the
sweetest music to our ears. It was the murmur of running water, with an
occasional splash as it leaped over a stone.

"`Hooray, boys!' exclaimed Jem. `We've fetched the water at last--
follow my leader now, and we'll be able to slake our thirst!'

"So saying, he plunged again downwards through the jungle, and we after
him, helter skelter through the forest in our mad race for the precious
element of which we had been so long deprived, and whose real value we
did not properly appreciate till we had lost it. Our rush must have
resembled what I've read takes place on the prairies of America when
there is a stampede of the wild animals frightened by the forests
catching fire or some other scare.

"Thank God, as I said then, it was not another deception this time like
the salt lagoon that had disappointed us so sorely that time when we
thought we had a drink at last!

"As we got nearer and nearer the bottom of the valley, the sound of the
running water increased, and mingled with it was heard that bubbling and
splashing that echoes so delightfully on one's ears on a warm summer day
in England from a garden fountain; so you can imagine how it appealed to
our parched senses. Why, we wouldn't have stopped then in our progress
towards it if a fiery volcano lay between us, or if a thousand bayonets
tried to arrest our movement!

"Another moment of suspense, and then, there lay the stream before us.
I never experienced before that saying in Scripture so thoroughly, about
the sight of the water in a thirsty land. It was like heaven to us!

"It wasn't a big river--only a little streamlet of about six feet in
width, yet pretty deep, for it came up to our shoulders when we stood in
it; but it was quite enough for us, and we dashed into it, plunging in
and rolling over in our hot haste and eagerness to drink, so wildly, so
madly that it was a wonder that we did not drown one another, all
clumped up together as we were. We swilled and swilled till we well-
nigh felt that we were bursting; while some continued to drink even
after their stomachs were unable to contain any more, and the water
rolled back out of their mouths. We were more like beasts than human
beings for over a quarter of an hour; and then, we roared with an agony
of pain from the distension this sudden repletion gave us. After a
time, however, this passed off and we felt more comfortable, when we
were able to sit down by the green banks through which the