CONSTANT VIGILANCE. 217 rested entirely on his shoulders. One morning, when we had broken camp at Bethsaida, on the sea of Galilee, and had commenced the day's journey, he complained of feeling unwell. On inquiring the cause of this illness, he answered, in such broken English as he could command, " Road from Nablous come here; road from Bashan come here; road from Damascus come here. I watch!" We found that he regarded this as a dangerous point, and that the preceding evening he saw, or thought he saw, indications that robbers were hanging about us; and through the livelong night he kept outside the tents of our encampment, going from place to place, and listening to every sound. Two months before this, a party of tourists was robbed, somewhere north of Jerusalem, of every valuable thing, amounting in all to over a thousand dollars; and the dragoman in charge suffered loss of reputation and business in consequence of this misfortune. Another party, with which we afterwards became acquainted, was robbed at the foot of Mount Gerizim the night after we left that place. But we were under the "lucky star" from the time we left home till we were again reposing beneath our own vine and fig-tree. 218 THE FINAL VIEW. CHAPTER XVIII. ADIEU TO JERUSALEM. THE MISSING CHILD. — BETHEL, ANGELS ON THE LADDER.-AI AND RIMMON. FORESTRY. - TARES IN THE WHEAT. — CAMP AT SINGEL. — TWO GAZELLES. — JACOB'S WELL.THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. JOSEPH'S TOMB. — BLESSING AND CURSING. FRENCH PILGRIMS. — MOUNT GERIZIM.—JOHN THE BAPTIST. PIT AT DOTHAN.—CAMP AT JENIN. We have now turned our backs on Jerusalem, and entered on our long, tedious journey to the northward. The sun could not be more cheerful than it is, nor the air more balmy. We are soon on the broad, smooth elevation where Titus encamped his legions prior to the siege of eighteen hundred years ago. We halt, and look back. It is our final view of the city of David, and an entrancing one. Jerusalem appears in her best attire. The earth all about her walls is clothed in the verdure of spring: a paradise of flowers surrounds us, and the birds are sweetly singing. We stand in silence, again go forward, and again turn and gaze. Zion, Moriah, Olivet, are all bathed in the radiance of the Cross. Farewell, Jerusalem! For a few miles the ground over which we travel is covered with large fields of waving wheat, the grain not yet ready for the sickle. Then we GATE OF HEAVEN. 219 come to wild, bleak hills, with here and there a vineyard, and here and there a poor, insignificant hamlet. We are soon at Beeroth. This is said to be the place where Joseph and Mary missed the absent Child when on their return to Nazareth from the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem. Nazareth, in the hill country, was now again their home. Bearing strongly to the right, and pressing on three miles farther, we find ourselves at Bethel. The modern town is only a cluster of wretched hovels, and yet is a fair representation of the smaller Oriental villages. But it stands on the site of one of Israel's most holy places. When Jacob went from Beer-sheba to Haran, to find himself a wife among his kindred, he came to a certain place, according to the Book of Genesis, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. "And he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." And the promise which had been made to Abraham was confirmed to Jacob the descendant. In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Jacob, awaking out of his sleep, was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." 220 ON THE DIVIDING-RIDGE. And Jacob called the name of that place Bethel. We could not identify the spot where the dreamer slept; but we saw several soft, grassy beds where his body might have rested, and several piles of stones, which, covered with the branches of the cypress or palm, would have made a passable pillow. We next rode down through a rocky glen, directly toward the east, and ascended to the ridge beyond, where, according to tradition, Abraham pitched his tent, and built his altar, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. Dismounting, we stood upon the high point where it is believed Abraham and his nephew, Lot, stood, when, having concluded to separate, they held parley as to which way each should go. From this point we looked down on the deserted site of ancient Ai, just at our feet, and remembered how Joshua, Israel's mighty warrior, achieved on that ground one of his greatest victories. For he "burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree." Still a little farther on to the east, Rock Rimmon ap- peared, a conspicuous figure. It is a white limestone cliff, bare and rugged, and not much changed in its rough outline from what it was when the Benjaminites sought its shelter. While standing on this dividing-ridge, and making our observations, we saw as many as three different HOW TO SUPPLY WATER. 221 herdsmen, away on the lonely hills, singing their shepherd-songs, and watching their flocks, the same as the herdsmen of Abraham had done on these heights four thousand years before. As far as the eye can reach, there is here in three directions, north, south, and west, a long succession of bare limestone hills, similar in appearance, and without a sign of a fence or a forest-tree. Such is Palestine; and I more distinctly realize than ever before, that one of the chief attractions of a country is its grand old forests, with their gorgeous foliage, their deep shades, and their moisture-preserving qualities. Our own General Government, I am glad to know, and several of the States, are arousing themselves to the importance of the subject of forestry. To illustrate the effect of forests on the water-supply of a country, take one example. The island of Ascension, off the coast of Africa, was formerly almost a barren rock. The supply of water was very scanty, being derived solely from a few springs. This was not sufficient; and water was often brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and even from England, for the needs of the garrison there. But, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, the planting of trees and shrubs, and the cultivation of the soil, were vigorously undertaken. The water-supply has increased with the progress of the work, until now it is abundant; and the garrison, and the ships visiting the island, are |