2023-08-10_The_Luckiest_Man_in_Babylon
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00:00:27.800 | Ralph's, fresh for everyone.
00:00:30.200 | At the head of his caravan proudly rode Shahru Nada, the merchant prince of Babylon.
00:00:36.400 | He liked fine cloth and wore rich and becoming robes.
00:00:40.500 | He liked fine animals and sat easily upon his spirited Arabian stallion.
00:00:45.700 | To look at him, one would hardly have guessed his advanced years.
00:00:49.200 | Certainly, they would not have suspected that he was inwardly troubled.
00:00:54.100 | The journey from Damascus is long and the hardships of the desert many.
00:00:59.300 | These he minded not.
00:01:01.600 | The Arab tribes are fierce and eager to loot rich caravans.
00:01:05.800 | These he feared not, for his many fleet mounted guards were a safe protection.
00:01:11.600 | About the youth at his side whom he was bringing from Damascus was he disturbed.
00:01:17.000 | This was Hadan Gula, the grandson of his partner of other years,
00:01:22.200 | Ered Gula, to whom he felt he owed a debt of gratitude which could never be repaid.
00:01:27.600 | He would like to do something for this grandson,
00:01:29.600 | but the more he considered this, the more difficult it seemed because of the youth himself.
00:01:35.400 | Eyeing the young man's rings and earrings, he thought to himself,
00:01:38.900 | he thinks jewels are for men. Still, he has his grandfather's strong face,
00:01:44.300 | but his grandfather wore no such gaudy robes.
00:01:48.000 | Yet, I sought him to come, hoping I might help him get a start for himself
00:01:52.200 | and get away from the wreck his father has made of their inheritance.
00:01:56.700 | Hadan Gula broke in upon his thoughts.
00:01:59.600 | Why does thou work so hard, riding always with thy caravan upon its long journeys?
00:02:04.400 | Dost thou never take time to enjoy life?
00:02:08.100 | Sharunada smiled.
00:02:10.200 | To enjoy life, he repeated?
00:02:12.500 | What wouldst thou do to enjoy life if thou wert Sharunada?
00:02:17.500 | If I had wealth equal to thine, I would live like a prince.
00:02:20.700 | Never across the hot desert would I ride.
00:02:23.200 | I would spend the shekels as fast as they came to my purse.
00:02:26.500 | I would wear the richest of robes and the rarest of jewels.
00:02:30.000 | That would be a life to my liking, a life worth living.
00:02:34.900 | Both men laughed.
00:02:36.900 | Thy grandfather wore no jewels, Sharunada spoke before he thought,
00:02:41.000 | then continued jokingly, wouldst thou leave no time for work?
00:02:44.900 | Work was made for slaves, Hadan Gula responded.
00:02:49.300 | Sharunada bit his lip, but made no reply,
00:02:53.200 | riding in silence until the trail led them to the slope.
00:02:56.500 | Here he reigned his mount and, pointing to the green valley far away,
00:03:01.700 | See, there is the valley.
00:03:03.200 | Look far down, and thou canst faintly see the walls of Babylon.
00:03:07.300 | The tower is the temple of Bel.
00:03:09.700 | If thine eyes are sharp, thou mayst even see the smoke from the eternal fire upon its crest.
00:03:15.700 | So that is Babylon?
00:03:17.400 | Always have I longed to see the wealthiest city in all the world, Hadan Gula commented.
00:03:23.100 | Babylon, where my grandfather started his fortune,
00:03:26.300 | would he were still alive, we would not be so sorely pressed.
00:03:31.600 | Why wish his spirit to linger on earth beyond its allotted time?
00:03:35.100 | Thou and my father can carry on his good work.
00:03:38.500 | Alas, of us, neither has his gift.
00:03:41.500 | Father and myself know not his secret for attracting the golden shekels.
00:03:47.500 | Sharunada did not reply,
00:03:49.500 | but gave reign to his mount and rode thoughtfully down the trail to the valley.
00:03:54.000 | Behind them followed the caravan in a cloud of reddish dust.
00:03:58.800 | Sometime later, they reached the king's highway and turned south through the irrigated farms.
00:04:04.400 | Three old men plowing a field caught Sharunada's attention.
00:04:08.200 | They seemed strangely familiar.
00:04:10.900 | How ridiculous! One does not pass a field after 40 years and find the same men plowing there.
00:04:17.000 | Yet something within him said they were the same.
00:04:21.300 | One with an uncertain grip held the plow.
00:04:25.000 | The others laboriously plotted beside the oxen,
00:04:28.300 | ineffectually beating them with their barrel staves to keep them pooling.
