still the life of Biblical
times.' Something's burning!"

Shortly after, Tufik, beaming with happiness and Hannah clearly
forgotten, summoned us to the dining-room. Tufik was not a cook. We
realized that at once. He had made coffee in the Oriental way--strong
enough to float an egg, very sweet and full of grounds; and after a bite
of the cakes he had made, Tish remembered the dentist the next day and
refused solid food on account of a bad tooth. The cakes were made of
lard and flour, without any baking-powder or flavoring, and the tops
were sprinkled thick with granulated sugar. Little circles of grease
melted out of them on to the plate, and Tufik, wide-eyed with triumph,
sweetly wistful over Tish's tooth, humble and joyous in one minute,
stood by the cake plate and fed them to us!

I caught Aggie's agonized eye, but there was nothing else to do. Were we
not his friends? And had he not made this delicacy for us? On her third
cake, however, Aggie luckily turned blue round the mouth and had to go
and lie down. This broke up the meal and probably saved my life, though
my stomach has never been the same since. Tish says the cakes are
probably all right in the Orient, where it is hot and the grease does
not get a chance to solidify. She thinks that Tufik is probably a good
cook in his own country. But Aggie says that a good many things in the
Bible that she never understood are made plain to her if that is what
they ate in Biblical times--some of the things they saw in visions, and
all that. She dropped asleep on Tish's lounge and distinctly saw Tufik
murdering Hannah by forcing one of his cakes down her throat.

The next month was one of real effort. We had planned to go to Panama,
and had our passage engaged; but when we broke the news to Tufik he
turned quite pale.

"You go--away?" he said wistfully.

"Only for a month," Tish hastened to apologize. "You see, we--we are all
very tired, and the Panama Canal--"

"Canal? I know not a canal."

"It is for ships--"

"You go there in a ship?"

"Yes. A canal is a--"

"You go far--in a ship--and I--I stay here?"

"Only for a month," Aggie broke in. "We will leave you enough money to
live on; and perhaps when we come back you will have found something to
do--"

"For a month," he said brokenly. "I have no friends, no Miss Tish, no
Miss Liz, no Miss Pilk. I die!"

He got up and walked to the window. It was Aggie who realized the awful
truth. The poor lonely boy was