Well, sir, it was not one of these world's fair camels that lay down for
you to get on, and then got up on the installment plan, and chuck you
forward and aft, but a proud Egyptian camel that stands up straight and
makes you climb up on a stepladder.

Dad got along up the camel's ribs, when the-stepladder fell, and he
grabbed hold of the hair on the two humps, and the humps were loose and
they lopped over on the side, and it must have hurt the camel's feelings
to have his humps pulled down, so he reached around his head and took a
mouthful out of the seat of dad's pants, and dad yelled to the camel
to let go, and the Arabs amputated the camel from dad's trousers, and
pushed dad up on top with a bamboo pole with a crotch in it, and when
dad got settled between the humps he said, "Let 'er go," and we started.

Dad could have had a camel with a platform on top, and an awning, but he
insisted on taking his camel raw, and he sat there between those humps,
his trousers worked up towards his knees, showing his red socks and blue
drawers, and his face got pale from sea sickness, and the red, white and
blue colors made me think of a fourth of July at home. We went out of
town like a wild west show, and dad seemed happy, except that every time
an automobile went whizzing along, dad's camel got the jumps and waltzed
sideways out into the sandy desert, and chewed at dad's socks, so part
of the time dad had to draw up his legs and sit on one hump and put his
shoes on the other hump. The Arabs on the other camels would ride up
alongside and steer dad's camel back into the road, by sticking sharp
sticks into the camel, and the animal would yawn and groan and make up
faces at me on my jackass, and finally dad wanted to change works with
me and ride my jackass, but I told him we had left the stepladder back
at Cairo, so dad hung to his mountainous steed, but the dust blew so
you couldn't see, and it was getting monotonous when the queerest thing
happened.

You have heard that camels can fill up with water and go for a week
without asking for any more. Well, I guess the week was up, and it was
time to load the camels with water, for as we came to the Nile every
last camel made a rush for the river, and they went in like a yoke of
oxen on a stampede, and waded in clear up to the humps, and began to
drink, and dad yelled for a life preserver and pulled his feet up on top
and sat there like a frog on a pond lily leaf.

[Illustration: Sa