Take this jug, says the lady to the porter, and put it in your
basket. This being done, she commanded him to follow her; and as
she went on, the porter says still, "O happy day! this is a day
of agreeable surprise and joy!"
The lady stopped at a fruit-shop, where she bought several sorts
of apples, apricots, peaches, quinces, lemons, citrons, oranges,
myrtles, sweet basil, lilies, jessamine, and some other sorts of
flowers and plants that smell well; she bid the porter put them
all into his basket, and follow her. As she went by a butcher's
stall, she made him weigh her twenty-five pounds of his best
meat, which she ordered the porter to put also in his basket.
At another shop, she took capers, cucumbers, and other herbs
preserved in vinegar; at another she bought pistachios, walnuts,
small nuts, almonds, kernels of pine-apples, and other fruits;
and of another she bought all sorts of confections. When the
porter had put all these things into his basket, and perceiving,
that it grew full, My good lady, says he, you ought to have given
me notice that you had so much provision to carry, and then I
would have got a horse, or rather a camel, to have carried them;
for if you buy ever so little more, I shall not be able to carry
it. The lady laughed at the fellow's pleasant humour, and ordered
him still to follow her.
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