years
old till the fourteenth o' the next month. You 'ave lost yer senses, an'
in troth, it an't no wonder!"

"That is true, for there is nothing in the Saaera to help a man keep his
reckoning. There are no seasons; and every day is as like another as two
seconds in the same minute. But surely I must have been here for more
than eleven years."

"No," answered Bill, "ye 'ave no been here only a wee bit langer than
tin; but afther all ye must 'ave suffered in that time, it is quare that
ye should a know'd me at all, at all."

"I did not know you until you spoke," rejoined Jim "Then I couldn't
doubt that it was you who stood before me, when I heard our father's
broad Scotch, our mother's Irish brogue, and the talk of the cockneys
amongst whom your earliest days were passed, all mingled together."

"You see, Master Colly," said Bill, turning to the young Scotchman. "My
brother Jim has had the advantage of being twelve years younger than I;
and when he was old enough to go to school, I was doing something to
help kape 'im there, and for all that I believe he is plased to see me."

"Pleased to see you!" exclaimed Jim. "Of course I am."

"I'm sure av it," said Bill.

"Well, then, brother, go ahead, an' spin us your yarn."

"I have no one yarn to spin," replied Jim, "for a narrative of my
adventures in the desert would consist of a thousand yarns, each giving
a description of some severe suffering or disappointment. I can only
tell you that it seems to me that I have passed many years in travelling
through the sands of the Saaera, years in cultivating barley on its
borders, years in digging wells, and years in attending flocks of goats,
sheep, and other animals. I have had many masters,--all bad, and some
worse,--and I have had many cruel disappointments about regaining my
liberty. I was once within a single day's journey of Mogador, and was
then sold again and carried back into the very heart of the desert. I
have attempted two or three times to escape; but was recaptured each
time, and nearly killed for the unpardonable dishonesty of trying to rob
my master of my own person. I have often been tempted to commit suicide;
but a sort of womanly curiosity and stubbornness has prevented me. I
wished to see how long Fortune would persecute me, and I was determined
not to thwart her plans by putting myself beyond their reach. I did not
like to give in, for any one who tries to escape from trouble by killing
himself, shows th