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able Returns, fell a weeping bitterly; from whence they really conjectur’d, that ſomething extraordinary had befallen him. His Wife ask’d the Reaſon of his exceſſive Grief and Tears: We are all overjoy’d ſays ſhe, at your Return, but you frighten us to ſee you in this Condition; pray tell us the Cauſe of your Sorrow. Alas! replies the Husband, the Cauſe of it is, That have but a Year to live; and then told what had paſſed betwixt him and the Genie, and that he had given him his Oath to return at the end of the Year, to receive Death from his Hands.
When they heard this ſad News, they all began to lament heartily: His Wife made a pitiful Out-cry, beat her Face, and tore her Hair. The Children being all in Tears, made the Houſe reſound with their Groans; and the Father, not being able to overcome Nature, mix’d his Tears with theirs: So that, in a word, it was the moſt affecting Spectacle that any Man could behold.
Next Morning, the Merchant applied himſelf to put his Affairs in order; and firſt of all, to pay his Debts. He made Preſents to his Friends, gave great Alms to the Poor, ſet his Slaves of both Sexes at Liberty, divided his Eſtate among his Children, appointed Guardians for ſuch of them as were not come of Age; and reſtoring to his Wife all that was due to her by Contract of Marriage, he gave her over and above all that he could do by Law.
At laſt the Year expir’d, and go he muſt. He put his Burial Cloaths in his Portmantle; but never was there ſuch Grief ſeen, as when he came to bid his Wife and Children adieu. They could not think of parting, but reſolv’d to go along and to die with him; but finding that he muſt be
forc’d to part with thoſe dear Objects, he ſpoke to ’em thus: My dear Wife and Children, ſays he, I obey the Order of Heaven, in quitting you, follow my Example, ſubmit couragiouſly to this Neceſſity, and conſider that it’s the Deſtiny of Man to die. Having ſaid theſe Words, he went out of the hearing of the Cries of his Family, and taking his Journey, arriv’d at the Place where he promis’d to meet the Genie, on the Day appointed. He alighted, and ſetting himſelf down by the Fountain, waited the coming of theGenie
