ng away from them; gone for a
few minutes to-day, to-morrow it will stay away a few more, until
at last there are many hours of rosy twilight, and few, very few, of
clear sunshine.

But the children are happy: they do not dread the winter, but they
hope the tired travellers have reached their homes; and Agoonack
wants, oh, so much! to see them and help them once more. The father
will hunt again, and the mother will tend the lamp and keep the house
warm; and, although they will have no sun, the moon and stars are
bright, and they will see again the streamers of the great northern
light.

Would you like to live in the cold countries, with their long darkness
and long sunshine?

It is very cold, to be sure, but there are happy children there, and
kind fathers and mothers, and the merriest sliding on the very best of
ice and snow.

GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT.

It is almost sunset; and Abdel Hassan has come out to the door of
his tent to enjoy the breeze, which is growing cooler after the day's
terrible heat. The round, red sun hangs low over the sand; it will be
gone in five minutes more. The tent-door is turned away from the sun,
and Abdel Hassan sees only the rosy glow of its light on the hills in
the distance which looked so purple all day. He sits very still, and
his earnest eyes are fixed on those distant hills. He does not move or
speak when the tent-door is again pushed aside, and his two children,
Alee and Gemila, come out with their little mats and seat themselves
also on the sand. You can see little Gemila in the picture. How glad
they are of the long, cool shadows, and the tall, feathery palms! how
pleasant to hear the camels drink, and to drink themselves at the deep
well, when they have carried some fresh water in a cup to their silent
father! He only sends up blue circles of smoke from his long pipe as
he sits there, cross-legged, on a mat of rich carpet. He never sat in
a chair, and, indeed, never saw one in his life. His chairs are mats;
and his house is, as you have heard, a tent.

Do you know what a tent is?

I always liked tents, and thought I should enjoy living in one; and
when I was a little girl, on many a stormy day when we couldn't go to
school, I played with my sisters at living in tents. We would take a
small clothes-horse and tip it down upon its sides, half open; then,
covering it with shawls, we crept in, and were happy enough for the
rest of the afternoon. I tell you this,