Ayesha, and his daughter Fatima, wife of
Ali, seldom left his bedside. When the last came, he raised his eyes to
the ceiling and exclaimed, "O Allah, pardon my sins!" He then, with his
own feeble hand, sprinkled his face with water, and soon afterwards,
with his head on Ayesha's bosom, he departed, in the sixty-third year of
his age, and the eleventh year of the Hejira, A.D. 632.

The frenzied people would not believe that he was dead. "He will arise,
like Jesus," they said. But no returning breath quivered through the
cold lips or animated the rigid form of him whom they passionately
called to life; and not until Abu Beker assured them that he was really
no more, saying, "Did he not himself assure us that he must experience
the common fate of all? Did he not say in the Koran, 'Mohammed is no
more than an apostle; the other apostles have already deceased before
him; if he die therefore, or be slain, will ye turn back on your
heels?'"--not until then did they disperse, with deep groans.

Mohammed was buried in the house in which he died, his grave being dug
in the spot beneath his bed; but some years later a stone tomb was
erected over the grave, and until the present day the place is held so
sacred that it is at the risk of his life that anyone but a Mussulman
dares enter.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE NEW HOME.

"On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
The almost sacred joys of Home depend."

--_Hannah More._

In the quiet valley in Palestine life had been dealing gently with
Nathan and his family. The long, long absence of Manasseh was the one
thing lacking for their perfect contentment.

"It is well," Nathan would say, yet his eyes would turn wistfully
towards the South, as though he half-hoped to see the beloved face of
his son appearing over the hill. The mother grew weary with waiting, yet
she did not murmur, but whispered to her lonely heart, "Living or dead,
it must be well." Only once she said, "Husband, he is surely dead," and
Nathan replied:

"Let us still hope, wife, that we may yet see the goodness of the Lord
in permitting us to behold his face."

So they hoped on, and worked on, amid their orange trees, their corn and
vegetables, and their sheep browsing peacefully on the hills. And Mary
tended the jasmine flowers and rose-bushes at the door, carrying water
to them night and morning, that they might look at their prettiest when
Manasseh came. On