t there like a frog on a pond lily leaf 308]

My jackass only stepped his feet in the edge, and dad wanted me to swim
my jackass out to the camel and let him fall off onto the jack, but I
knew dad would sink my jack in a minute, and I wouldn't go in the river.
Well, the camels drank about an hour, with dad sitting there meditating,
and then the dragomen got them out, and we started off for the pyramids,
which were in plain sight like the pictures you have seen, with palm
trees along the Nile, and Arabs camping on the bank, and it looked as
though everything was going to be all right, when suddenly dad's camel
stopped dead still and wouldn't move a foot, and all the rest of the
camels stopped, closed their eyes and went to sleep, and the Arabs went
to sleep, and dad and the jackass and I were apparently the only animals
in Egypt that were awake.

Dad kicked his camel in the ribs, but it wouldn't budge. He asked me if
I could't think up some way to start the procession, and I stopped my
jackass and thought a minute, and told dad I had it. I had bought some
giant fire crackers and roman candles at Cairo, with which I was going
to fire a salute on top of the biggest pyramid, to celebrate for old
America, and I told dad what I had got, and I thought if I got off my
jackass and fired a salute there in the desert it would wake them up.

Dad said, "all right, let 'er go, but do it sort of easy, at first, so
not to overdo it," and I got my artillery ready. Say, you can't fire off
fireworks easy, you got to touch a match to 'em and dodge and take your
chances. Well, I scratched a match and lit the giant fire cracker, and
put it under the hind legs of dad's camel, and when it got to fizzing
I lit my roman candle, and as the fire cracker exploded like a 16-inch
gun, my roman candle began to spout balls of fire, and I aimed one at
each camel, and the whole push started on a stampede for the pyramids,
the camels groaning, the Arabs praying to Allah, dad yelling to stop
'er, and my jackass led the bunch, and I was left in the desert to pick
up the hats.

[Illustration: Started on a stampede for the pyramids 311]

I guess I will have to tell you' the rest of the tragedy in my next
letter.

Yours with plenty of sand,

Hennery.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Bad Boy and His Dad Climb the Pyramids--The Bad Boy
Lights a Cannon Cracker in Rameses' Tomb--They Flee from
Egypt in Disguise.

Cairo, Egypt.--My Dear Old Geez