gan, turning round to where she
sat in the corner of a sofa, her hands clasped in her lap--"there was
once a little people--a mere handful, who afterward became a race--who
saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and
followed it. That is to say, some of them certainly saw it, enough of
them to lead the others on. For a generation or two they were little
more than a band of nomads; but at last they came to a land where they
fought and conquered and settled down."

"Yes? I seem to have heard of them. Please go on."

"It was a little land, rather curiously situated between the Orient and
the West, between the desert and the sea. It had great advantages both
for seclusion within itself and communication with the world outside. If
a divine power had wanted to nourish a tender shoot, till it grew strong
enough to ripen seed that would blow readily into every corner of the
globe, it probably couldn't have done better than to have planted it
just there."

She nodded, to show that she followed him.

"But this little land had also the dangers attendant on its advantages.
To the north of it there developed a great power; to the south of it
another. Each turned greedy eyes on the little buffer state. And the
little buffer state began to be very wise and politic and energetic. It
said, 'If we don't begin to take active measures, the Assyrian, or the
Egyptian, whoever gets here first, will eat us up. But if we buy off the
one, he will protect us against the other.'"

"That seems reasonable."

"Yes; quite reasonable: too reasonable. They forgot that a power that
could lead them by fire and cloud could protect them even against
conscript troops and modern methods of fighting. They forgot that if so
much trouble had been taken to put them where they were, it was not
that--assuming that they behaved themselves--it was not that they might
be easily rooted out. Instead of having confidence within they looked
for an ally from without, and chose Egypt. Very clever; very diplomatic.
There was only one criticism to be made on the course taken--that it was
all wrong. There was a man on the spot to tell them so--one of those
fellows whom we should call pessimists if we hadn't been taught to speak
of them as prophets. 'You are carrying your riches,' he cried to them,
'on the shoulders of young asses, and your treasures on the bunches of
camels, to a people that shall not profit you. For the Egyptians shall
help in v