could earn considerable wages, and they now lived most happily together. He was quite a reformed man and she had no doubt of the stability of his mind, as the change had taken place more than twelve months.

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The Camel.

Or all animals that man has subjugated to his dominion, the camel is the most abject slave; with incredible patience and submis sion, he traverses the burning sands of Africa and Arabia, carrying burdens of amazing weight.

The Arabs consider the camel as a gift sent from Heaven; a sacred animal, without whose assistance they could neither subsist, traffic, nor travel. The milk of the camel is their common food. They also eat its flesh, and its hair supplies them with materials for raiment.

In possession of their camels, the Arabs want nothing, and have nothing to fear. In one day they can perform a journey of one hundred and fifty miles into the desert, which cuts off every approach from their enemies. By the assistance of his camel an Arab surmounts all the difficulties of a country which is neither covered with verdure, nor supplied with water.

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The tough and spungy feet of the camel are peculiarly adapted to a hot climate, for in the most fatiguing journeys they are never found to crack. The sand seems indeed their element, for as soon as they quit it, and touch the mud, they can scarcely keep upright. Their great power of abstaining from drink. ing, enables them to pass unwatered tracts of country for seven or eight days, without requiring any liquid. They can discover water by their scent at half a league's distance; and after a long abstinence will hasten towards it, long before their drivers perceive where it lies. They are indeed provided by the beneficent Creator with a wonderful contrivance to fit them for long abstinence, being furnished with a fifth stomach in addition to the four which they have in common with all animals that chew the cud. This additional stomach serves them as a kind of store-house, to hold a much greater quantity of water than they bave present occasion for. It has been remarked also, that this animal always disturbs. the water with its feet before it drinks, with an instinctive intent to render it heavy, and consequently less fit to pass off speedily and more likely to be retained in the stomach for a long time; but it seems more probable that this instinct is given it, to chase away the almost innumerable swarms of insects, with which the waters in hot climates abound, and which, if swallowed with the water must in

evitably render it unfit for keeping. In this receptacle it remains so sweet that it is not unusual for travellers, when they want water, to kill a camel for the sake of what it contains, which is always found to be perfectly sweet and wholesome. Their patience under hunger is such, that they will travel many days, fed only with a few dates or some small balls of barley-meal, or on the miserable thorny plants which they meet with in the deserts.

The camel has always been reckoned among the riches of the East. In holy Scripture, the Patriarch Job is said to have possessed six thousand camels; and when we consider the wonderful combination of good qualities in this animal, we must allow it to be of inestimable value in the countries it inhabits.

A large camel will traverse the deserts with a load of a thousand or twelve hundred pounds. When about to be loaded, at the command of the conductor, the animals instantly bend their knees. If overburdened, they give repeated blows with their heads to the person who oppresses them, and sometimes utter lamentable cries.

The Arabs affirm that the camels are so extremely sensible of injustice and ill-treatment, that they will retain the remembrance of an injury, till an opportunity offers of gratifying their 'revenge. Eager to express their resentment, they however no longer retain any anger, when once they believe they have satis

tisfied their vengeance. Accordingly, when an Arab has excited the rage of a camel, he throws down his garments in the path which the ani. mal is to pass, and disposes them in such a manner, that they appear to cover a man sleeping under them. The animal knows the clothes, seizes them in his teeth, shakes them with violence, and tramples on them in a rage. When his anger is thus appeased, he leaves them; and then the owner of them may make his appearance without any fear, and may lead and guide the camel as he pleases.

An old man and a little boy were driving an ass to the next market to sell. "What a fool is this fellow," says a man upon the road, "to be trudging it on foot with his son, that his ass may go light!" The old man, hearing this set his boy upon the ass, and went whistling by the side of him. Why sirrah, cries a second man to the boy, "is it fit for you to be riding while your poor old father is walking on foot?" The father upon this rebuke, took down his boy, from the ass, and mounted himself. "Do you see," says a third, "how the lazy old knave rides along upon his beast, while his poor little boy is almost crippled with walking!" The old man no sooner heard this, than he took up his son behind him.