"
"Worse and worse!" groaned the poor poet. "There go the second hundred.
What shall I do?"
"Wait, and I will tell you," said the caliph; and he smiled again. "My
third wise saying is--"
"O caliph, have mercy!" cried the poet. "Keep the third piece of wisdom
for your own use, and let me have the gold."
The caliph laughed outright, and so did every one that heard him. Then
he ordered his treasurer to pay the poet five hundred pieces of gold;
for, indeed, the poem which he had recited was wonderfully fine.
The caliph, Al Mansur, lived nearly twelve hundred years ago. He was
the builder of a famous and beautiful city called Bagdad.
"BECOS! BECOS! BECOS!"
Thousands of years ago the greatest country, in the world was Egypt.
It was a beautiful land lying on both sides of the wonderful river
Nile. In it were many great cities; and from one end of it to the other
there were broad fields of grain and fine pastures for sheep and
cattle.
The people of Egypt were very proud; for they believed that they were
the first and oldest of all nations.
"It was in our country that the first men and women lived," they said.
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