He sent for his Grand Wazeer and told him that he was going on one of his lonely expeditions , and that the Wazeer must invent some excuse to account for his absence . Next he disguised himself as an ordinary messenger , mounted a swift camel , and sped away to the place where the slave girl was to be handed over to him . When he got there he gave the messengers who brought her a letter of thanks and a handsome present for their master and rewards for themselves ; and then without delay he took the poor woman and her tiny baby-boy up on to his camel and rode off to a wild desert . After riding for a day and a night , almost without stopping , he came to a great cave where he made the woman dismount , and , taking her and the baby into the cave , he drew his sword and with one blow chopped her head off . But although his anger made him cruel enough for anything so dreadful , the king felt that he could not turn his great sword on the helpless baby , who he was sure must soon die in this solitary place without its mother ; so he left it in the cave where it was , and , mounting his camel , rode home as fast as he could . Now , in a small village in his kingdom there lived an old widow who had no children or relations of any kind . She made her living mostly by selling the milk of a flock of goats ; but she was very , very poor , and not very strong , and often used to wonder how she would live if she got too weak or ill to attend to her goats . Every morning she drove the goats out into the desert to graze on the shrubs and bushes which grew there , and every evening they came home of themselves to be milked and to be shut up safely for the night . One evening the old woman was astonished to find that her very best nanny-goat returned without a drop of milk . She thought that some naughty boy or girl was playing a trick upon her and had caught the goat on its way home and stolen all the milk . But when evening after evening the goat remained almost dry she determined to find out who the thief was . So the next day she followed the goats at a distance and watched them while they grazed . At length , in the afternoon , the old woman noticed this particular nanny-goat stealing off by herself away from the herd and she at once went after her . On and on the goat walked for some way , and then disappeared into a cave in the rocks . The old woman followed the goat into the cave and then , what should she see but the animal giving her milk to a little boy-baby , whilst on the ground near by lay the sad remains of the baby 's dead mother ! Wondering and frightened , the old woman thought at last that this little baby might be a son to her in her old age , and that he would grow up and in time to come be her comfort and support . So she carried home the baby to her hut , and next day she took a spade to the cave and dug a grave where she buried the poor mother . Years passed by , and the baby grew up into a find handsome lad , as daring as he was beautiful , and as industrious as he was brave . One day , when the boy , whom the old woman had named Nur Mahomed , was about seventeen years old , he was coming from his day 's work in the fields , when he saw a strange donkey eating the cabbages in the garden which surround their little cottage . Seizing a big stick , he began to beat the intruder and to drive him out of his garden .
A neighbour passing XXXXX called out to him -- ` Hi !
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