Dinarzade, according to custom, did not forget to call the sultaness when it was time. Madam, said she, I know not what is the matter with me, but I know very well, that one of the stories which you tell so agreeably would be a great relief against that melancholy which eats me up. Scheherazade, without answering her, began immediately, and told the sultan the following story: The Story of the Three Calendars, [3] sons of Kings, and of the Five Ladies of Bagdad. Sir, said she, in the reign of Caliph Haroun Alraschid, there was at Bagdad, the place of his residence, a porter, who, notwithstanding his mean and laborious business, was a fellow of wit and good humour. One morning, as he was at the place where he usually plied, with a great basket, waiting for employment, a handsome young lady, covered with a great muslin veil, accosted him, and said, with a pleasant air, Hark ye, porter, take your basket, and follow me. The porter, charmed with those few words, pronounced in so agreeable a manner, took his basket immediately, set it on his head, and followed the lady, saying, O, happy day! O, day of good luck! The lady stopped presently before a gate that was shut, and knocked: a Christian, with a venerable long white beard, opened the gate, and she put money into his hand, without speaking one word: but the Christian, who knew what she wanted, went in, and in a little time after brought a large jug of excellent wine. Take this jug, said the lady to the porter, and put it in your basket. This being done, she commanded him to follow her; and as she went on, the porter said still, O, happy day! this is a day of agreeable surprise and joy! The lady stopped at a fruit shop, where she bought several sorts of apples, apricots, peaches, quinces, lemons, citrons, oranges, myrtles, sweet basil, lilies, jessamin, and some other sorts of flowers and fragrant plants; she bade the porter put all into his basket, and follow her. As she went by a butcher’s stall, she made him weigh her twenty-five pounds of his best meat, which she ordered the porter to put also into his basket. At another shop she took capers, tarragon, cucumbers, sasafras, and other herbs, to be preserved in vinegar; at another shop she bought pistachios, walnuts, filberts, almonds, kernels of pine apples, and such other fruits; and at another she bought all sorts of confectionary. When the porter had put all those things into his basket, and perceived that it grew full, My good lady, said he, you ought to have given me notice that you had so much provision to carry, and then I would have got a horse, or rather a camel, to have carried them; for if you buy ever so little more, I shall not be able to carry it. The lady laughed at the fellow’s pleasant humour, and ordered him still to follow her.