Then eight others were planted--in all, three rows of pillars, three in a row.

Then, at call, the women and children came, and unfolded the canvas from its packing on the camels.

Who might do this but the women?
Had they not sheared the hair from the brown goats of the flock?
and twisted it into thread?
and woven the thread into cloth?
and stitched the cloth together, making the perfect roof, dark-brown in fact, though in the distance black as the tents of Kedar?
And, finally, with what jests and laughter, and pulls altogether, the united following of the sheik stretched the canvas from pillar to pillar, driving the stakes and fastening the cords as they went! And when the walls of open reed matting were put in place--the finishing-touch to the building after the style of the Desert--with what hush of anxiety they waited the good man's judgment! When he walked in and out, looking at the house in connection with the sun, the trees, and the lake, and said, rubbing his hands with might of heartiness, "Well done! Make the dowar now as ye well know, and to-night we will sweeten the bread with arrack, and the milk with honey, and at every fire there shall be a kid.

God with ye! Want of sweet water there shall not be, for the lake is our well; neither shall the bearers of burden hunger, or the least of the flock, for here is green pasture also.

God with you all, my children! Go." And, shouting, the many happy went their ways then to pitch their own habitations.