ophet, but their military leader as well.

He led the hosts of Islam against the Sikhs, in the days when Dost
Mohammed planned to conquer all India, and many are the stories told of
his prowess.

Nor did he fight alone against the Indians, but in 1863 he led the
Afghans in their battle with the British at Umbeyla, and made himself
the most feared man in all the Afghan empire.

When not busy in the wars, the Akhoond was always to be found at Saidu.
From sunrise to sunset he sat in his mosque, reproving the erring,
comforting the mourners, encouraging the faithful, and cursing the
obstinate unbelievers.

Disputes of every sort were brought to him for settlement. Troubles of
all kinds were brought to him to be made right. Hundreds of miracles
were performed by him every day. The sick were made well in an instant.

A man would come, lamenting that his horse was lost, and would find it
the next moment at the door of the mosque. A carpenter was bewailing
that a beam was three feet too short for the needed purpose, and in a
twinkling it grew to exactly the length required.

A visitor in the city wished to return speedily to his home in
Constantinople, thousands of miles away. He was bade to close his eyes,
and the next moment opened them in his home.

To tell the people of Swat that these things were not so, would have
been equivalent to telling them that light was darkness. No wonder,
then, that the Akhoond was a power in the land, and that Ameer after
Ameer sought his assistance.

Shere Ali was the last. When he began his last struggle with the
British, he begged the Akhoond to lead his armies as of old. But death
stepped in, and the Akhoond passed into history.

Yet still his virtues abide. The mosque in which he taught is the
holiest place in all Swat, and miracles are daily wrought there. The
Akhoond's son does not succeed him as a teacher, but he inherits the
worldly possessions of the Akhoond, and these are enough to make him the
richest man in all Swat.

[_This Story began in No.44._]

A PLUCKY GIRL
or,
"For Father's Sake."

A Story Of Prairie Land

BY CELIA PEARSE,

Author Of "Little Gothamites," "Will She
Win Her Way?" "A Wise Little Woman,"
etc., etc.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Lottie was so vexed and indignant that, for a moment, she could neither
move nor speak. Eva, too, was p