ey all entered the
house, while the driver brought in Samuel's baggage.

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when Samuel reached his
uncle's house. He was taken into a small parlor, which opened upon a
garden where many flowers were in bloom. It was a warm day, but this
room was cool and fragrant; and on the table were several plates of
fruit, and some cakes, which his uncle caused to be placed there, so
that he might eat some as soon as he arrived, While Samuel was eating
some of them John said:

"We are so glad you have come, Samuel. Last winter you could see nothing
but snow."

"What became of the snow-man we made last winter?" asked Samuel.

"It froze very hard for more than a week after you left," replied
Thomas; "but John and I broke its head a great deal, with snow balls,
and afterwards a warm rain fell, and washed it away."

"Is it warm in the city now?" asked John.

"Yes," answered his cousin. "In the middle of the day the pavements seem
to be about on fire, and people are afraid to walk far, lest they may be
sunstruck. Yesterday two men died with the heat. There seems to be no
air stirring from morning till night. Besides, there is much sickness in
town, and many persons have left their houses, and gone into the
country.

"Father," said Thomas, "how miserable we should be if we had no water to
drink this weather, like those poor Arabs that you told us of the other
day."

"Yes," answered Mr. Harvey, "the sun must be burning hot in Arabia now."

"How can they live in such a place?" asked John.

"They are not all so miserable as the party I told you of the other
day," replied his father. "Besides, you know it is their country, and
God has taught them to love it. If an Arab were brought here, he would,
probably, think it a most dreary land, except in summer."

"But what do you do in town, Samuel," asked John, "when it is too warm
to go out?"

"It is very hot only in the middle of the day," replied his cousin, "and
then, you know, we are at school. In the afternoons, I sometimes rode
out with father, or went on the steamboat. Last week a balloon went up,
from the other side of the river. We had a fine view of it from the roof
of our house. Two men were in it, and when they had risen so high that
the balloon appeared quite small, they threw out a little machine,
called a parachute. It looked something like an umbrella, and had a dog
to it. The balloon sailed a great distance through the air, an