up by many a cataract; and the
rushing noise of the water, carried from its mysterious source at the
foot of Mount Hermon, fills the valley with a music not lost upon ears
long accustomed to the dry wastes of Arabian deserts. To the north lie
plains where cold blasts blow, and mountains whose crests gleam with
never-failing snow; yet in the fair vales of Jordan the tempered breeze
fans the air with the mildness of a never-ceasing-summer, and the soft
alluvial soil is luxuriant with the rich growth of the tropics. To the
west the rugged and picturesque mountains of Judea rise, and to the
east, at a distance of some ten miles, lie the blue-tinted mountains of
Moab, rich in associations of sacred history.

In this favored spot, shaded by waving groves and hidden by vines, was
the house of Asru's wife; and at a little distance from it was a well,
an old-fashioned well such as is seen only in the East, walled about
with ancient and worn flag-stones, between which, at one side, the water
trickled and ran over mossy stones to the river below.

A large tamarisk tree waved above it, and in its shade, with one knee
resting on the flag-stone, her hands clasped behind her head, and her
large eyes fixed upon the mountains of Moab beyond, stood Sherah, ere
the sun rose, on one beautiful autumn morning.

An earthen water-pitcher, such as is carried by the girls of the Orient,
was beside her, yet she moved not to execute her errand.

The sun arose behind the mountain; the amber sky became golden; the rosy
pink clouds changed to radiant silver; the birds sang; the dew
glittered; and the sun shone through the leaves of the trees with a
flush of green-gold.

The beauty of the scene touched the girl. In a low, clear voice,
spontaneous as the song of a bird, she sang: "For the Lord shall comfort
Zion; he will comfort her waste places: and he will make her wilderness
like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness
shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."

The song brought comfort to her; for was she not soon to leave this
fairy spot, this Aidenn, to return to the land of the Mussulman; not the
land of--

"Deep myrrh thickets blowing round
The stately cedar, tamarisks.
Thick rosaries of scented thorn,
Tall Orient shrubs, and obelisks
Graven with emblems of the time,"

but to the bleak, treeless plains of Nejd, breezy with the warm breath
of desert-swept winds, bound