William Fitzgerald Jenkins

“ He was a slave, frightened beyond even the wont of slaves entering the royal presence. The king had a reputation or having people—and slaves in particular—flayed, hanged, crucified or boiled in oil if they offended him or sought to interfere with his plans, and this slave was very sure he was near the end of his span of life. His message was that his mistress, the imp from Syria, was displeased because when the wind came from the east dust from the work of the city blew out to the tents in which her suite reposed and not only annoyed her suite but Semiramis herself. ”

“ Lying on his couch, watching the endless industry and the ever-rising dust from the multitude of laborers working on the city which was to be the Queen of all the World, the king groaned.
A courier rode madly up to the foot of the royal mound, dismounted and rushed up to the top. A message from the king’s friend and ally, the King of Arabia. ”

“ I am humble because the people around me say I am a saint, and I know they are such fools that they are not likely to be right in such a matter. I am chaste principally because I am cross-eyed, and no woman would look at me unless I had much money, which I have not. I am industrious because I like to eat occasionally, and here there is no other way to get food. I am thrifty. I owe no man money, because, fools though they are, yet none of my neighbors is fool enough to lend to me, and I am honest because there is nothing worth stealing in the village. ”