A Modern Telemachus

r worship on the

hou first do for

ot

ining his clutch of the boy, in the trough between it and another. He was happily an expert swimmer, and holding the little fellow's clothes in his teeth, he was able to avoid the dash, and to rise on another wave. Then he perceived that he was no longer near the vessel, but had been carrie

o or three of the Moorish crew likewise floating on spars, and yielding themselves to the stream, and this made him better satisfied to follow their example. It was a so

green valley opening towards the sea. This was a much severer effort, but by this time immediate self-preservation had become the only thought, and happily both wind and the very slight tide were favourable, so that, just

passed current for child in lingua Franca, uttered it with an accent of despairing anxiety. He was answered with a volley of words that he only understood to be in a consoling tone, and the speaker pointed inland. Various persons, among whom Arthur saw his recent shipmates, seemed to be going in that direction, and he obeyed his guide, though scarcely able to move from exhaustion and cold, the garments he had retained clinging about him. Some one, however, ran down

and while Arthur was warming himself and putting them on, a little table about a foot high was set, the contents of a cauldron of a kind of soup which had been suspended over the fire were poured into a large round green crock, and in which all were expected to dip their spoons and fingers. Little Ulysse was exceedingly amazed, and observed that c

itting up and crying out for his bonne, his mother, and sister,

self, reminded the child how the waves had borne them away from the rest, with earnest soothing promises of care, and endeavouring to get back to the rest. 'Say your prayers that God will take care of you and

; 'I want my clothes. This is an ugl

es,' said Arthur. 'They were to

ome sash, into which were stuck a spoon and knife, and in some cases one or two pistols. They did not seem ill-disposed, though their language was perfectly incomprehensible. Ulysse's clothes were lying dried by the hearth and no objection was made to his resuming them. Arthur made gestures of washing or bathing, and was conducted outside the court, to a little stream of pure water descending rapidly to the sea. It was so cold that Ulysse screamed at the touch, as Arthur, with more spectators than he could have desired, did his best to perform their toile

d flax, were laid out to dry, and girls and boys were driving the cattle out to pasture. He could not doubt that he had landed among a settled and not utterly uncivilised people, but he was too spent and weary to exert himself, or even

s, not Arabs, good Moslems-who would do him no harm. This, and he pointed to a fine-looking elderly man, was the sheyk of the village, Abou Ben Zegri, and if the young Giaours would conform to the true faith all would be salem with them. Arthur shook his head, and tried by word and sign to indicate his anxiety for the rest of his companions. The sailor threw up his hands, and pointed towards the sea, to show that he believed them to be all lost; but Arthur insisted that five-marking them off on his fingers-were on gebal, a rock, and emphatically indicated

dim distance, with winter caps of snow, and shaded in the most gorgeous tints of colouring forests beneath, slopes covered with the exquisite green of young wheat. Autumn though it was, the orange-trees, laden with fruit, the cork-trees, ilexes, and fan-palms, gave plenty of greenery, shading the gardens with prickly pear hedges; and though many of the fruit-trees had lost their leaves, fig, peach, and olive, and mulberry, caper plants, vines with foliage of every tint of red and purple, w

ttle Ulysse, it was strangely like seeing the life of the Israelites in the Old Testament when they dwelt under their own vines and fig-trees-like reading a chapter in the Bible, as he said to himself, as again and again he saw some allusion to Eastern customs illustrated. He was still more struck-when, after the various herds of kine, sheep, and goats, with one camel,

startled by the instant change in his play-fellow

not two years younger, Ulysse was far more childish than his sister, and when she was no longer present to lead him with he

ight look nearer home for idols-but chiefly concerned at the moment to k

prevail among the villagers, especially the women. Arthur heard the word 'Yusuf' often repeated, and by the time darkness had fallen on the village, the sheyk ushered the guest into his court, bringing with him a donkey with some especially precious load-which was removed; after which the supper was served as before in the large low apartment, with a handsomely tiled floor, and an opening in the roof for the iss

rame than these Moors, who, though graceful, lithe, and exceedingly stately and dignified, hardly reached above young Hope's own shoulder. Conversation was going on all the time, and Arthur soon perceived that he was the subject of it. As soon as the meal was over, the new-comer addressed him, to his great joy, in French. It was the worst French i

med impressed, but whether ambassador was understood was an

great point that Arthur tried to convey was that there would be a very considerable ransom if the child could be conveyed to Algiers, and he endeavoured to persuade the stranger, who was evidently a sort of travelling merchant, and, as he began to suspect, a renegade, to

