“Child,” he said to Aladdin, calling him aside, “was not your father called Mustapha the tailor?”

“Yes, sir,” answered the boy; “but he has been dead a long time.”

Then the African magician embraced Aladdin and kissed him, saying with tears in his eyes, “I am your uncle.  I knew you at first sight; you are so like my dear brother.”  Then he gave the boy a handful of money, and said, “Give my love to your mother, and tell her that I will visit her to-morrow, that I may see where my good brother lived and died.”

“You have no uncle,” said Aladdin’s mother when she had heard his story.  “Neither your father nor I ever had a brother.”

Again the next day the magician found Aladdin playing in the streets, and embraced him as before, and put two pieces of gold into his hand, saying, “Carry this to your mother.  Tell her I shall come to sup with you to-night; but show me first where you live.”

This done, Aladdin ran home with the money, and all day his mother made ready to receive their guest.  Just as they began to fear that he might not find the house, the African magician knocked at the door, and came in, bringing wine and fruits of every sort.  After words of greeting to them both, he asked only to be placed where he might face the sofa on which Mustapha used to sit.

“My poor brother!” he exclaimed.  “How unhappy am I, not to have come soon enough to give you one last embrace!”

Then he told Aladdin’s mother how he had left their native land of China forty years ago, had traveled in many lands, and finally settled in Africa.  The desire had seized him to see his brother and his home once more, and therefore he had come, alas! too late.

When the widow wept at the thought of her husband, the African magician turned to Aladdin and asked, “What business do you follow?  Are you of any trade?”

The boy hung his head, and his mother added to his shame by saying, “Aladdin is an idle fellow.  He would not learn his father’s trade, and now will not heed me, but spends his time where you found him, in the streets.  Unless you can persuade him to mend his ways, some day I must turn him out to shift for himself.”

Again the widow wept, and the magician said,—­

“This is not well, nephew.  But there are many trades beside your father’s.  What say you to having a shop, which I will furnish for you with fine stuffs and linens?  Tell me freely.”

This seemed an easy life, and Aladdin, who hated work, jumped at the plan.  “Well, then,” said the magician, “come with me to-morrow, and, after clothing you handsomely, we will open the shop.”

Soon after supper the stranger took his leave.  On the next day he bought the boy his promised clothes, and entertained him with a company of merchants at his inn.  When he brought Aladdin home to his mother at night, she called down many blessings on his head for all his kindness.