He therefore came back to his father's house, profitless and useless, but not worthless; for there was something in his disposition that would not suffer him to be ashamed of his conduct. When he was spoken to seriously on the matter, he answered, that all men could not endure to rise in the morning at daylight, and do nothing till set of sun but examine the woof of broad cloth, try the dye of it, and measure it by yards into parcels (and he stripped his muscular arm in proof of it); and said, that that, and killing all the moths to be found in his master's shop, was all he had done for two lingering years. Though all rated or laughed at him, he still persisted in it.
It happened soon after, that the king of Naples intended to be crowned; and having but few jewels in his treasury, he manned two vessels; sending one to traffic with the Moors, and another to Araby, for valuables of the greatest rarity. It happened that both vessels returned, and met at a certain point within sight of Naples; but a storm, in all the turbulence of wrath, broke over them, so that they went to the bottom suddenly, being grappled together. The king, vexed at the matter, and feeling the loss of so much money from his treasury, offered an immense reward to any one who would con-
