it is taken up by all the
others. The teacher sits outside the school very often sewing or preparing
a meal or entertaining visitors; for the schoolhouse is an ordinary mat
hut dwelling. If however a pupil makes a mistake in reading she hears
instantly and corrects it.

When the hours of prayer come around (the Moslems you know pray five times
a day) lessons are dropped. One day I called at the school at the time of
afternoon prayer. All the children had run down to the sea, to wash their
faces and hands and feet, so as to be quite pure outwardly, when repeating
Mohammed's prayers.

In the accompanying picture of a Moslem boy praying you will see what
those forms are and how much _form_ there is to go through. Blind Fatimah
stood with her hands clasped, looking upward with those sightless eyes,
her lips moving. Then she fell on her knees, with the little, thin hands
spread out; then she bowed down until her forehead touched the earth,
continuing in that position for a little time; then she got up, and with
another upward look and motion of the lips, the devotions were ended.

[Illustration: HOW A MOSLEM BOY PRAYS.]

I prayed there, too, that her eyes might be opened to see Jesus as her own
Saviour, and that she might know Him as the _Son of God_, and not merely
as one of the many prophets mentioned in the Koran. It seemed such a sad
sight to see this blind child, doubly blind because her religion is false,
and she is resting on a false hope.

She always listens when I tell her, or read to her about God, and Jesus
Christ the Saviour. And if you would help together by your daily prayers,
perhaps soon God will give the answer. Would it not be blessed for you and
me if some day blind Fatimah should have opened eyes; not to see the date
groves, and the sea, and the beautiful sunsets of Bahrein, but far
more--to see Jesus' face and to follow Him by leading others to Him?

"For thousands and thousands who wander and fall,
Never heard of that heavenly home;
I should like them to know there is room for them all,
And that Jesus has bid them to come.
I long for the joy of that glorious time,
The sweetest and brightest and best,
When the dear little children of every clime
Shall crowd to His arms and be blest."

VII

DATES AND SUGAR-CANE

This is the sweetest chapter in the book. The pictures are enough to make
one's mouth water and give one an appetite for Arabian dates.