k
with the strangers to their country, when they return, and so become
the wisest and most powerful of his race; wiser even than those
fabulously learned priestly instructors of his, who are so strict with
him. Perhaps he might find all his forefathers there, and his kind
mother, who used to tell him stories.

Bah! how the sun blisters down on head and shoulders: will take a dive
and a swim,--a short swim only, not far from shore; for was not the
priest telling of a boy caught by a great crocodile, only, a few days
ago, and never seen since? But there is no crocodile near to-day; and,
besides, will not his precious talisman keep him from all harm?

The subtile Nile catches him softly in his cool arms, dandles him,
kisses Him, flatters him, wooes him imperceptibly onwards. Now he is
far from shore, and the multitudinous feet of the current are hurrying
him away. The slow-moving boat is much nearer than it was a minute
ago,--seems to be rasping towards him, in spite of the laziness of the
impelling breeze. The boy, as yet unconscious of his peril, now
glances shorewards, and sees the banks wheel past. The crowd of
bathers is already far beyond hearing yet, frightened and tired, he
wastes his remaining strength in fruitless shouts. Now the deceitful
eddies, once so soft and friendly, whirl him down in ruthless
exultation. He will never reach the shore, good swimmer though he be!

Hark! what plunged from the bank,--what black thing moves towards him
across the water? The crocodile! coming with tears in his eyes, and a
long grin of serried teeth. Coming!--the ugly scaly head is always
nearer and nearer. The boy screams; but who should hear him? He feels
whether the talisman be yet round his neck. He screams again, calling,
in half-delirium, upon his dead mother. Meanwhile the scaly snout is
close upon him.

A many-voiced shout, close at hand; a splashing of poles in the water;
a rippling of eddies against a boat's bows! As the boy drifts by, a
blue-eyed, yellow-bearded viking swings himself from the halyard,
catches him, pulls him aboard with a jerk and a shout, safe! The long
grin snaps emptily together behind him. The boy lies on the deck, a
vision of people with leg-coverings and other oddities of costume
swimming in his eyes; one of them supports his head on his knee, and
bends over him a round, good-natured, spectacled face. Above, a
beautiful flag, striped and starred with white, blue, and red, flaps
indolently ag