00:04:32.600 | Forty years ago, he had envied these men.
00:04:35.300 | How gladly he would have exchanged places.
00:04:38.300 | What a difference now.
00:04:40.200 | With pride, he looked back at his trailing caravan,
00:04:43.200 | well-chosen camels and donkeys loaded high with valuable goods from Damascus.
00:04:48.800 | All this was but one of his possessions.
00:04:52.000 | He pointed to the plowers saying, "Still plowing the same field where they were 40 years ago."
00:04:58.000 | "They look it, but why thinkest thou they are the same?"
00:05:01.400 | "I saw them there," Sharunada replied.
00:05:05.300 | Recollections were racing rapidly through his mind.
00:05:07.800 | Why could he not bury the past and live in the present?
00:05:10.600 | Then he saw, as in a picture, the smiling face of Arad Gula.
00:05:15.900 | The barrier between himself and the cynical youth beside him dissolved.
00:05:20.100 | But how could he help such a superior youth with his spendthrift ideas and bejeweled hands?
00:05:27.200 | Work he could offer in plenty to willing workers, but not for men who consider themselves too good for work.
00:05:33.800 | Yet he owed it to Arad Gula to do something, not a half-hearted attempt.
00:05:39.900 | He and Arad Gula had never done things that way.
00:05:43.100 | They were not that sort of men.
00:05:45.300 | A plan came almost in a flash.
00:05:47.700 | There were objections.
00:05:49.200 | He must consider his own family and his own standing.
00:05:51.900 | It would be cruel.
00:05:53.100 | It would hurt.
00:05:54.600 | Being a man of quick decisions, he waived objections and decided to act.
00:05:59.200 | "Wouldst thou be interested in hearing how thy worthy grandfather and myself joined in the partnership which proved so profitable?"
00:06:05.700 | He questioned.
00:06:07.300 | "Why not just tell me how thou madest the golden shekels?
00:06:10.200 | That is all I need to know," the young man parried.
00:06:13.400 | Sharunada ignored the reply and continued, "We start with those men plowing.
00:06:18.700 | I was no older than thou.
00:06:20.900 | As the column of men in which I marched approached, good old Megiddo, the farmer, scoffed at the slipshod way in which they plowed.
00:06:29.400 | Megiddo was chained next to me.
00:06:32.000 | 'Look at the lazy fellows,' he protested.
00:06:34.500 | 'The plowholder makes no effort to plow deep, nor do the beaters keep the oxen in the furrow.
00:06:39.900 | How can they expect to raise a good crop with poor plowing?'
00:06:44.100 | 'Didst thou say Megiddo was chained to thee?' had Arad Gula asked in surprise.
00:06:49.600 | 'Yes, with bronze collars about our necks and a length of heavy chain between us.
00:06:54.500 | Next to him was Zabado, the sheep thief.
00:06:58.100 | I had known him in Harun.
00:07:00.300 | At the end was a man we called Pirate because he told us not his name.
00:07:04.600 | We judged him as a sailor as he had entwined serpents tattooed upon his chest in sailor fashion.
00:07:11.400 | The column was made up thus so the men could walk in fours.'
00:07:15.600 | 'Thou wert chained as a slave?' had Arad Gula asked incredulously.
00:07:21.100 | 'Did not thy grandfather tell thee I was once a slave?
00:07:24.300 | He often spoke of thee but never hinted of this.'
00:07:27.800 | 'He was a man thou couldst trust with innermost secrets.
00:07:31.600 | Thou too are a man I may trust, am I not right?'
00:07:35.000 | Sheru Nada looked him squarely in the eye.
00:07:38.500 | 'Thou mayest rely upon my silence, but I am amazed.
00:07:41.800 | Tell me, how didst thou come to be a slave?'
00:07:45.200 | Sheru Nada shrugged his shoulders.
00:07:47.800 | 'Any man may find himself a slave.
00:07:50.200 | It was a gaming house and barley beer that brought me disaster.
00:07:54.200 | I was the victim of my brother's indiscretions.
00:07:57.400 | In a brawl he killed his friend.
00:07:59.800 | I was bonded to the widow by my father, desperate to keep my brother from being prosecuted under the law.
00:08:06.800 | When my father could not raise the silver to free me, she in anger sold me to the slave dealer.'
00:08:12.500 | 'What a shame and injustice!' Hadangula protested.
00:08:16.000 | 'But tell me, how didst thou regain freedom?'
00:08:19.100 | 'We shall come to that, but not yet.
00:08:21.500 | Let us continue my tale.'
00:08:23.800 | As we passed, the plowers jeered at us.
