Read "The Mercy of Allah" by Hilaire Belloc online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
On the appointed day of the next week, when, with the hour of public / executions, the noon-day amusements of the city come to an end, and / the citizens betake themselves to the early afternoon's repose, the / seven boys were once more seated in the presence of their uncle, whom / they discovered in a radiant humour.
He welcomed them so warmly that they imagined for a moment he / might be upon the point of offering them sherbet, sweetmeats, or / even money; they were undeceived, however, when the excellent but / extremely wealthy old man, drawing his purse lovingly through his / fingers, ordered to have poured out for each of them by a slave a / further draught of delicious cold water, put himself at his ease for / a long story, and resumed his tale: