vid smote the host of the Philistines after he had heard "the
sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees." The red soil was
cultivated in little farms and gardens. The almond-trees were in leaf;
the hawthorn in blossom; the fig-trees were putting forth their tender
green.

[Illustration: A Street in Bethlehem.]

A slowly ascending road brought us to the hill of Mar Elyas, and the
so-called Well of the Magi. Here the legend says the Wise Men halted
after they had left Jerusalem, and the star reappeared to guide them on
to Bethlehem. Certain it is that they must have taken this road; and
certain it is that both Bethlehem and Jerusalem, hidden from each other
by the rising ground, are clearly visible to one who stands in the
saddle of this hill.

There were fine views down the valleys to the east, with blue glimpses
of the Dead Sea at the end of them. The supposed tomb of Rachel, a dingy
little building with a white dome, interested us less than the broad
lake of olive-orchards around the distant village of Beit Jala, and the
green fields, pastures and gardens encircling the double hill of
Bethlehem, the ancient "House of Bread." There was an aspect of
fertility and friendliness about the place that seemed in harmony with
its name and its poetic memories.

In a walled kitchen-garden at the entrance of the town was David's Well.
We felt no assurance, of course, as we looked down into it, that this
was the veritable place. But at all events it served to bring back to us
one of the prettiest bits of romance in the Old Testament. When the bold
son of Jesse had become a chieftain of outlaws and was besieged by the
Philistines in the stronghold of Adullam, his heart grew thirsty for a
draught from his father's well, whose sweetness he had known as a boy.
And when his three mighty men went up secretly at the risk of their
lives, and broke through the host of their enemies, and brought their
captain a vessel of this water, "he would not drink thereof, but poured
it out unto Jehovah."

There was a division of opinion in our party in regard to this act. "It
was sheer foolishness," said the Patriarch, "to waste anything that had
cost so much to get. What must the three mighty men have thought when
they saw that for which they had risked their lives poured out upon the
ground?" "Ah, no," said the Lady. "It was the highest gratitude, because
it was touched with poetry. It was the best compliment that David could
have give