What We Saw in Egypt

by Anonymous

I t was some little time before we could expect the next part of our travellers' journal.
Hugh very much wished to go to the citadel again. Lucy wanted to pay another visit to the gardens at Shoubra. We gave an afternoon to each, and almost every morning we went to the Mission Schools; either to the girls' school or to the ragged school. The more we saw, the more we admired the energy and self-denial of Mr. and Mrs. Lieder, and the more zealous and anxious we grew to do what little we could to help in the great work of making known the love of Jesus Christ and the salvation he has bought for us with his blood. Those who have the love of Christ really in their hearts must always long to make others love him too.

Day by day went on and we began to watch anxiously for some more news. The gentleman who had brought the first part of the journal told us that he knew there was another dahabieh which was not very far behind him. He had passed it, not having time to stop and see all that its travellers were stopping to see.

At last this dahabieh arrived, and we had a large packet. Lucy had leave to open it. She and Hugh danced about in delight for the first few minutes. Their father was one of the party who had gone, which made the joy of news the greater.

The first great excitement of the arrival was soon over, and we all clustered together eagerly to hear the contents of the large letter.

Journal on the Nile.

We finished our last letter just after we arrived at Benisooéf. It is a large town, and was once famous for its manufacture of linen.

We started the next morning with a fair wind. We passed Isment; and near it, the quarries from which the beautifully veined marble was obtained of which the mosque of Mohammed Ali at Cairo was built.

But what delighted us most was the high table-mountain, Sheikh Embárak. This giant seemed standing to block our path. Its surface is broken; and as we neared it, we saw one large cliff which looked like a ruined castle. The Sheikh, like some other giants of olden times, is accustomed to give travellers rather a rough welcome, and we came in for one of his gusty greetings in a sudden gale of wind.

Tell Lucy that her father, who was lounging in a chair on castors, suddenly found his chair running away from him, and he narrowly escaped a ducking in the Nile. And tell both Hugh and Lucy that the dahabieh lay over so suddenly that every one else was nearly following me, and that if I had gone over into the Nile, I should only have been ready to welcome the others who were coming after.