all God's purposes about us, just.
Canst thou, Elhadra, reach out of the grave,
And draw the golden waters of love's well?
_His_ years are chrisms of brightness in time's wave--
Thine are as dewdrops in the nightshade's bell!

Then straightening in my hands the rippled length
Of all my tresses, slowly one by one,
I took the flowers out.--Dear one, in thy strength
Pray for my weakness. Thou hast seen the sun
Large in the setting, drive a column of light
Down through the darkness: so, within death's night,
O my beloved, when I shall have gone,
If it might be so, would my love burn on.

From Household Words

THE MODERN HAROUN-AL-RASCHID.

In the district of Ferdj' Onah (which signifies _Fine Country_),
Algeria, lives a Scheik named Bou-Akas-ben-Achour. He is also
distinguished by the surname of _Bou-Djenoni_ (the Man of the Knife),
and may be regarded as a type of the eastern Arab. His ancestors
conquered Ferdj' Onah, but he has been forced to acknowledge the
supremacy of France, by paying a yearly tribute of 80,000 francs. His
dominion extends from Milah to Rabouah, and from the southern point of
Babour to within two leagues of Gigelli. He is forty-nine years old, and
wears the Rahyle costume; that is to say, a woollen _gandoura_, confined
by a leathern belt. He carries a pair of pistols in his girdle, by his
side the Rahyle _flissa_, and suspended from his neck a small black
knife.

Before him walks a negro carrying his gun, and a huge greyhound bounds
along by his side. He holds despotic sway over twelve tribes; and should
any neighboring people venture to make an incursion on his territory,
Bou-Akas seldom condescends to march against them in person, but sends
his negro into the principal village. This envoy just displays the gun
of Bou-Akas, and the injury is instantly repaired.

He keeps in pay two or three hundred Tolbas to read the Koran to the
people; every pilgrim going to Mecca, and passing through Ferdj' Onah,
receives three francs, and may remain as long as he pleases to enjoy the
hospitality of Bou-Akas. But whenever the Scheik discovers that he has
been deceived by a pretended pilgrim, he immediately dispatches
emissaries after the impostor; who, wherever he is, find him, throw him
down, and give him fifty blows on the soles of his feet.

Bou-Akas sometimes entertains three hundred persons at dinner; but
instead of sharing their rep