There was no roaring and thundering, there was no shaking and quaking, there was no toppling and tumbling, there was no splashing and dashing: for this island was solid rock, and was not all enchantment and hollow inside and underneath like the other which he had left behind. The beautiful statue smiled until the place lit up as though the sun shone. Down she came from the pedestal where she stood and kissed Selim the Fisherman on the lips. Then instantly the lights blazed everywhere, and the people shouted and cheered, and the music played. But neither Selim the Fisherman nor the beautiful statue saw or heard anything. “I have done all this for you!” said Selim the Fisherman. “And I have been waiting for you a thousand years!” said the beautiful statue--only she was not a statue any longer. After that they were married, and Selim the Fisherman and the enchanted statue became king and queen in real earnest. [Illustration] I think Selim the Fisherman sent for Selim the Baker and made him rich and happy--I hope he did--I am sure he did. So, after all, it is not always the lucky one who gathers the plums when wisdom is by to pick up what the other shakes down. * * * * * I could say more; for, O little children! little children! there is more than meat in many an egg-shell; and many a fool tells a story that joggles a wise man’s wits, and many a man dances and junkets in his fool’s paradise till it comes tumbling down about his ears some day; and there are few men who are like Selim the Fisherman, who wear the Ring of Wisdom on their finger, and, alack-a-day! I am not one of them, and that is the end of this story. * * * * * _Old Bidpai nodded his head. “Aye, aye,” said he, “there is a very good moral in that story, my friend. It is, as a certain philosopher said, very true, that there is more in an egg than the meat. And truly, methinks, there is more in thy story than the story of itself.” He nodded his head again and stroked his beard slowly, puffing out as he did so a great reflective cloud of smoke, through which his eyes shone and twinkled mistily like stars through a cloud._ _“And whose turn is it now?” said Doctor Faustus._ _“Methinks ’tis mine,” said Boots--he who in fairy-tale always sat in the ashes at home and yet married a princess after he had gone out into the world awhile. “My story,” said he, “hath no moral, but, all the same, it is as true as that eggs hatch chickens.” Then, without waiting for any one to say another word, he began it in these words. “I am going to tell you,” said he, how--_ [Illustration] All Things are as Fate wills.