Excerpt from The 13th Son, and Some Other Parables Certain man had thirteen sons. A Now the stargazers and the soothsayers and' the wise women declared with a loud voice that thirteen was an unlucky number. And they prophesied that the thirteenth son would be pursued by misfortune, and there would be no place for him in the land of his birth. But his father said: It is not my fault that my wife is a fruitful vine and Malthus a true prophet. How soever the Lord will provide. Then the first son said: I will be a King or whatever ye choose to call me, Czar or President or Duke, for ye must have some one to rule over ye, and sit upon a throne, and give ye ribbons to wear in your button holes. Then the second son said: I will be a General, a soldier to do your fighting, in case anyone comes to take away the throne of your king, or saith he is bow-legged and cross-eyed and his crown a misfit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.