Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/260

246 house, I should not leave my bed." The day opened dark and dreary; there were clouds all round the horizon, and a storm seemed to be coming on. Under that lowering sky, to put a sick man on a camel for a day's march seemed like madness, and yet there was almost equal danger in lingering here. We had to decide promptly. Bad as the case was, I insisted that we must start and go as far as we could. I do not think he would have raised his head from the pillow that day if he had not seen the look on my face. But seeing in me something which seemed to speak of a desperate necessity, he rose up once more as if to take his last ride. How he went through that day, I can only explain by this, that on the desert, as on the sea, men "cry unto the Lord in their troubles, and He bringeth them out of their distresses."

All the morning we were looking for rain. By the rules of storms it ought to have rained. The Doctor proved it, (a man of science is nothing if not scientific,) for he had a perfect theory of storms. He took the map, and showed how the hot air of Africa, coming from the Sahara, strikes the Mediterranean, and drinks up clouds full of rain, which descend on the neighboring coasts. We were now in the rainy belt, and by good right it should, would, and must rain. So we should have had it if the elements had done their duty. I rallied him pleasantly for his confident prediction, too happy if I could bring a smile on his dear, sad face. For my part, I preferred to walk by faith and sight, instead of theory, and not flee before the storm until it came; and as a kind Providence would have it, in an hour or two the sky cleared, and we had a beautiful day, all the better for the clouds that tempered the heat of the sun.

And now at last we were rewarded for our perseverance in the march. The character of the country changed. We