00:08:27.200 | One did doff his ragged hat and bow low, calling out,
00:08:31.500 | 'Welcome to Babylon, guests of the king.
00:08:34.600 | He waits for thee on the city walls where the banquet is spread, mud bricks and onion soup.'
00:08:41.300 | With that they laughed uproariously.
00:08:44.100 | Pirate flew into a rage and cursed them roundly.
00:08:47.300 | 'What do those men mean by the king awaiting us on the walls?' I asked him.
00:08:52.000 | 'To the city walls ye march to carry bricks until the back breaks.
00:08:56.200 | Maybe they beat thee to death before it breaks.
00:08:59.300 | They won't beat me. I'll kill 'em.'
00:09:02.600 | Then Megiddo spoke up.
00:09:04.500 | 'It doesn't make sense to me to talk of masters beating willing hard-working slaves to death.
00:09:09.700 | Masters like good slaves and treat them well.'
00:09:13.400 | 'Who wants to work hard?' commented Zobado.
00:09:16.500 | 'Those plowers are wise fellows.
00:09:18.700 | They're not breaking their backs, just letting on as if they be.'
00:09:23.100 | 'Thou can't get ahead by shirking,' Megiddo protested.
00:09:26.400 | 'If thou plow a hectare, that's a good day's work and any master knows it.
00:09:30.500 | But when thou plow only a half, that's shirking.'
00:09:34.400 | 'I don't shirk.
00:09:37.100 | I like to work and I like to do good work, for work is the best friend I've ever known.
00:09:41.600 | It has brought me all the good things I've had, my farm and cows and crops, everything.'
00:09:47.800 | 'Yea, and where be these things now?' scoffed Zobado.
00:09:51.700 | 'I figure it pays better to be smart and get by without working.
00:09:56.200 | You watch, Zobado.
00:09:57.600 | If we're sold to the walls, he'll be carrying the water bag or some easy job,
00:10:01.900 | when thou, who like to work, will be breaking thy back carrying bricks.'
00:10:08.000 | He laughed his silly laugh.
00:10:10.900 | Terror gripped me that night.
00:10:13.000 | I could not sleep.
00:10:14.300 | I crowded close to the guard rope and when the others slept,
00:10:17.300 | I attracted the attention of Godoso, who was doing the first guard watch.
00:10:21.700 | He was one of those brigand Arabs, the sort of rogue who,
00:10:25.500 | if he robbed thee of thy purse, would think he must also cut thy throat.
00:10:30.100 | 'Tell me, Godoso,' I whispered, 'when we get to Babylon, will we be sold to the walls?'
00:10:37.000 | 'Why, I want to know,' he questioned cautiously.
00:10:40.300 | 'Canst thou not understand?' I pleaded.
00:10:43.000 | 'I am young. I want to live.
00:10:45.300 | I don't want to be worked or beaten to death on the walls.
00:10:48.200 | Is there any chance for me to get a good master?'
00:10:52.000 | He whispered back.
00:10:54.000 | 'I tell something.
00:10:55.700 | Thou, good fellow, give Godoso no trouble.
00:10:58.900 | Most times we go first to slave market.
00:11:02.300 | Listen now.
00:11:03.500 | When buyers come, tell 'em you good worker like to work hard for good master.
00:11:08.200 | Make 'em want to buy.
00:11:10.000 | You not make 'em buy.
00:11:11.500 | Next day you carry brick.
00:11:13.300 | Mighty hard work.'
00:11:15.800 | After he walked away, I lay in the warm sand,
00:11:18.600 | looking up at the stars and thinking about work.
00:11:21.500 | What Megiddo had said about it being his best friend made me wonder if it would be my best friend.
00:11:26.400 | Certainly it would be if it helped me out of this.
00:11:29.000 | When Megiddo awoke, I whispered my good news to him.
00:11:32.100 | It was our one ray of hope as we marched toward Babylon.
00:11:36.400 | Late in the afternoon, we approached the walls and could see the lines of men,
00:11:40.700 | like black ants, climbing up and down the steep diagonal paths.
00:11:46.000 | As we drew closer, we were amazed at the thousands of men working.
00:11:49.300 | Some were digging in the moat.
00:11:50.900 | Others mixed the dirt into mud bricks.
00:11:53.700 | The greatest number were carrying the bricks in large baskets up those steep trails to the mason.
00:12:00.800 | Overseers cursed the laggards and cracked bullock whips over the backs of those who failed to keep in line.
00:12:07.900 | Poor, worn-out fellows were seen to stagger and fall beneath their heavy baskets, unable to rise again.
