Rocks, brush, and timber choked the way.

Crossing to the south side, they went sheerly up the steep hill--so steep that it was all but impossible for the straining animals to drag up the heavy wagons, and so narrow that a false step might have dashed wagon and team half a thousand feet on to the rocks below.
But at last they stood on the summit,--and broke into shouts of rapture as they looked.

For the wilderness home of Israel had been found.

Far and wide below them stretched their promised land,--a broad, open valley hemmed in by high mountains that lay cold and far and still in the blue haze.

Some of these had slept since the world began under their canopies of snow, and these flashed a sunlit glory into the eager eyes of the pilgrims.