water, we shall taste the bitterness."

His prediction was verified only too soon; for as the road which, after
leaving the sandstone region, began to lead upward through a rocky
landscape which resembled walls of red brick and grey stone, grew
steeper, the sun rose higher and higher and the heat of the day hourly
increased.

Never had the sun sent sharper arrows upon the travellers, and pitiless
was their fall upon bare heads and shoulders.

Here an old man, yonder a younger one, sank prostrate under its
scorching blaze or, supported by his friends, staggered on raving with
his hand pressed to his brow like a drunken man. The blistered skin
peeled from the hands and faces of men and women, and there was not one
whose palate and tongue were not parched by the heat, or whose vigorous
strength and newly-awakened courage it did not impair.

The cattle moved forward with drooping heads and dragging feet or rolled
on the ground till the shepherds' lash compelled them to summon their
failing powers.

At noon the people were permitted to rest, but there was not a hand's
breadth of shade where they sought repose. Whoever lay down in the
noonday heat found fresh tortures instead of relief. The sufferers
themselves urged a fresh start for the spring at Alush.

Hitherto each day, after the sun had begun its course toward the west
through the cloudless sky of the desert, the heat had diminished, and
ere the approach of twilight a fresher breeze had fanned the brow; but
to-day the rocks retained the glow of noonday for many hours, until
a light cool breeze blew from sea at the west. At the same time the
vanguard which, by Joshua's orders, preceded the travellers, halted, and
the whole train stopped.

Men, women, and children fixed their eyes and waved hands, staves,
and crutches toward the same spot, where the gaze was spell-bound by a
wondrous spectacle never beheld before.

A cry of astonishment and admiration echoed from the parched weary lips,
which had long since ceased to utter question or answer; and it soon
rang from rank to rank, from tribe to tribe, to the very lepers at the
end of the procession and the rear-guard which followed it. One touched
another, and whispered a name familiar to every one, that of the sacred
mountain where the Lord had promised Moses to "bring them unto a good
land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

No one had told the weary travellers, yet all knew that for the firs