igure in that faint circle of light? One must
be Estelle. But the other? Jack's heart filled with painful anxiety.
Could it be Thomas? If so, what was he doing there? It was exasperating
that Julien should require his services just when it was vitally urgent
that he should save Estelle. His duty was clear, however. The boy must
be placed in a position of safety before he could feel free to attend to
the needs of the little girl, whose sole protector he was.

Happily, Estelle had not yet seen the sailor. The rapid rising of the
tide, the urgent appeals of Thomas, and the agony of her distress about
her playmate, had made her nearly frantic. It was with much difficulty
that the ex-gardener managed to pull her up a little higher, out of the
immediate wash of the waves. It was all he could do, for the ledge was
too far above their heads for him to place her upon it, though he could
save himself. He was making up his mind that the child must be
sacrificed, that there was no way of saving her, when he became aware of
a voice shouting above the thunder of the sea. Estelle's quick ear
caught the sound, too, and with a start that nearly threw her off her
perilous perch, she cried out in reply----

'Jack! Jack!'

(_Continued on page 322._)

PLOUGHING IN SYRIA.

[Illustration]

The life of a farmer in Syria and Palestine is very different from the
life of a farmer in England. He does not live in an isolated farmhouse,
in the midst of a number of enclosed fields, which he owns or rents, and
which he cultivates at his own cost and for his own profit alone. The
country is much too unsettled to permit families to dwell alone, and so
they cluster in little villages for their common safety and defence. The
cultivated lands of the villagers lie outside the village, and the most
fertile ground is sometimes a mile or two away from the houses. The
villagers are too poor to enclose each a farm for himself, and the farms
are simply cultivated plots lying unenclosed in a great waste, which
belongs, perhaps, to the Government, or to some great feudal lord.

Because each man is poor and defenceless, the villagers combine to
cultivate these plots together, and they divide among themselves the
produce which is raised by their labours. The Government, or the lord of
the land, is paid with a certain share of all that is grown upon the
land, and this share is collected from the villagers by an officer who
is appointed for the purpose,