movement of the
stars that are always journeying towards the west.

Night is very beautiful in the desert; for this is the desert, where
Abdel Hassan the Arab lives. His country is that part of our round
ball where the yellow sands stretch farther than eye can see, and
there are no wide rivers, no thick forests, and no snow-covered hills.
The day is too bright and too hot, but the night he loves; it is his
friend.

He falls asleep at last out under the stars, and, since he has been
sleeping so long in the daytime, can well afford to be awake very
early in the morning: so, while the stars still shine, and there is
only one little yellow line of light in the east, he calls his
wife, children, and servants, and in a few minutes all is bustle and
preparation; for to-day they must take down the tent, and move, with
all the camels and goats, many miles away. For the summer heat has
nearly dried up the water of their little spring under the palm-trees,
and the grass that grew there is also entirely gone; and one cannot
live without water to drink, particularly in the desert, nor can the
goats and camels live without grass.

Now, it would be a very bad thing for us, if some day all the water
in our wells and springs and ponds should dry up, and all the grass on
our pleasant pastures and hills should wither away.

What should we do? Should we have to pack all our clothes, our books,
our furniture and food, and move away to some other place where there
were both water and grass, and then build new houses? Oh, how much
trouble it would give us! No doubt the children would think it great
fun; but as they grew older they would have no pleasant home to
remember, with all that makes "sweet home" so dear.

And now you will see how much better it is for Gemila's father than if
he lived in a house. In a very few minutes the tent is taken down, the
tent-poles are tied together, the covering is rolled up with the pegs
and strings which fastened it, and it is all ready to put up again
whenever they choose to stop. As there is no furniture to carry, the
mats and cushions only are to be rolled together and tied; and now
Achmet, the old servant, brings a tall yellow camel.

Did you ever see a camel? I hope you have some time seen a living one
in a menagerie; but, if you haven't, perhaps you have seen a picture
of the awkward-looking animal with a great hump upon his back, a long
neck, and head thrust forward. A boy told me the other day