er: I broke off my last letter in sight
of the pyramids, when I was left alone on the desert, my jackass having
stampeded with the camels, on account of my fireworks, and I presume
you think I was all in, but I got to the pyramids before the stampeded
caravan did. I saw a car coming along, and I just got aboard and in ten
minutes I was at the base of the big pyramid, and the camel with dad on
between the humps, was humping himself half a mile away, trying to get
there, and the other camels, with the Arabs, were stretched out like
horses in a race, behind, and my jackass was right next to dad's camel,
braying and occasionally kicking dad's camel in the slats.

There were about a hundred tourists around the stampede of the camels,
and I told them my the base of the big pyramid, all looking towards dad,
the great American millionaire, was on the runaway camel in advance, and
asked them to form a line across the trail and save dad, but when the
camel came nearer I was ashamed of dad. He had his arms around the front
hump of the camel, and he was yelling for help to stop his menagerie,
and his legs were flying in the air, and every time they came down they
kicked a hole in the side of the camel.

[Illustration: I was ashamed of dad 319]

Well, sir, I thought dad was a brave man, but he blatted like a calf,
and when the camel stopped and went to eating a clump of grass dad
opened his eyes, and when he saw that the procession had stopped he
rolled off his camel like a bag of wheat, and stuck in the sand and
began to say a prayer, but when he saw me standing there, laughing, he
stopped praying, and said to me: "I thought you were blown up when that
jackass kicked the can of dynamite. You have more lives than a cat. Now,
get a hustle on you and we will climb that pyramid, and then quit
this blasted country," and dad sat down on a hummock and began to pull
himself together, after the most fearful ride he ever had. He said the
camel loped, trotted, galloped, single-footed and shied all at the same
time, and when one hump was not jamming him in the back the other hump
was kicking him in the stomach, and if he had a gun he would shoot the
camel, and the Arabs, and bust up the show.

By the time dad got so he could stand up without leaning against a
pyramid the Arabs came up and they all talked at once, and drew knives,
and it seemed as though they were blaming dad for something. We found
an interpreter among the tourists, and he