sound; and the best of prayers is the doing of a good act with a pure purpose. "He prayeth best who loveth best All things, both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all." ABDEL-HASSAN. The compensations of calamity are made apparent after long intervals of time. The sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all fact. --EMERSON. Abdel-Hassan o'er the Desert journeyed with his caravan,-- Many a richly laden camel, many a faithful serving-man. And before the haughty master bowed alike the man and beast; For the power of Abdel-Hassan was the wonder of the East. It was now the twelfth day's journey, but its closing did not bring Abdel-Hassan and his servants to the long-expected spring. From the ancient line of travel they had wandered far away, And at evening, faint and weary, on a waste of Desert lay. Fainting men and famished camels stretched them round the master's tent; For the water-skins were empty, and the dates were nearly spent. All the night, as Abdel-Hassan on the Desert lay apart, Nothing broke the lifeless silence but the throbbing of his heart; All the night he heard it beating, while his sleepless, anxious eyes Watched the shining constellations wheeling onward through the skies. When the glowing orbs, receding, paled before the coming day, Abdel-Hassan called his servants and devoutly knelt to pray. Then his words were few and solemn to the leader of his train:-- "Thirty men and eighty camels, Haroun, in thy care remain. "Keep the beasts and guard the treasure till the needed aid I bring. God is great! His name is mighty!--I, alone, will seek the spring." Mounted on his strongest camel, Abdel-Hassan rode away, While his faithful followers watched him passing, in the blaze of day, Like a speck upon the Desert, like a moving human hand, Where the fiery skies were sweeping down to meet the burning sand. Passed he then their far horizon, and beyond it rode alone;-- They alone, with Arab patience, lay within its flaming zone. Day by day the servants waited, but the master never came,-- Day by day, in feebler accents, called on Allah's holy name. One by one they killed the camels, loathing still the proffered food, But in weakness or in frenzy slaked their burning thirst in blood. On unheeded heaps of treasure rested each unconscious head; While, with pious care, the dying struggled to entomb the dead. So they perished. Gaunt with famine, still did Haroun's trusty hand For his latest dead companion scoop sepulture in the sand. Then he died; and pious Nature, where he lay so gaunt and grim, Moved by her divine compassion, did the same kind thing for him. Earth upon her burning bosom held him in his final rest, While the hot winds of the Desert piled the sand above his breast.--