It was a notable circumstance.
We had been painfully clambering over interminable hills and rocks for days together, and when we suddenly came upon this astonishing piece of rockless plain, every man drove the spurs into his horse and sped away with a velocity he could surely enjoy to the utmost, but could never hope to comprehend in Syria.
Here were evidences of cultivation--a rare sight in this country--an acre or two of rich soil studded with last season's dead corn-stalks of the thickness of your thumb and very wide apart.

But in such a land it was a thrilling spectacle.

Close to it was a stream, and on its banks a great herd of curious-looking Syrian goats and sheep were gratefully eating gravel.

I do not state this as a petrified fact--I only suppose they were eating gravel, because there did not appear to be any thing else for them to eat.

The shepherds that tended them were the very pictures of Joseph and his brethren I have no doubt in the world.