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stamped with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace and this
garden here would immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.'

Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud forgot his nine hundred and ninety-nine
bothersome wives, and laughed, till the camphor-tree shook, at
the Butterfly's boast. And he held out his finger and said,
'Little man, come here.'

The Butterfly was dreadfully frightened, but he managed to fly up
to the hand of Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and clung there, fanning
himself. Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very
softly, 'Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn't
bend one blade of grass. What made you tell that awful fib to
your wife?--for doubtless she is your wife.'

The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin-Daoud and saw the most wise
King's eye twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he picked up
his courage with both wings, and he put his head on one side and
said, 'O King, live for ever. She is my wife; and you know what
wives are like.

Suleiman-bin-Daoud smiled in his beard and said, 'Yes, I know,
little brother.

'One must keep them in order somehow, said the Butterfly, and she
has been quarrelling with me all the morning. I said that to
quiet her.'

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, 'May it quiet her. Go back to your
wife, little brother, and let me hear what you say.'

Back flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was all of a twitter
behind a leaf, and she said, 'He heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud
himself heard you!'

'Heard me!' said the Butterfly. 'Of course he did. I meant him to
hear me.'

'And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?'

'Well,' said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly,
'between you and me, my dear--of course I don't blame him,
because his Palace must have cost a great deal and the oranges
are just ripening,--he asked me not to stamp, and I promised I
wouldn't.'

'Gracious!' said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but
Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till the tears ran down his face at
the impudence of the bad little Butterfly.

Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind the tree among the red
lilies and smiled to herself, for she had heard all this talk.
She thought, 'If I am wise I can yet save my Lord from the
persecutions of these quarrelsome Queens,' and she held out her
finger and whispered softly to the Butterfly's Wife, 'Little
woman, come here.' Up flew the Butterfly's Wife, very frightened,
and clung to Balkis's white hand.

Balkis bent her beautiful head down and whispered, 'Little woman,
do you believe what your husband has just said?'

The Butterfly's Wife looked at Balkis, and saw the most beautiful
Queen's eyes shining like deep pools with starlight on them, and
she picked up her courage with both wings and said, 'O Queen, be
lovely for ever. You know what men-folk are like.'

And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to

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