charity, and of tender mercy; and then all the next day they stick to

their saddles clear up to the summits of these rugged mountains, and

clear down again. Apply the Testament's gentleness, and charity, and

tender mercy to a toiling, worn and weary horse?--Nonsense--these are for

God's human creatures, not His dumb ones. What the pilgrims choose to

do, respect for their almost sacred character demands that I should allow

to pass--but I would so like to catch any other member of the party

riding his horse up one of these exhausting hills once!

We have given the pilgrims a good many examples that might benefit them,

but it is virtue thrown away. They have never heard a cross word out of

our lips toward each other--but they have quarreled once or twice. We

love to hear them at it, after they have been lecturing us. The very

first thing they did, coming ashore at Beirout, was to quarrel in the

boat. I have said I like them, and I do like them--but every time they

read me a scorcher of a lecture I mean to talk back in print.

Not content with doubling the legitimate stages, they switched off the

main road and went away out of the way to visit an absurd fountain called

Figia, because Baalam's ass had drank there once. So we journeyed on,

through the terrible hills and deserts and the roasting sun, and then far

into the night, seeking the honored pool of Baalam's ass, the patron

saint of all pilgrims like us. I find no entry but this in my note-book:

Rode to-day, altogether, thirteen hours, through deserts, partly,

and partly over barren, unsightly hills, and latterly through wild,

The Innocents Abroad