00:12:15.400 | If the lash failed to bring them to their feet,
00:12:17.800 | they were pushed to the side of the paths and left writhing in agony.
00:12:21.900 | Soon they would be dragged down to join other craven bodies beside the roadway to await unsanctified graves.
00:12:29.600 | As I beheld the ghastly sight, I shuddered.
00:12:32.900 | So this was what awaited my father's son if he failed at the slave market.
00:12:38.100 | Godoso had been right.
00:12:39.600 | We were taken through the gates of the city to the slave prison and next morning marched to the pens in the market.
00:12:45.600 | Here, the rest of the men huddled in fear,
00:12:47.700 | and only the whips of our guard could keep them moving so the buyers could examine them.
00:12:52.200 | Megiddo and myself eagerly talked to every man who permitted us to address him.
00:12:56.400 | The slave dealer brought soldiers from the king's guard who shackled Pirate and brutally beat him when he protested.
00:13:02.800 | As they led him away, I felt sorry for him.
00:13:05.600 | Megiddo felt that we would soon part.
00:13:08.200 | When no buyers were near, he talked to me earnestly to impress upon me how valuable work would be to me in the future.
00:13:14.500 | Some men hate it. They make it their enemy. Better to treat it like a friend. Make thyself like it.
00:13:20.000 | Don't mind because it is hard.
00:13:21.900 | If thou thinkest about what a good house thou build, then who cares if the beams are heavy and it is far from the well to carry the water for the plaster?
00:13:29.900 | Promise me, boy, if thou get a master, work for him as hard as thou canst.
00:13:34.500 | If he does not appreciate all thou do, never mind.
00:13:37.800 | Remember, work well done does good to the man who does it.
00:13:42.000 | It makes him a better man.
00:13:45.000 | He stopped as a burly farmer came to the enclosure and looked at us critically.
00:13:49.200 | Megiddo asked about his farm and crops, soon convincing him that he would be a valuable man.
00:13:54.800 | After violent bargaining with a slave dealer, the farmer drew a fat purse from beneath his robe and soon Megiddo had followed his new master out of sight.
00:14:04.500 | A few other men were sold during the morning.
00:14:06.800 | At noon, Godoso confided to me that the dealer was disgusted and would not stay over another night, but would take all who remained at sundown to the king's buyer.
00:14:16.000 | I was becoming desperate when a fat, good-natured man walked up to the wall and inquired if there was a baker among us.
00:14:23.200 | I approached him saying, "Why should a good baker like thyself seek another baker of inferior ways?
00:14:28.600 | Would it not be easier to teach a willing man like myself thy skilled ways?
00:14:32.700 | Look at me. I'm young, strong, and like to work.
00:14:35.400 | Give me a chance and I will do my best to earn gold and silver for thy purse."
00:14:40.900 | He was impressed by my willingness and began bargaining with a dealer who had never noticed me since he had bought me,
00:14:46.300 | but now waxed eloquent on my abilities, good health, and good disposition.
00:14:52.200 | I felt like a fat ox being sold to a butcher.
00:14:56.200 | At last, much to my joy, the deal was closed.
00:14:58.600 | I followed my new master away, thinking I was the luckiest man in Babylon.
00:15:03.000 | My new home was much to my liking.
00:15:05.700 | Nana Naid, my master, taught me how to grind the barley in the stone bowl that stood in the courtyard,
00:15:11.400 | how to build the fire in the oven, and then how to grind very fine the sesame flour for the honey cakes.
00:15:17.500 | I had a couch in the shed where his grain was stored.
00:15:20.500 | The old slave housekeeper, Swasti, fed me well and was pleased at the way I helped her with the heavy tasks.
00:15:26.800 | Here was the chance I had longed for to make myself valuable to my master,
00:15:30.900 | and I hoped to find a way to earn my freedom.
00:15:34.200 | I asked Nana Naid to show me how to knead the bread and to bake.
00:15:38.000 | This he did, much pleased at my willingness.
00:15:40.900 | Later, when I could do this well, I asked him to show me how to make the honey cakes,
00:15:44.800 | and soon I was doing all the baking.
00:15:47.200 | My master was glad to be idle, but Swasti shook her head in disapproval.
00:15:51.600 | "No work to do is bad for any man," she declared.
00:15:55.400 | I felt it was time for me to think of a way by which I might start to earn coins to buy my freedom.
00:16:01.000 | As the baking was finished at noon, I thought Nana Naid would approve
00:16:04.200 | if I found profitable employment for the afternoons and might share my earnings with me.
00:16:09.300 | Then the thought came to me.
