'I hope you have not lost your eye, Lieutenant,' said the General.
'I believe I have, sir,' replied Gomm, 'but with the other I shall see you victorious this day.'
The brave young fellow had his wish, and history tells us that the French General 'was driven back with shame and with loss.'
A QUIET CONSCIENCE.
The famous Dr. Watts once said, when suffering from a dangerous illness, 'I thank God that I can sleep quietly to-night without being uneasy as to whether I awake in this world or in the next.'
How many of us can say that our consciences are so untroubled as that?
THE SHADOOFS AND DRAW-WHEELS OF EGYPT.
In the greater part of Egypt rain never falls, and if it were not for the Nile the country would be little better than a desert. But every year, at exactly the same time, near the end of June, the river begins to rise and overflow its banks. For three months it continues to swell and spread, until it floods nearly the whole of the valley in which it flows. It then begins to fall as steadily as it has risen, and retires gradually into its proper channel, leaving the land which it has overflowed covered with fertile mud, which has been brought down from the interior of the continent, where the Nile rises. This rich soil and the annual flooding of the valley by the river have made Egypt one of the most fertile countries in the world.