The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy LandKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy Land
Knox, Thomas Wallace
Egypt -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Palestine -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"There is a tower near the village, which is called by some 'The House
of Zaccheus,' but the indications are that it was not built till the
time of the Crusades, long after Zaccheus was laid in his grave. We did
not have time to visit it, nor did we go to the Ain-es-Sultan, or
Sultan's Spring, which is also known as the Fountain of Elisha. It is a
fine spring, the water rather warm in temperature, as we are told, and
varies but little in volume throughout the year. Biblical students who
have been here say there can be no doubt it is the very fountain which
was healed by the prophet Elisha, and is therefore well entitled to bear
his name. There are several aqueducts by which the water was once
carried over the plain, and used for irrigating the fields, but they are
now so much ruined as to be of little consequence.
"What a night we had in our camp! The rain ceased about sunset, but
during the night it came on again, and fell as though a thunder-cloud
had burst above us. It poured and poured, and not only did it rain, but
the wind blew like a gale at sea. Fred and I remembered what we had said
at Bethlehem the first night we slept in the tents. We concluded we were
going to have all the storm we wanted, and more than once wished
ourselves safely lodged in a solid house.
"The ground was soaked with water, and became so soft that it would not
hold our tent-pegs against the wind. The rain came in through the
canvas, the pegs gave way, and about midnight down came the cold and
sloppy cloth in our faces.
"We shouted for help, and the dragoman came with his men and managed to
fix things up a little, but it was slow and disagreeable work with the
heavy rain falling, and the night as black as the inside of an
ink-bottle. They had one miserable lantern that did little more than
enable us to see the darkness, and by the time they had the tent
arranged so that we could crawl under it we were wet nearly to the skin.
"We tried to laugh it off, but 'twas no use trying. We couldn't either
of us see the fun of it, and couldn't get to sleep again. There we lay
till morning wondering what would happen next.
"The Doctor's tent went down like ours, but he had a thick water-proof
coat and a large wrapper of the same material, so that he was not so
badly off as we were. He didn't escape, though, nor did any of the
others, and when daylight came we all looked as if the best thing would
be to wring us out and hang us up to dry. We were a sorry looking
breakfast-party, but pulled ourselves together and managed to eat
something. Fortunately the rain stopped, but there came a new trouble.
"When we went into camp there was a little brook close by us which we
were to cross in the morning. The heavy rain swelled this brook into a
small torrent that was absolutely dangerous to ford, as one might easily
be swept down with the current and drowned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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