lesson, which all enjoy very much, but as I have only one assistant and sometimes upwards of 100 girls, I cannot often spare the time for it. Our school has not been so full for a long time as it now is-70 or 80 we now think a small number. The boys' school is nearly as large. For some time we thought it would go down altogether, but since it was re-opened by one of the missionaries it has increased rapidly under his care; it will prove a blessing to many. Before we leave let me take you into the Sabbath-school. In one large room you will see young men and 50 to 100 women busily learning from native teachers. In another room you will find one of our missionaries' wives with a class of from six to ten girls. In the infant schoolroom you will find from 50 to 90 children, some of them very big boys and girls, and some very small. I always give a gallery lesson to this class. Could you see them sometimes you would be much amused. A few weeks ago they had a lesson about the three Hebrew youths who were cast into the furnace for their faithfulness to the true God. All listened with intense interest. One little boy, with open eyes and ears, seemed catching every word. When I came to that part of the narrative which tells of the king coming to look into the furnace and finding the youths alive and unhurt, and a fourth walking with them like to the Son of God, the little boy gave his head such a shake of joy and cried out, "Heke, heke," which is as much as to say in Kaffir, "That's good; I am glad." It was a proof the lesson had not been lost. Now let us walk over the Mission Station. It is divided into two parts by a river, which we would call a burn in Scotland, or streamlet in England, it is so small. On the south side there is a neat little house in the middle of the huts which the people have built themselves; they call it a kirk, and use it for morning and evening worship. The people are summoned to prayer there by a person rattling on an old waggon wheel! They are not rich enough to have a bell. But as you return to the Mis sion House I hope you will notice an old tumble-down building. It is our church, and should a heavy rain come we don't know how much of it will be left together. We need a new one very much, but where the money to build it is to come from we are at a loss to know, except that we remember that precious truth, "The gold and the silver are the Lord's," and that the hearts of all men are in His hand. We want our little friends to try and help us. Were you really here our old missionary would show you the plan of a new church which he has had for some years, but it is only now that we really have begun to feel the pressing necessity to have it built. Our people can render us very little help, they are 80 destitute through the late years' droughts that they have almost nothing, although many were willing to give their work or help in any way. Now, we want our little home friends to give or collect something for it. Here is work you can do for one corner of Africa: you can give for a brick, a plank, a pane of glass, or a nail. All could do a little towards erecting a house in which the glad tidings of salvation may be proclaimed, and your reward might be souls brought to Jesus. I must tell you that our little native children at Peelton have shown themselves willing to do what they could. In school I collected £1 0s. 1d. in a fortnight. Each child brought a penny, a "tick," which is threepence, or eggs; some of the people have been giving Kaffir corn, or mealies, which can be turned into money. But do as they will, they will never be able to raise more than a hundred pounds, and a church will cost above a thousand! Will you not try to raise a part, and prove that in you the Kaffirs at Peelton have friends? Our good secretary at the Mission House, Mr. Robinson, would gladly receive for the Peelton church any contributions you may send towards it. Do not let it be said that in our need our English children of the mission failed us. MID the crowds of people that trudged along under the burning sun, there was one animal that struck my attention very much, and that was the camel. In some few instances it was engaged in carrying people on its back, but generally it was employed in carrying the poles which were required for the support of the telegraph wires. In one solitary instance I saw it yoked with an ox, with which it was engaged in ploughing one of the fields we passed by. It is impossible to conceive a more ill-assorted match than was presented by these two. The camel is certainly out of its place in the field, as its true home and field of duty is the desert. I could not but be struck with the peculiarly distressing look that appears stamped upon its face. It always wears an injured appearance, as though it had suffered some terrible grievance, which it could never efface from its recollection. It is exceedingly obedient to its masters, for we saw it controlled in a variety of ways by very small boys who had charge of them. It is very interesting to watch them kneeling down either to load or unload. The fore legs are first bent underneath the body, and then the hind legs, which have a double set of joints, fold up somewhat like a carpenter's rule until the animal lies quite flat upon the ground. At one of the places where we stopped I came up close to a camel that was thus lying on the ground. It was laden with well water, which had been poured into large skins. It seemed to look reproachfully upon every one that came near, and when the little boy who had charge of it gave it a few blows with his stick, to hasten it in its efforts to get up, it uttered a few sounds so intensely mournful that I felt quite sad until I got away from it. A great variety of articles were always brought for sale at the stations, and there was a plentiful supply of well water at stations in the immediate neighbourhood of the river. This water was carried about in skins, and sold in coarsely-made water casks for about sixpence apiece, water cask of course included, which thus becomes the property of the purchaser. These skins were, as far as my observations extended, pig skins, which had been taken off the animal so neatly and sewed up so ingeniously, that when filled with water they bore an exact resemblance to the living animals. The water, which was very good, proved very acceptable, and was soon bought up by the passengers. At about five in the afternoon, our guard informed us that we were now about eight miles from Cairo. After a quarter of an hour's ride further through delightful scenery, we began to discern the houses of Cairo, and in a few minutes we were steaming rapidly into the long dreary station of the town. For a moment after we had stopped it would have required no very great stretch of imagination to have fancied ourselves at some railway station in England. There was the same bustle, the same rush of excited people along the platform, and a similar kind of anxiety manifested by the porters to seize upon our baggage. In the compartment in which I was seated we were so literally taken by storm, that whilst intent upon looking after some of the more valuable of my goods, I found to my dismay that some of the less important had disappeared-where no one could tell. It was exceedingly amusing to see some of the passengers, who had been treated in a similar manner, rushing about excitedly in quest of some box or other that had been carried off. On our appealing to the conductor, he said we need be under no alarm, as we should find all our things safely deposited in the hotel. At the gateway leading from the station we found a great number of large omnibus-looking conveyances awaiting our arrival, which were here specially for the purpose of carrying us to the hotel. After we had got comfortably seated, we were agreeably surprised by discovering that our missing goods were all piled up on the front near the driver, so that relieved of our anxiety on this score, we were able to take a greater interest in what was passing around us. Dusty and weary as I was, I could not help being completely absorbed in the busy and animated scene that lay before me. It was so different from anything I had seen since we entered Egypt, that it presented all the attractions of novelty. The houses were large and well built. What added considerably to the beauty of this part of the town, was the great number of large trees which, although they had a dirty and lost look about them, nevertheless gave a charm to the place which I can hardly describe. As the station lies upon the very edge of the desert, it may well be imagined that there will be no scarcity of dust. In fact, the sand lies massed in great heaps up to the very station door, and the people that are passing by seem to have considerable difficulty in getting along. After all the passengers had taken their seats in the various conveyances, we were rather surprised at the terrific speed with which each one set off. Any experience that we might ever have had of hard driving was completely thrown in the shade by the reckless manner in which these Egyptian Jehus |