He persisted.

When the muleteer and I set forth again, he rode beside us, mounted on another donkey this time--'borrowed,' as he put it--which showed he was a person of resource.

'By Allah, I can shoe a horse and cook a fowl; I can mend garments with a thread and shoot a bird upon the wing,' he told me.

'I would take care of the stable and the house.

I would do everything your Honour wanted.