pe was carried by a negro boy, at sight of whom Ulysse gave a cry of ecstasy, 'Juba! Juba! Grandmother's Juba! Why do not yo

ve tongue, which he often used with the boy, 'it i

the merchant. He turned round with th

cried Arthur, ho

ertain hesitation, as though speaking a long unfamiliar tongu

r quality in preparation to what was grown in the village. They solemnly smoked together and conversed, while Arthur watched them anxiously, re

taken leave, that the merchant again spoke to Arthur. 'I'll see ye the morn; I hae tell'd the sheyk we ar

hich had been spread within the enclosures belonging to the village, around which were tethered the

yers to be neglected; but not being able to repeat the Latin forms, and thinking them unprofitable to the boy himself, he prompted t

Arthur had by this time made out that the sheyk, who was a very handsome man over middle-age, seemed to have two wives; one probably of his own age, and though withered up into a brown old mummy, evidently the ruler at home, wearing the most ornaments, and issuing her orders in a shrill, cracked tone. There was a much youn

much more anxious care, although he had mo

d silver, jewellery, charms, pistols, and a host of other articles in stock, and to be ready to purchase or barter these for the wax, embroidered handkerchiefs, yarn, and other productions and manufactures of the place. Not a single purchase could be made on either side without a tremendous haggling, shouting, and gesticulating, as if the parties were on the verge of coming to blows; wher

ing he had not experienced since he had been with the Nithsdales, for his mother and his home-the tall narrow-gabled house that had sprung up close to the grim old peel tower, the smell of the sea, the tinkling of

rchant bending over him, and saying-'Wake up, my bonny laddie; we can hae our crack in peace while t

e youth, and as the man started-'My na

on of auld

ounges

y of amazement, and there was a curious unconscious change of tone, as he sa

r, 'who used to come her rounds t

eels at the door of the braw house of Burnside, and mony's the bannock and cookie the

ime before I left home, and that is now three years since. She looked very o

t gravely; 'but she had led sic a life as f

t not offend a possible protector, and softened his words i

does, as ye'll soon find'-and disregarding Arthur's exclamation-'and the bit bairn,

t Burke, a good Jacobite, who got into trouble with th

to be secretaire, as ye ca'd it,

lish enough to run away from school t

on the Border side against the English

a common sailor in various merchant ships, had been captured by a Moorish vessel, and had found it expedient to purchase his freedom by conversion to Islam, after which his Scottish shrewdness and thrift had resulted in his becoming a prosperous itinerant merchant, with his headquarters at Bona. He expressed himself willing and anxious to do all he

on? Never!' cried

savage heathens, worshipping Baal and Ashtaroth, but I fand myself quite mista'en. They

at,' threw

hen we came ben. The meneester himsel' dinna gae about blessing and praying over ilka sma' matter like the meenest of us here, and for a' the din they make at hame about the honorable Sabbath, wha thinks

t Yusuf did not venture to stay any longer with him, and bidding him think over what had been

nder the oak of Mamre, in the tents of Abraham. From what he remembered of Partan Jeannie's reputation as a being only tolerated and assisted by his mother, on account of her extreme misery and destitution, he could believe that the ne'

mmunication with the outside world, beyond that 'dissociable ocean,' over which his wistful gaze wandered. Then the ransom of the little Chevalier de Bo

received among them. At night, however, Ulysse's old home self seemed to revive; he crept back to Arthur, tired and weary, fretting for mother, sister, and home; and even after he h

rnest discussion between the sheyk and the merchant, and by and by Yusuf came and sat himself down by

fashion; but his demeanour was on the whole that of the fisher to the laird's son, and he evidently

n two sons, and that both had been killed the year before in trying to

swimming or floating round the headland and saving the child, and regarded his height as something gigantic. Moreover, Yusuf had asserted that he was son to a great

when I cam' back frae my rounds, the plague had been there before me. They were a' gone, even Ali, that had just began to ca' me Ab, Ab, and I hae never had heart to gang back to the town

ut for nothing-no, for nothing, can a Christian de

if I took up with the Prophet, and I was ower lang leggit to row in a galley? Forbye, here they say that a man who prays and gies awmous, and keeps frae wine, is sicker to win to Paradise and a' the houris. I had rather

fault of the Christia

re say of Allah. I see no muckle to choose, and I ken ane thing,-it is a hell on earth at ance gin ye gan

ur, trying to fortify himself. 'No, I cannot

Mariam for a Prop

and God. No, come what may, I can never

it would misbecome your father's son to do sic a deed owre lichtly, and strive to gar him wa