shall all bow down to me, and pay me tribute."




CHAPTER III

BOYISH DREAMS.


Since that day a great change had taken place in Mohammed Ali. He
was graver and more silent, and participated less in the games of
the boys. He no longer laughed and jested as he had formerly done,
but he was all the more busily occupied with his gun, inherited from
his father, exercising himself in shooting, and almost always
hitting his mark. He also strengthened his limbs by fencing with his
old uncle, who had formerly been a soldier, or by throwing himself
into the sea, to struggle with the waves and allow himself to be
buffeted about by them for hours. The boy prepared himself to become
a man, and he did so with his whole soul, and with the whole
strength of his will.

He often wandered in solitude among the rocks on the heights, or
lingered on the beach below; and when he would return to his mother,
on such occasions, she could see reflected in his countenance the
great thoughts that agitated her boy's soul. He seemed to her to
grow visibly taller each day; that the boy was transforming himself
into a man with wonderful rapidity. She knew that this boy would
become a hero; she had seen it in the expression of his eyes while
relating her dream, and she comprehended the longing which filled