00:16:11.000 | Why not bake more of the honey cakes and peddle them to hungry men upon the streets of the city?
00:16:15.900 | I presented my plan to Nana Naid this way.
00:16:18.500 | "If I can use my afternoons after the baking is finished to earn for thee coins,
00:16:22.500 | would it be only fair for thee to share my earnings with me,
00:16:25.900 | that I might have money of my own to spend for those things which every man desires and needs?"
00:16:31.400 | "Fair enough, fair enough," he admitted.
00:16:33.900 | When I told him of my plan to peddle our honey cakes, he was well pleased.
00:16:38.100 | "Here is what we will do," he suggested.
00:16:40.500 | "Thou sellest them two for a penny.
00:16:42.900 | Then half of the pennies will be mine to pay for the flour and the honey and the wood to bake them.
00:16:47.200 | Of the rest I shall take half, and thou shalt keep half."
00:16:51.400 | I was much pleased by his generous offer, that I might keep for myself one-fourth of my sales.
00:16:57.400 | That night I worked late to make a tray upon which to display them.
00:17:01.300 | Nana Naid gave me one of his worn robes that I might look well,
00:17:04.800 | and Swasti helped me patch it and wash it clean.
00:17:08.500 | The next day I baked an extra supply of honey cakes.
00:17:11.100 | They looked brown and tempting upon the tray as I went along the street, loudly calling my wares.
00:17:16.800 | At first no one seemed interested, and I became discouraged.
00:17:20.400 | I kept on, and later in the afternoon, as men became hungry, the cakes began to sell, and soon my tray was empty.
00:17:27.400 | Nana Naid was well pleased with my success, and gladly paid me my share.
00:17:32.100 | I was delighted to own pennies.
00:17:34.600 | Megiddo had been right when he said a master appreciated good work from his slaves.
00:17:39.100 | That night I was so excited over my success, I could hardly sleep,
00:17:42.100 | and tried to figure out how much I could earn in a year, and how many years would be required to buy my freedom.
00:17:48.200 | As I went forth with my tray of cakes every day, I soon found regular customers.
00:17:53.000 | One of these was none other than thy grandfather, Aradgula.
00:17:56.700 | He was a rug merchant, and sold to the housewives, going from one end of the city to the other,
00:18:01.700 | accompanied by a donkey loaded high with rugs and a black slave to tend it.
00:18:06.200 | He would buy two cakes for himself, and two for his slave, always tarrying to talk with me while they ate them.
00:18:12.700 | Thy grandfather said something to me one day that I shall always remember.
00:18:17.000 | "I like thy cakes, boy, but better still I like the fine enterprise with which thou offerest them.
00:18:22.200 | Such spirit can carry thee far on the road to success."
00:18:26.700 | "But how canst thou understand, Aradgula, what such words of encouragement could mean to a slave boy,
00:18:32.500 | lonesome in a great city, struggling with all he had in him to find a way out of his humiliation?"
00:18:39.200 | As the months went by, I continued to add pennies to my purse.
00:18:43.000 | It began to have a comforting weight upon my belt.
00:18:46.000 | Work was proving to be my best friend, just as Megiddo had said.
00:18:50.200 | I was happy, but Swasti was worried.
00:18:53.200 | "Thy master, I fear to have him spend so much time at the gaming houses," she protested.
00:18:59.000 | I was overjoyed one day to meet my friend Megiddo upon the street.
00:19:02.700 | He was leading three donkeys loaded with vegetables to the market.
00:19:06.500 | "I am doing mighty well," he said. "My master does appreciate my good work, for now I am a foreman.
00:19:11.700 | See, he does trust the marketing to me, and also he is sending for my family.
00:19:16.200 | Work is helping me to recover from my great trouble.
00:19:19.200 | Someday it will help me to buy my freedom, and once more own a farm of my own."
00:19:25.200 | Time went on, and Nana Naid became more and more anxious for me to return from selling.
00:19:29.900 | He would be waiting when I returned and would eagerly count and divide our money.
00:19:33.700 | He would also urge me to seek further markets and increase my sales.
00:19:37.200 | Often I went outside the city gates to solicit the overseers of the slaves building the walls.
00:19:42.700 | I hated to return to the disagreeable sites, but found the overseers liberal buyers.
00:19:47.700 | One day I was surprised to see Zobato waiting in line to fill his basket with bricks.
00:19:52.700 | He was gaunt and bent, and his back was covered with welts and sores from the whips of the overseers.
00:20:00.200 | I was sorry for him and handed him a cake which he crushed into his mouth like a hungry animal.
00:20:05.700 | Seeing the greedy look in his eyes, I ran before he could grab my tray.
