House Beautiful by Charlotte Maria Tucker

AN empty skin-bottle is before us, such as is used by Orientals to the present day to carry what they emphatically term "the gift of God; " a title to which our Saviour appears to have alluded when He said to the woman of whom He had asked water, "If thou knewest the gift of God; " seeking to raise her thoughts from the earthly well to the heavenly Fountain.

Of the value of water in the wilderness, we, in our moist climate, can scarcely form an adequate conception. Let me briefly quote from a description of travelling in an Arabian desert, given by a graphic author: * "On either hand extended one weary plain in a black monotony of lifelessness. A dreary land of death, in which even the face of an enemy were almost a relief amid such utter solitude. Day after day found us urging our camels to their utmost pace, for fifteen or sixteen hours together out of the twenty-four, under a well-nigh vertical sun. Then an insufficient halt for rest or sleep, at most of two or three hours, soon interrupted by the often repeated admonition, 'If we linger here we all die of thirst."