of Jewish men, women, and children, gathered on the western side of the wall that encloses Mount Moriah, and apparently engaged in some solemn religious service. We were told that this secluded spot is known as "the Jews' Wailing-Place," and that every Friday afternoon they assemble here, often to the number of several hundred, to bewail the misfortunes of their people, and the departed glory of their nation.

15. Some were sitting on the bare pavement, some were

standing, some were leaning against the massive wall, and some were weeping freely; but most of them, with old books in hand, were reading aloud the lamentations long since composed by their poets for this purpose. "It is a sad spectacle to witness," remarked Prof. Howard,-" here

in Jerusalem itself, the very centre of Israel's former power and glory; and our hearts cannot fail to go out in sympathy for this sorely-stricken people."

16. At Jerusalem we made the acquaintance of several intelligent sheiks who often visit there; and among them was a very learned and worthy man, Bou Akbar by name, the sheik or chief of an Arab tribe that dwelt in one of the valleys of Lebanon, on the northern borders of Palestine.

17. I listened with great interest to Bou Akbar, as from time to time he narrated, in broken English, to Prof. Howard and Dr. Edson, interesting incidents in his history; and when I found that the Professor had written out a sketch of his life, I asked and obtained permission to copy a part of it which I thought would make an interesting story by itself. I intend to send it with this letter; and then my Lake-View friends may read it at their Reading Club, if they think it of sufficient importance for that distinction.

18. I also send you a map of Palestine, with our route, thus far, marked on it. Mr. Agnew can fill out the remainder of our route, when we have completed it; and perhaps he will draw, from this, a large map, to be hung up in the school-room. [See Map facing title-page.]

19. This finished the reading of Freddy's letter,—all except the story of Bou Akbar, the reading of which Uncle Philip thought it would be well to postpone until another evening. But as Nelly Hardy asked, "May not Mr. Agnew read that story now?" and as others were anxious to hear it at once, general consent was given; and Mr. Agnew proceeded with the reading, as follows:

CHAPTER XXII.—THE STORY OF BOU AKBAR.

1. Bou Akbar was a wealthy and learned sheik of the district of Lebanon; and, although reared in the Mohammedan faith, and accounted a true Moslem by those who did not know him intimately, his extensive reading and study had early led him to reject the teachings of the Koran, and the traditions of the Moslem prophet.

2. As frequently happens with those who lose their faith in the religion in which they were educated, ere long Bou Akbar began to regard all religions as alike unworthy the belief of the wise and learned, and fit only for the ignorant and vulgar.

3. He prided himself upon the integrity of his conduct, and the strict justice with which he administered the af fairs of his little government; and no man could say that Bou Akbar had ever oppressed the poor, or wronged his neighbor. His life was, indeed, a model of uprightness in all his relations toward his fellow-men; and it was both his pride and his ambition to make it such. It was more than that; it was his religion, also.

4. He had studied the Christian Scriptures with all the interest of a scholar; he admired their precepts, as far superior to those of the Koran; he was familiar with Jewish history; and he loved to visit the places which had been rendered memorable in the lives of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Saviour.

5. In one of the annual excursions through Palestine, which he was so fond of making, he had visited Jerusalem for the fifth time; had made the circuit of the walls of the city, as usual; and had lingered, with unabated interest, around all the places of historic celebrity, both within and without the city; but he loved far less to dwell upon the splendors of the Mosque of Omar, with its extensive and beautiful grounds, than to climb the Mount of Olives, or to

sit, by the hour, in contemplation, by the pools of Silō'am and Bethes'da.

6. Returning homeward, with his Arab retainers, by way of the valley of the Jordan, though diverging from his route to visit, first, the site of ancient Jericho,—next, the little village where Shiloh once stood, then, Mounts Gilboa and Tabor,—and, finally, Nazareth, so long the residence of Jesus and his early disciples, he reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, near the town of Tiberias. It was already past noonday, as, weary with travel, he threw himself upon a grassy slope beneath a spreading fig-tree, which stood on the very borders of the lake, while his attendants pitched their camp at a little distance, in a grove of palm-trees.

7. The monotonous murmur of the waves, as they broke in measured cadence upon the sandy shore, soon lulled Bou Akbar into a gentle slumber; and, as he passed away into dream-land, new scenes opened to him, tinged, as dreams always are, with the realities of the present. It seemed to him that he was one of the subjects of a great and good king, who ruled over a happy people. The country in which they lived was filled with everything that could please the eye, or gratify the taste, or charm the fancy.

8. The trees hung low their branches, weighed down with the most luscious fruits, of which all were invited to partake; and the earth yielded her harvests freely to all that would gather them. There were cooling fountains, clear as crystal, in shady nooks throughout all the land; purling streams lent their silvery music to the glades; and the groves echoed to the notes of the feathered song

sters.

9. There were no chilling frosts there; no wintry blasts; but perpetual summer reigned in the paradise of plenty which the wise and good king had given to his beloved people. And all that the king required of his subjects in return for the blessings which he bestowed upon them, was,

that they should love and honor him, and be good to one another.

10. But it happened that some of these people became discontented; and they said, one to another, "Why should we have this king to rule over us? Let us have a government of our own, and then we will render homage to none, but do whatever seemeth good in our own eyes."

11. So they rebelled against the good king, and thought to throw off the allegiance which he required of them. And Bou Abkar was one of this number. But the king, whose earnest desire was to make his people happy, was forced to banish his rebellious subjects, and send them away in exile into a distant country, between which and the happy land there was a broad and dark sea, often swept by raging tempests, and whose bounds no one of the king's subjects knew.

12. The land of exile was a barren region,- -a sterile tract of drifting sands and desert wastes, bordered, inland, by rugged and inaccessible mountain ranges. There were no purling streams, no shady groves and feathered songsters, no crystal fountains, no luscious fruits; the brackish waters, scooped from hollows in the sands, scarcely allayed the thirst of the wretched exiles, while a few bitter roots, gathered with much toil, and an occasional shell-fish picked up on the sea-shore, furnished them the most scanty subsistence.

13. And yet when the good king sent messengers to them, inviting them to return to the happy land, that they might again partake of his bounty, and promising them a free pardon if they would only acknowledge his authority and submit to his mild rule over them, they indignantly spurned the proposals; and when he sent others, and even begged and entreated them to return, they put to death some of his messengers, and sent the others back with even greater indignity than before.

14. But Bou Abkar at length began to see the folly of