00:20:10.200 | "Why dost thou work so hard?" Aradgula said to me one day.
00:20:14.700 | "Almost the same question thou asked of me today, dost thou remember?
00:20:18.700 | I told him what Megiddo had said about work, and how it was proving to be my best friend.
00:20:24.700 | I showed him with pride my wallet of pennies, and explained how I was saving them to buy my freedom."
00:20:31.200 | "When thou art free, what will thou do?" he inquired. "Then," I answered, "I intend to become a merchant."
00:20:38.200 | At that, he confided in me something I had never suspected.
00:20:43.200 | "Thou knowest not that I also am a slave. I am in partnership with my master."
00:20:48.700 | "Stop!" demanded Aradgula. "I will not listen to lies defaming my grandfather. He was no slave."
00:20:55.700 | His eyes blazed in anger.
00:20:58.200 | Sharunada remained calm. "I honor him for rising above his misfortune and becoming a leading citizen of Damascus.
00:21:05.700 | Art thou his grandson cast of the same mold?
00:21:08.700 | Art thou man enough to face true facts, or dost thou prefer to live under false illusions?"
00:21:15.700 | Aradgula straightened in his saddle. In a voice suppressed with deep emotion, he replied,
00:21:21.200 | "My grandfather was beloved by all. Countless were his good deeds.
00:21:25.200 | When the famine came, did not his gold buy grain in Egypt, and did not his caravan bring it to Damascus
00:21:30.700 | and distribute it to the people so none would starve? Now thou sayest he was but a despised slave in Babylon."
00:21:37.700 | Had he remained a slave in Babylon, then he might well have been despised.
00:21:41.700 | But when, through his own efforts, he became a great man in Damascus,
00:21:45.200 | the gods indeed condoned his misfortunes and honored him with their respect, Sharunada replied.
00:21:52.200 | "After telling me he was a slave," Sharunada continued, "he explained how anxious he had been to earn his freedom.
00:21:59.200 | Now that he had enough money to buy this, he was much disturbed as to what he should do.
00:22:04.200 | He was no longer making good sales and feared to leave the support of his master.
00:22:09.200 | I protested his indecision. "Cling no longer to thy master.
00:22:13.700 | Get once again the feeling of being a free man. Act like a free man and succeed like one.
00:22:19.200 | Decide what thou desirest to accomplish and then work will aid thee to achieve it."
00:22:24.200 | He went on his way, saying he was glad I had shamed him for his cowardice.
00:22:30.200 | One day I went outside the gates again and was surprised to find a great crowd gathering there.
00:22:35.700 | When I asked a man for an explanation, he replied, "Hast thou not heard?
00:22:39.700 | An escaped slave who murdered one of the king's guards has been brought to justice
00:22:43.700 | and will this day be flogged to death for his crime. Even the king himself is to be here."
00:22:49.700 | So dense was the crowd about the flogging post, I feared to go near lest my tray of honey cakes be upset.
00:22:55.700 | Therefore I climbed up the unfinished wall to see over the heads of the people.
00:22:59.700 | I was fortunate in having a view of Nebuchadnezzar himself as he rode by in his golden chariot.
00:23:05.200 | Never had I beheld such grandeur, such robes and hangings of gold cloth and velvet.
00:23:11.200 | I could not see the flogging, though I could hear the shrieks of the poor slave.
00:23:15.700 | I wondered how one so noble as our handsome king could endure to see such suffering,
00:23:21.200 | yet when I saw he was laughing and joking with his nobles, I knew he was cruel
00:23:25.700 | and understood why such inhuman tasks were demanded of the slaves building the walls.
00:23:31.700 | After the slave was dead, his body was hung upon a pole by a rope attached to his legs so all might see.
00:23:38.700 | As the crowd began to thin, I went close. On the hairy chest I saw tattooed two entwined serpents.
00:23:47.700 | It was Pirate.
00:23:50.700 | The next time I met Aradgula, he was a changed man. Full of enthusiasm, he greeted me.
00:23:56.200 | "Behold, the slave thou newest is now a free man. There was magic in thy words.
00:24:01.200 | Already my sales and my profits are increasing. My wife is overjoyed.
00:24:05.700 | She was a free woman, the niece of my master.
00:24:08.700 | She much desires that we move to a strange city where no man shall know I was once a slave.
00:24:13.700 | Thus our children shall be above reproach for their father's misfortune.
00:24:17.200 | Work has become my best helper. It has enabled me to recapture my confidence and my skill to sell."
00:24:24.200 | I was overjoyed that I had been able, even in a small way, to repay him for the encouragement he had given me.
