor? Truly, the kaftan that your son has made is superb, and I should like to ask him of what master he learned his trade." The sultan sat in deep thought, glancing suspiciously now at his wife and now at Labakan, who vainly tried to control his blushes and his discomfiture at having so stupidly betrayed himself. "Even this proof will not suffice," said the sultan. "But praised be Allah, I know of a means of finding out whether I have been deceived or not." He ordered his fastest horse to be led out, swung himself into the saddle, and rode into a forest near by, where lived, according to an old legend, a kind fairy named Adolzaide, who had often stood by the kings of his race with her counsel in the hour of need. In the middle of the forest was an open place surrounded by tall cedars. There lived--so the story ran--the fairy, and it was seldom that a mortal ventured there, as a certain aversion to the spot had for ages descended from father to son. Arriving there, the sultan dismounted, tied his horse to a tree, placed himself in the centre of the opening, and called out in a loud voice: "If it be true that you have given my ancestors good advice in the hour of need, then do not spurn the prayer of their grandson, and give me advice on a point for which human understanding is too frail." He had hardly spoken the last word, when one of the cedars opened, and a veiled lady, in long white garments, stepped forth. "I know why you come to me, Sultan Saaud. Your purpose is just; therefore, you shall have my assistance. Take these two little boxes. Let each of the young men who claim to be your son choose between these. I know that the true prince will not fail to pick out the right one." Thus spake the fairy, at the same time handing him two little ivory boxes richly set with gold and pearls. On the lid, which the sultan vainly tried to open, were inscriptions in diamond letters. The sultan tried to think as he rode home what these little boxes might contain; but all his efforts to open them failed. Nor did the inscriptions throw any light on the matter, for one read--_Honor and Fame_; the other--_Fortune and Riches_. The sultan thought to himself that he would have great difficulty in making a choice between these two things, that were alike desirable, alike alluring. On arriving at his palace, he sent for the sultana, and told her of the verdict of the fairy. A strange hope assured the sultana that he to whom her heart drew her would choose the box that should make plain his royal descent.