g stone, bright tinware, or new-mown grass.
Even the street cleaners shoveled into the panniers on the donkeys'
backs the dirt and refuse that had been collected on the streets.
Occasionally we saw men or women or children perched on the top of a
load. Two men were sometimes seen riding on one donkey, and once we
observed three large men on one small donkey.

[Illustration: INTO THE PANNIERS ON THE DONKEY'S BACK.]

As we drove along the streets to the station the residents at doors,
windows, and sidewalks smilingly commented among themselves on our
outlandish foreign costumes, evidently comparing our American styles
with their own familiar dress. It was certainly as interesting to the
Spanish women to observe the peculiarities of our costumes as it was for
us to notice the mantillas and gay bodices which gave them a picturesque
appearance in our eyes. We were being inspected as well as they; but the
Spaniards are so polite that there was nothing unpleasant in their
curiosity.

It was after midnight when the steam launches carried us across the bay
from Algeciras to our steamship. The reception given us at the Moltke,
after our two days' absence, made us feel that we had indeed arrived
home. Colored fires reddened the waters, clusters of electric lights
illumined the sides of the vessel, the band was playing on deck, and the
captain welcomed us at the head of the gangway. Then while the orchestra
played selections, a full course midnight dinner was served to the
hungry pilgrims.

CHAPTER V.

THE CITY OF ALGIERS.

On the morning of Tuesday, February seventeenth, the Moltke was speeding
over a calm sea toward the coast of Africa. The tourists, after the
strenuous sight-seeing of the past two days, luxuriously rested. Some
lazily lounged in steamer chairs with pillows under their heads and gay
blankets over them; others exchanged experiences with friends while
sauntering slowly around the deck. Some in groups surrounded the card
tables, playing or watching the games; while others read books from the
shelves of the library, or gathered the latest home news from the
columns of the London Times, or the Paris edition of the New York
Herald, copies of which had been taken on board at Gibraltar.

During the afternoon, however, a north-east wind suddenly arose which
stirred the blue waters of the Mediterranean until the short choppy
waves gave to the vessel a new and peculiar roll, differing from any
previously ex