00:24:30.200 | One evening Swasti came to me in deep distress.
00:24:33.200 | "Thy master is in trouble. I fear for him. Some months ago he lost much at the gaming tables.
00:24:38.700 | He pays not the farmer for his grain or his honey. He pays not the moneylender. They are angry and threaten him."
00:24:45.200 | "Why should we worry over his folly? We are not his keepers," I replied thoughtlessly.
00:24:50.200 | "Foolish youth, thou understandest not. To the moneylender didst he give thy title to secure a loan.
00:24:56.200 | Under the law he can claim thee and sell thee. I know not what to do. He is a good master. Why?"
00:25:02.700 | "Why should such trouble come upon him?"
00:25:06.200 | Not were Swasti's fears groundless.
00:25:09.200 | While I was doing the baking next morning the moneylender returned with a man he called Sasi.
00:25:14.200 | This man looked me over and said I would do.
00:25:17.700 | The moneylender waited not for my master to return but told Swasti to tell him he had taken me.
00:25:23.200 | With only the robe on my back and the purse of pennies hanging safely from my belt,
00:25:27.200 | I was hurried away from the unfinished baking.
00:25:30.200 | I was whirled away from my dearest hopes as the hurricane snatches the tree from the forest and casts it into the surging sea.
00:25:37.700 | Again a gaming house and barley beer had caused me disaster.
00:25:42.700 | Sasi was a blunt, gruff man.
00:25:45.700 | As he led me across the city I told him of the good work I had been doing for Nana Naid
00:25:49.700 | and said I hoped to do good work for him. His reply offered no encouragement.
00:25:54.700 | "I like not this work. My master likes it not.
00:25:58.200 | The king has told him to send me to build a section of the Grand Canal.
00:26:02.200 | Master tells Sasi to buy more slaves, work hard and finish quick.
00:26:06.700 | Bah! How can any man finish a big job quick?"
00:26:11.200 | Picture a desert with not a tree, just low shrubs and a sun burning with such fury.
00:26:17.200 | The water in our barrels became so hot we could scarcely drink it.
00:26:21.700 | Then picture rows of men going down into the deep excavation
00:26:26.200 | and lugging heavy baskets of dirt up soft, dusty trails from daylight until dark.
00:26:32.200 | Picture food served in open troughs from which we helped ourselves like swine.
00:26:38.200 | We had no tents, no straw for beds.
00:26:42.700 | That was the situation in which I found myself.
00:26:46.200 | I buried my wallet in a marked spot, wondering if I would ever dig it up again.
00:26:52.200 | At first I worked with goodwill, but as the months dragged on I felt my spirit breaking.
00:26:57.700 | Then the heat fever took hold of my weary body.
00:27:00.700 | I lost my appetite and could scarcely eat the mutton and vegetables.
00:27:05.200 | At night I would toss in unhappy wakefulness.
00:27:08.200 | In my misery I wondered if Zavado had not the best plan
00:27:11.700 | to shirk and keep his back from being broken in work.
00:27:15.200 | Then I recalled my last sight of him and knew his plan was not good.
00:27:20.200 | I thought of Pirate with his bitterness and wondered if it might be just as well to fight and kill.
00:27:26.200 | The memory of his bleeding body reminded me that his plan was also useless.
00:27:31.700 | Then I remembered my last sight of Megiddo.
00:27:35.200 | His hands were deeply calloused from hard work,
00:27:38.200 | but his heart was light and there was happiness on his face.
00:27:42.200 | His was the best plan.
00:27:45.700 | Yet I was just as willing to work as Megiddo.
00:27:48.200 | He could not have worked harder than I.
00:27:50.200 | Why did not my work bring me happiness and success?
00:27:52.200 | Was it work that brought Megiddo happiness, or was happiness and success merely in the laps of the gods?
00:27:57.200 | Was I to work the rest of my life without gaining my desires, without happiness and success?
00:28:02.200 | All of these questions were jumbled in my mind and I had not an answer.
00:28:05.200 | Indeed, I was sorely confused.
00:28:09.200 | Several days later when it seemed that I was at the end of my endurance
00:28:12.200 | and my question still unanswered, Sasi sent for me.
00:28:16.200 | A messenger had come from my master to take me back to Babylon.
00:28:21.200 | I dug up my precious wallet, wrapped myself in the tattered remnants of my robe and was on my way.
00:28:27.200 | As we rode, the same thoughts of a hurricane whirling me hither and thither kept racing through my feverish brain.
00:28:34.200 | I seemed to be living the weird words of a chant from my native town of Harun.
