like a
reproach.

Few took the trouble to pitch a tent. The night was so warm, and the
sooner they pressed forward the better, for Moses had promised to join
them a few leagues hence. He alone could aid, it was his duty to protect
man and beast from perishing.

If the God who had promised them such splendid gifts left them to die
in the wilderness with their cattle, the man to whose guidance they had
committed themselves was a cheat; and the God whose might and mercy he
never ceased extolling was more false and powerless than the idols with
heads of human beings and animals, to whom they had prayed in Egypt.

Threats, too, were loudly uttered amid curses and blasphemies. Wherever
Aaron, who had returned to the people, appeared and addressed them,
clenched fists were stretched toward him.

Miriam, too, by her husband's bidding, was compelled to desist from
comforting the women with soothing words, after a mother whose infant
was expiring at her dry breast, picked up a stone and others followed
her example.

Old Nun and his son found more attentive hearers. Both agreed that
Joshua must fight, no matter in what position Moses placed him; but Hur
himself led him to the warriors, who joyously greeted him.

Both the old man and the younger one understood how to infuse
confidence. They told them of the well-watered oasis of the Amalekites,
which was not far distant, and pointed to the weapons in their hands,
with which the Lord Himself had furnished them. Joshua assured them that
they greatly outnumbered the warriors of the desert tribe. If the young
men bore themselves as bravely as they had done at the copper mines and
at Dophkah, with God's aid the victory would be theirs.

After midnight Joshua, having taken counsel with the elders, ordered the
trumpets which summoned the fighting-men to be sounded. Under the bright
starry sky he reviewed them, divided them into bands, gave to each a
fitting leader, and impressed upon them the importance of the orders
they were to obey.

They had assembled torpidly, half dead with thirst, but the new
occupation to which their sturdy commander urged them, the hope of
victory, and the great value of the prize: a piece of land at the foot
of the sacred mountain, rich in springs and palm-trees, wonderfully
strengthened their lost energy.

Ephraim was among them animating others by his tireless vigor. But when
the ex-chief of the Egyptians--whom the Lord had already convinced that