The Scapegoat

rt with your riches and give to the poor." That was all the answer he got out of his journey, and if any man had come to him in Tetuan with no newer story, it must have been an idle and a

eed on his journey, and prepared to return to his own country on foot and alone. The men had first gaped in amazement, and then laughed in derision; and finally they had g

, and he must walk in the daytime. Surely the Lord would see it that never before had any man done so much to wipe out God's displeasure as he was now doing and yet would do. He had said nothing of Naomi to the Mahdi even when he told him of his vision; but all his hopes had centred in the child. The lot of the sin-o

eart was glad as he turned towards home, it was proud also, and if it was grateful it was also vain; but vanity and pride were both smitten out of it in an hour, before he wen

had lately arrived in caravans from the Soudan, by way of Tafilet and the Wargha, and some of them looked worn from the desert passage. Others were fresh and cheerful, and such as had claims to negro beauty were adorned, after their doubtful fashion, or the fancy of their masters, with love-charms of silver worn about their necks, with their fingers pricked out with hennah, and their eyelids darkened with kohl. Thus they were drawn up in a line for public auction; but before the sale of t

ave-master, "look see; sound

," said a voice

h. Look at her-rosy lips, fit for

dred d

red. It's giving the girl away. Look at

mb into the girl's mouth and wa

rothers. Now's the chance fo

dred a

e. Pass her round, test her, try her, talk to her-she speaks good Arabic. Isn't she fit for a Sultan? She's the best thing I'll offer to-day, and by the Prop

n another man came up to it. The man was black and old and hard-featured, and visibly poor in his torn white selham. But when he had looked over the heads of those in front of him,

en torn away from his wife, who was since dead, and from his only child, who thus strangely rejoined him. This story he told, in broken Arabic; to those th

girl's liberty," and straightway another and another offered like sums for the same purpose until

is black cheeks, and said in his broken way: "The blessing of Allah upon you, white brother, and if you hav

clearly a Spanish woodseller and he had the weary, averted, and downcast look of a race that is despised and kept under. His donkey was a bony creature, with raw places on its flank and shoulders where its hide had been worn by the friction of its burdens. He drove it slowly; crying "Arrah!" to it in the tongue of its own country, and not beating it cruelly. At the bottom of the arcade there was an open place where a foul ditch was crossed by a rickety bridge. Coming to this the man hesitated a moment, as if doubtful whether to drive his

e seemed to pity him-a slatternly girl of sixteen or seventeen came scudding down the arcade, and pushed her way through the crowd until she stood where the dead ass lay with the man kneeling bes

hold her peace. "Silence, you young wanton!" he cried, in a voice of ind

her, the poor fellow lifted his eyes to Israel's face, and said, "You are very kind, my father. God bless you! I may not be a good man, sir, and I've not lived

y. Oh no, no, no! He was not, of all men, the most sorely tried. Worse to be a slave, torn fr

o sell, and that was all. But love was for no market, and he who lost it lost everything. And love was his, and would be his alwa

to the entrance. He was a poor, miserable creature-ragged, dirty, and with dishevelled hair-and, seeing Israel's eyes upon him, he began to talk in some wild way and in some unknown tongue that was only a fierce jabber of sounds that had no words in them, and of words that had no meaning. The poor soul was mad, and because he was distraugh

s creatures. And yet, and yet, and yet, her bodily infirmit

ed on his journey. And then, while they walked some paces together before parting, and the prophet talked of the poor f

"there is something th

, my son," s

for her mother is gone, and but for her I should be alone, and so she is very near and dear to me. But she is in the land of silence and in the l

llah!" crie

hink it so. Yes, for all she is so beautiful, she is

rve her!" cr

me in the vision, and my soul trembles for her soul. But i

Mahdi. "He gives no re

saw her, and she was afflicted no more. No, for she could

ahdi. "He needs that no m

e is joy of my joy and life of my life. Without her the morning has no fres

nd answered, "The Lord sees all.

rew