Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/355

348 change in the cool gray sky or any colors on the dusky earth. Everything was as still as death. Presently there was a pale, golden tinge in the east, and the dark mountains of Moab grew dim and shadowy in misty light; the brightness rose up into the heavens, which suddenly became orange, blue, and rose-colored. The tall date palm-trees, so black and so motionless a moment before, now stirred their green fronds gently, and the delicate yellow grasses on the house-tops and on the terraces quivered and shook as if just awakened out of sleep, and birds fluttered from their nests chirping and twittering in chorus; but it was some time before the sun appeared above Mount Olivet. That was on the 26th of May. Afterward I became weaker and weaker, taking no note of time; sometimes riding out very gently into an olive-grove to rest under the trees, while I idly watched the children at their play, or the flickering shadows of wide-winged birds, or the busy insects creeping in and out among the stones and the wild flowers. But there were days when I could not rise from my bed, and sometimes I thought that I should die there. For two or three days I was quite deaf through extreme weakness. The late Dr. Macgowan was unremitting in his attention, and I never shall forget the kindness of my nurses, of whom Mrs. Finn was the chief.

On the 18th of June Um Issa, one of the servants, came to my bedside, and said gently, in Arabic, "Be glad and rejoice, for now you will be well quickly. The Consul has come, God be praised!" From that time I began to recover, and the next day I rode up with my brother to Mr. Graham 's little tower on Mount Olivet, and took up my abode there  for a few weeks. It is a genuine Arab structure. On the ground floor are stables and a kitchen; and a vaulted chamber above, with a broad window in a deep recess, serves as the sitting-room. A few stone steps lead to the flat roof, which forms a pleasant terrace, and is protected by a low wall, as are most of these flat roofs, and as they must have been anciently,