FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317  
318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   >>   >|  
unt." It grew dark, and they put candles on the tables--candles set in bright, new, brazen candlesticks. And soon the bell--a genuine, simon-pure bell --rang, and we were invited to "the saloon." I had thought before that we had a tent or so too many, but now here was one, at least, provided for; it was to be used for nothing but an eating-saloon. Like the others, it was high enough for a family of giraffes to live in, and was very handsome and clean and bright-colored within. It was a gem of a place. A table for eight, and eight canvas chairs; a table-cloth and napkins whose whiteness and whose fineness laughed to scorn the things we were used to in the great excursion steamer; knives and forks, soup-plates, dinner-plates--every thing, in the handsomest kind of style. It was wonderful! And they call this camping out. Those stately fellows in baggy trowsers and turbaned fezzes brought in a dinner which consisted of roast mutton, roast chicken, roast goose, potatoes, bread, tea, pudding, apples, and delicious grapes; the viands were better cooked than any we had eaten for weeks, and the table made a finer appearance, with its large German silver candlesticks and other finery, than any table we had sat down to for a good while, and yet that polite dragoman, Abraham, came bowing in and apologizing for the whole affair, on account of the unavoidable confusion of getting under way for a very long trip, and promising to do a great deal better in future! It is midnight, now, and we break camp at six in the morning. They call this camping out. At this rate it is a glorious privilege to be a pilgrim to the Holy Land. CHAPTER XLII. We are camped near Temnin-el-Foka--a name which the boys have simplified a good deal, for the sake of convenience in spelling. They call it Jacksonville. It sounds a little strangely, here in the Valley of Lebanon, but it has the merit of being easier to remember than the Arabic name. "COME LIKE SPIRITS, SO DEPART." "The night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And as silently steal away." I slept very soundly last night, yet when the dragoman's bell rang at half-past five this morning and the cry went abroad of "Ten minutes to dress for breakfast!" I heard both. It surprised me, because I have not heard th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317  
318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

morning

 

dragoman

 

bright

 

candles

 

candlesticks

 
plates
 

dinner

 

saloon

 
camping
 

convenience


unavoidable
 
affair
 

camped

 

account

 
simplified
 

Temnin

 

future

 

midnight

 

spelling

 
promising

CHAPTER

 

confusion

 
pilgrim
 

glorious

 

privilege

 

DEPART

 
soundly
 

silently

 
surprised
 
breakfast

abroad

 

minutes

 
easier
 

remember

 

Arabic

 

sounds

 

strangely

 

Valley

 

Lebanon

 
SPIRITS

infest

 

filled

 

Jacksonville

 

cooked

 

giraffes

 
handsome
 

colored

 

family

 

eating

 
fineness