For domestic incidents we had the children pelting each other with acorns by moonlight; bonfires made by them and the servants on the terrace to show us the way when returning at a late hour from Jerusalem; large bunches of grapes from the adjoining vineyard, the _Karaweesh_, suspended against the wall, reserved to become raisins. Then family presents upon a birthday, all derived from the ground itself,--one person bringing a bunch of wild thyme in purple blossom,--another some sprigs from a terebinth tree, with the reviving odour of its gum that was exuding from the bark,--and another a newly-caught chameleon. The latter was for several days afterwards indulged with a fresh bough of a tree for his residence, changed about, one day of oak, next of terebinth, then of sumach, or of pine, etc. Such was our "sweet home" and family life on the Byeways of Palestine. But a time came when care and anxiety told heavily upon mine and my wife's health. For some days I was confined to bed in the tent, unable to move up to the house; yet enjoying the reading of my chapters in Hebrew in the land of Israel, or ruminating over the huge emphasis of St Paul's Greek in 2 Cor. iv. 17, [Greek text]. The curtains of the tent were thrown wide open at each side for the admission of air; the children were playing or reading on the shady side of another tent; muleteer and camel parties I could observe mounting or falling with the rises and dips of the Hebron road; and the jingle of bells or the singing of the men was audible or alternately lost according to the same circumstances. I lay watching the progress of sunshine or shadow around the Frank mountain as the hours rolled on; then as evening approached the Egyptian groom took down the Egyptian mare to water at the spring, followed by the foal of pure Saklawi race, that never till the preceding day had had even so much as a halter put across his head,--a Bashi-bozuk soldier with his pipe looking on,--the Abyssinian lad carrying pitchers of water to the several tents, and the pools of bright blue becoming darker blue when rippled by the evening air. All this was food for enjoyment of the picturesque, but at the same time God Almighty was leading us into deep trials of faith in Himself, and bringing out the value of that promise,--"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee."