And after this, whenever the price of a platter was expended, he
would bring another, and on such wise he and his mother were soon in
better circumstances. Yet they ceased not to live after their olden
fashion as middle-class folk, without spending on diet overmuch or
squandering money. But Aladdin had now thrown off the ungraciousness
of his boyhood. He shunned the society of scapegraces and he began
to frequent good men and true, repairing daily to the market street of
the merchants and there companying with the great and small of them,
asking about matters of merchandise and learning the price of
investments and so forth. He likewise frequented the bazaars of the
goldsmiths and the jewelers, where he would sit and divert himself
by inspecting their precious stones and by noting how jewels were sold
and bought therein. Accordingly, he presently became ware that the
tree truits wherewith he had filled his pockets what time he entered
the enchanged treasury were neither glass nor crystal, but gems rich
and rare, and he understood that he had acquired immense wealth such
as the kings never can possess.
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