rose loudest, she saw the corpse of a
woman borne on a piece of tent-cloth by railing bondmen and a pale,
death-stricken infant held on the arm of a half naked, frantic man, its
father, who shook his disengaged hand in menace toward the spot where
she saw her brothers.

The next moment she beheld a grey-haired old man, bowed by heavy toil,
raise his fist against Moses. He would have struck him, had he not been
dragged away by others.

She could not bear to stay longer on the roof. Pale and panting for
breath, she hurried to the camp. Milcah followed, and wherever they
encountered people who lived in Succoth, they received respectful
greetings.

The new comers from Zoan,--as the Hebrews called Tanis,--Pha-kos, and
Bubastis, whom they met on the way, did not know Miriam, yet the tall
figure and stately dignity of the prophetess led them also to make way
respectfully or pause to answer her questions.

The things she learned were evil and heart-rending; for joyously as the
procession had marched forward on the first day, it dragged along sadly
and hopelessly on the second. The desert wind had robbed many of
the strong of their power of resistance and energy; others, like
the bondman's wife and nursling, had been attacked by fever on the
pilgrimage through the dust and the oppressive heat of the day, and they
pointed out to her the procession which was approaching the burial-place
of the Hebrews of Succoth. Those who were being conveyed to the bourn
whence there is no return were not only women and children, or those
who had been brought from their homes ill, that they might not be left
behind, but also men who were in robust health the day before and had
broken down under burdens too heavy for their strength, or who had
recklessly exposed themselves, while working, to the beams of the
noon-day sun.

In one tent, where a young mother was shaking with the chill of a severe
attack of fever, Miriam asked the pallid Milcah to bring her medicine
chest, and the desolate wife went on her errand with joyous alacrity.
On the way she stopped many and timidly asked about her captive husband,
but could obtain no news of him. Miriam, however, heard from Nun,
Hosea's father, that Eliab, the freedman whom he had left behind, had
informed him that his son would be ready to join his people. She also
learned that the wounded Ephraim had found shelter in his uncle's tent.

Was the lad's illness serious, or what other cause detained Hose