00:28:40.200 | Besetting a man like a whirlwind, driving him like a storm, whose course no one can follow, whose destiny no one can foretell.
00:28:49.200 | Was I destined to be ever thus punished? For I knew not what.
00:28:53.200 | What new miseries and disappointments awaited me?
00:28:56.200 | When we rode to the courtyard of my master's house, imagine my surprise when I saw Arad Gula awaiting me.
00:29:02.200 | He helped me down and hugged me like a long-lost brother.
00:29:05.200 | As we went our way, I would have followed him as a slave, should follow his master, but he would not permit me.
00:29:10.200 | He put his arm about me, saying, "I hunted everywhere for thee."
00:29:13.200 | When I had almost given up hope, I did meet Swasti, who told me of the moneylender, who directed me to thy noble owner.
00:29:19.200 | "A hard bargain," he did drive, "and made me pay an outrageous price, but thou art worth it.
00:29:25.200 | Thy philosophy and thy enterprise have been inspiration to this new success."
00:29:29.200 | "Megiddo's philosophy, not mine," I interrupted.
00:29:32.200 | "Megiddo's and thine. Thanks to thee both, we are going to Damascus, and I need thee for my partner.
00:29:38.200 | See," he exclaimed, "in one moment thou will be a free man."
00:29:42.200 | So saying, he drew from beneath his robe the clay tablet carrying my title.
00:29:47.200 | This he raised above his head and hurled it to break in a hundred pieces upon the cobblestones.
00:29:52.200 | With glee, he stamped upon the fragments until they were but dust.
00:29:56.200 | Tears of gratitude filled my eyes.
00:30:00.200 | I knew I was the luckiest man in Babylon.
00:30:03.200 | "Work, thou see, by this, in the time of my greatest distress, didst prove to be my best friend.
00:30:10.200 | My willingness to work enabled me to escape from being sold to join the slave gangs upon the walls.
00:30:16.200 | It also so impressed thy grandfather he selected me for his partner."
00:30:21.200 | Then Hadangula questioned, "Was work my grandfather's secret key to the golden shekels?"
00:30:27.200 | "It was the only key he had when I first knew him," Sharunada replied.
00:30:32.200 | "Thy grandfather enjoyed working. The gods appreciated his efforts and rewarded him liberally."
00:30:40.200 | "I begin to see," Hadangula was speaking thoughtfully,
00:30:45.200 | "work attracted his many friends who admired his industry and the success it brought.
00:30:51.200 | Work brought him the honors he enjoyed so much in Damascus.
00:30:55.200 | Work brought him all those things I have approved, and I thought work was fit only for slaves."
00:31:02.200 | "Life is rich with many pleasures for men to enjoy," Sharunada commented.
00:31:07.200 | "Each has its place. I am glad that work is not reserved for slaves.
00:31:13.200 | Were that the case, I would be deprived of my greatest pleasure.
00:31:17.200 | Many things do I enjoy, but nothing takes the place of work."
00:31:24.200 | Sharunada and Hadangula rode in the shadows of the towering walls up to the massive bronze gates of Babylon.
00:31:31.200 | At their approach, the gate guards jumped to attention and respectfully saluted an honored citizen.
00:31:37.200 | With head held high, Sharunada led the long caravan through the gates and up the streets of the city.
00:31:44.200 | "I have always hoped to be a man like my grandfather," Hadangula confided to him.
00:31:49.200 | "Never before did I realize just what kind of man he was."
00:31:53.200 | "This thou hast shown me. Now that I understand, I do admire him all the more and feel more determined to be like him.
00:32:00.200 | I fear I can never repay thee for giving me the true key to his success.
00:32:04.200 | From this day forth I shall use his key.
00:32:07.200 | I shall start humbly as he started, which befits my true station far better than jewels and fine robes."
00:32:14.200 | So saying, Hadangula pulled the jeweled baubles from his ears and the rings from his fingers.
00:32:22.200 | Then, reining his horse, he dropped back and rode with a deep respect behind the leader of the caravan.
00:32:33.200 | The holidays start here at Ralph's with a variety of options to celebrate traditions old and new.
00:32:38.200 | You could do a classic herb roasted turkey or spice it up and make turkey tacos.
00:32:43.200 | Serve up a go-to shrimp cocktail or use Simple Truth wild-caught shrimp for your first Cajun risotto.
00:32:49.200 | Make creamy mac and cheese or a spinach artichoke fondue from our selection of Murray's cheese.
00:32:55.200 | No matter how you shop, Ralph's has all the freshest ingredients to embrace all your holiday traditions.
00:33:00.200 | Ralphs, fresh for everyone.