in his aim, he was compelled, for the peace
of the passengers, to pay for the lost articles. I heard among the crowd
on deck some one exclaim: "This is great fun!" Perhaps it is, but I
failed to appreciate it.

At 4:00 p. m., the 19th of January, we landed in Cairo, a tired but a
wiser crowd, and we are not yet through the wilderness. O, for a Moses!
Why did he not survive the Deluge? Backsheesh from every one of that
crew. Those who had brushed the dust or sand from your shoes or clothes
as you flew by them at each landing place; those with shoo-fly or
brushes, whom we had never encountered during the entire trip, were in
line for a piaster, to say nothing of the big fees expected by the male
attendants at table and in your cabin. But greatest of all were the
expectations of the dragomen, who were most sullen if anything less than
one or two pound note or gold piece was offered them. It is safe to say
to go under "Thomas A. Cook & Co.'s auspices up the Nile," you cannot
get off without paying at least three hundred dollars for a three-weeks'
excursion. Already, competing companies at reduced prices are
manifesting themselves, and I heard with perfect satisfaction to their
patrons, but the Sheiks, they say, are bought up by the "Cook's." How
much of this is Nile gossip, I did not attempt to fathom. I had made the
trip; never missed but one excursion, and still being in the body, gave
thanks that it was finished.

We were again booked for Shephards. What a cosmopolitan crowd gathered
in the exchange of that hostelry that evening. Many permanent guests for
the season; many more in a transition condition; many waiting for the
return of our vessel, as it was the best on the river, to go again on
that bourne, from which most travelers return. The room allotted me was
on the ground floor; I think in my weakness I would have accepted it,
but Mrs. Stroud and Baxter, my patron saints, declared it unfit for me,
and a cot was placed in a large upper room which had been assigned these
ladies, and I was forced by them to take the best bed. At the end of
three days the crowd grew less and accommodations better, and a sunny,
bright room was given me all to myself. Can such kindness as those
friends conferred upon me ever be forgotten? Not by me, nor those of the
name who come after me. One is not apt to forget an "oasis in the
desert." Having decided to remain in Cairo for at least two weeks, in
anticipation of meeting a friend who h