e." Then she stooped, and threw a brown
sack over the child. She went back into the open air, greeted Nemu,
entertained him with milk, bread and honey, gave him news of the girl who
had been run over, for he seemed to take her misfortune very much to
heart, and finally asked:

"What brings you here? The Nile was still narrow when you last found your
way to me, and now it has been falling some time.

[This is the beginning of November. The Nile begins slowly to rise
early in June; between the 15th and 20th of July it suddenly swells
rapidly, and in the first half of October, not, as was formerly
supposed, at the end of September, the inundation reaches its
highest level. Heinrich Barth established these data beyond
dispute. After the water has begun to sink it rises once more in
October and to a higher level than before. Then it soon falls, at
first slowly, but by degrees quicker and quicker.]

Are you sent by your mistress, or do you want my help? All the world is
alike. No one goes to see any one else unless he wants to make use of
him. What shall I give you?"

"I want nothing," said the dwarf, "but--"

"You are commissioned by a third person," said the witch, laughing. "It
is the same thing. Whoever wants a thing for some one else only thinks of
his own interest."

"May be," said Nemu. "At any rate your words show that you have not grown
less wise since I saw you last--and I am glad of it, for I want your
advice."

"Advice is cheap. What is going on out there?" Nemu related to his mother
shortly, clearly, and without reserve, what was plotting in his
mistress's house, and the frightful disgrace with which she was
threatened through her son.

The old woman shook her grey head thoughtfully several times: but she let
the little man go on to the end of his story without interrupting him.
Then she asked, and her eyes flashed as she spoke:

"And you really believe that you will succeed in putting the sparrow on
the eagle's perch--Ani on the throne of Rameses?"

"The troops fighting in Ethiopia are for us," cried Nemu. "The priests
declare themselves against the king, and recognize in Ani the genuine
blood of Ra."

"That is much," said the old woman.

"And many dogs are the death of the gazelle," said Nemu laughing.

"But Rameses is not a gazelle to run, but a lion," said the old woman
gravely. "You are playing a high game."

"We know it," answered Nemu. But it is for high stakes--th