WE SAW IN EGYPT.

CHAPTER I.

HOW WE FARED IN THE SUEZ DESERT.

The welcome cry of "Suez! Suez!" resounded throughout the steamship
_Bentinck_ one November morning. The passage up the Red Sea had been
rough, and every one was glad to exchange the rolling and pitching of
the vessel for land travelling. The railway between Cairo and Suez was
not yet finished, and travellers crossed the desert in vans, each of
which held six persons and was drawn by two horses and two mules. Our
cavalcade consisted of eight of these high-wheeled vans. The fifth team
of vans contained four grown-up people and two children, Hugh and Lucy.

It was a lovely day, the sky blue and clear as on the finest summer day
in England.

Some little time after leaving Suez, a spot was pointed out to us as the
place at or near which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The waters
were now calm and peaceful; they lay gleaming like silver in the
sunlight. But these very waters had been raised as a wall on the right
hand and on the left for the children of Israel to pass through. Then,
with a mighty surge, they had overwhelmed Pharaoh and his host, obedient
to the word of God. This miracle of old seemed more real than it had
ever done before, while we looked at the very waters on which it was
worked.

On we went. A blue cloudless sky above; below, sand, sand, sand: except
where, every now and then, we jolted over large blocks of stone which
sent us bobbing now to this side, now to that, sometimes almost into
each other's faces, to the great amusement of the children. We stopped
about every seven or eight miles, to change our horses and mules;
generally at some little lonely building.

Wherever we stopped, we all got out for a breath of air. For as we
passed stage after stage, the sameness of the desert began to be tiring,
especially to the children. This was not to be wondered at; for, except
the occasional skeleton of some poor camel, whose bones were bleached by
the sun, there was really nothing to interest them. Hugh consoled
himself with a nap now and then, but Lucy was wakeful and restless.

At last we reached the midway station, where we were to stop for nearly
an hour, and to dine.

"How glad I am to get out of this stuffy little van, and to stay out of
it for a good while!" Lucy cried, as she jumped down on the sand.

So was everybody.

"Will they give us some dinner?"

Certainly, this was the only thing we had to wait for.

We