The news went about the town, and everybody came running to see the wonder--and they remembered to bring baskets, too.

But the tree was equal to the occasion; it put out new fruits as fast as any were removed; baskets were filled by the score and by the hundred, but always the supply remained undiminished.

At last a foreigner in white linen and sun-helmet arrived, and exclaimed, angrily: "Away from here! Clear out, you dogs; the tree is on my lands and is my property." The natives put down their baskets and made humble obeisance.

Satan made humble obeisance, too, with his fingers to his forehead, in the native way, and said: "Please let them have their pleasure for an hour, sir--only that, and no longer.

Afterward you may forbid them; and you will still have more fruit than you and the state together can consume in a year." This made the foreigner very angry, and he cried out, "Who are you, you vagabond, to tell your betters what they may do and what they mayn't!" and he struck Satan with his cane and followed this error with a kick.
The fruits rotted on the branches, and the leaves withered and fell.