, reached around her waist and
seized the hand-hold as if determined that nothing should tear it from his
grasp.

The girl noticed it and grew more frightened, turning a trifle paler and
asking: "Is there any danger?"

But the driver was already tugging at the halter and striking the camel
over the neck with his stick, and slowly it spread out its hind legs,
rising on them first, and throwing its riders forward till it seemed as if
they must slide down his sloping neck and fall to the ground.

The girl screamed, as her hat fell over her eyes, but both she and her
escort held on with a deathlike grip.

The camel paused for a moment, then swayed back and forth sideways; the
girl screamed again, but the camel was only untangling his legs, and the
next instant settled himself on them in a way that threw his riders
backward so that they would have fallen off behind but for their firm
grasp of the ropes.

But now the camel was fairly upon his four feet, and slowly turning round
with a wobbling motion like a boat caught in a trough of waves; the riders
had recovered from their fright, and were both laughing. All this time the
crowd had been standing round watching the two, and laughing and
tittering, for, risky as the whole proceeding looked, there was really
very little, if any, danger.

CHAPTER XIII.

"Let us go now to the Guatemala Building," said Harold as they left Cairo
Street. "I should like you all to see the grotto with its specimens of the
fauna of the country, among which is a remarkable bird called the gavila,
which sings the half-hours with unvarying regularity, showing itself as
correct as a sundial, and almost as useful as a government observatory."

"Is it sure to wake and sing every half-hour in the night, uncle?" asked
little Elsie.

"Oh, no! It is only a day clock; stops attending to the business at
sundown and begins again in the morning."

They were interested in the strange bird; the older people in a map also,
showing the locations of the principal towns and railways, and in the
exhibit, in an open court and about a fountain, of the flora of the
country; also some pictures hung about the balcony, showing the principal
places in the city of Guatemala and other large towns.

"I feel a particular interest in Korea just at present," remarked Grandma
Elsie as they left the Guatemalan Building, "and if entirely agreeable to
the rest of you, I should like, now, to look at their exhibit in t