Thousand & One Nights: 155th Night: The Barber Tells His Story - 4

The miller tied my brother to the yoke and kept hitting him on the legs while my brother kept turning the mill and grinding the wheat.  Whenever he wanted to rest, the miller, pretending that he did not know that he was hitting a human being, would hit him and say, "You seem to have eaten too much, you wretched mule."

At daybreak the miller went away and left my brother still tied to the yoke and almost died. Soon the maid came to him and said, "I am sorry for what has happened to you; my lady was unable to sleep last night, worrying about you." But he could not find the tongue to answer her because of the toil and the beating. Before leaving she removed the yoke, and released him.

The he went home. The fortune teller who had written his horoscope came and greeted him and said, "May God preserve your life. I see in your looks the dalliance, kisses and bliss."

My brother replied, "May God curse you for a lier, you man with a thousand horns.  By God I did nothing all the night but turn the mill, in place of the mule."  Then he told him what happened to him, and the fortune teller said, "Your star does not agree with hers." My brother went to his shop, hoping that someone might bring him something to sew by which he might earn his daily bread.

Soon the maid came to him and said, "My lady wishes to speak to you." He replied, "I will have no more business with you people." The maid went back and told her lady. The lady appeared at the window bay, wept and said, "My darling, what is the matter with you?  But he did not reply. She swore to him that she was innocent of what had happened to him, and when he saw her beauty and charm and her tears, he forgot what had happened to him and was glad to see her.

A few days later, the maid came to him and said, "My lady sends you greetings, and would like you to know that her husband will spend the night at the home of one of his friends.  When he leaves come to us, and spend the night with her." The fact of the matter was that the husband had said to his wife, "It seems that the tailor has given up on you." She replied, "Let me play another trick on him, and ridicule him before the entire city." My brother did not know what was in store for him.  As soon as it was dark, the maid came and took him to the house, and when the lady saw him, she said, "My lord, God knows, how I have been longing for you."

Morning overtook, and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.