"' When morning dawned, the boys came to school, Ajib being one
of them, and all flocked round him saying: "We will play a game
wherein none shall join save he can tell the name of his mamma and his
papa." And they all cried, "By Allah, good!" Then quoth one of them,
"My name is Majid and my mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz
al-Din." Another spoke in like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn
came, and he said, "My name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt
al-Husn, and my father's Shams al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." "By
Allah," cried they, "the Wazir is not thy true father." Ajib answered,
"The Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed and
clapped their hands at him, saying: "He does not know who is his papa.
Get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know
his father's name."
Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn,
so his breast was straitened and he well-nigh choked with tears and
hurt feelings. Then said the monitor to him: "We know that the Wazir
is thy grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not
thy father.
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