EBIN OWE) (AME Ds

eo me fast, mamma, when we enter the Khan. I
am afraid.”

“ Afraid of what, Ebno’l Amed?” Umdhabai exclaimed,.
turning sharply upon her son.

The little fellow was only ten years old, but he did not
look like one who would be much afraid of anything, as he stood, barefooted
on the sand, facing his mother. Those were his words, however, and he was
her only child —her fatherless boy, in a land where men and boys were valued
simply according to their courage.

“Allah forbid it!” Umdhabai added angrily. “Ebno’l Amed is not a.
coward.”

Slowly and thoughtfully the boy asked :

“Ts he always a coward who is afraid ?”

Umdhabai nodded her head, and he added, “Then, mamma, I must be a
coward, for I am afraid.”

Umdhabai almost dropped the basket of fruit she was carrying, and, dumb
with anger and mortification, stood looking down upon the little figure.

Behind them was the little village where they lived upon the edge of the
great desert. They were on their way to a large Khan with a well where cara~
vans encamped for a day when coming or going over that trackless sea.

At daybreak that morning, they had seen the long black line, twisting and
writhing as it crept like a serpent over the glistening sand, indicating that a
trailing train of camels, with drooping heads and lagging feet, came out of the
desert, and all the villagers gathered baskets of fruit and hurried toward the
Khan, sure of a good market day.

Umdhabai forgot her errand, however, as she stood in silence, looking scorn-
fully down, while Ebno’l Amed asked, “ Will papa ever come back to us?”

“Never!” she replied solemnly. “He has taken the long journey. But
he was a brave man. He has gone where the Prophet promised to the brave
eternal happiness. No coward will ever follow him.”

Not heeding the taunt, Ebno’l Amed asked :

“Tf the famine comes again, mamma, what can you do without papa?”

“T must sell my jewels,’ she replied, glancing at the necklace which she
wore, in the common custom of her people who carry all of their wealth about
them, as ornaments, for want of some safer place to put it. Umdhabai was still
very angry, however, and added: “They came from a brave man. Shall they
go to keep a coward from starving ?”

Ebno’l Amed’s lip quivered, and his eyes were bright with tears; but he went