journeys Mohammed used to ride on a camel, and he soon became a
skillful camel-driver.

Mohammed was very faithful and honest in all his work. He always
spoke the truth and never broke a promise. "I have given my
promise," he would say, "and I must keep it." He became so well
known in Mecca for being truthful and trustworthy that people gave
him the name of El Amin, which means "the truthful."

At this time he was only sixteen years of age; but the rich traders
had so much confidence in him that they gave him important business
to attend to, and trusted him with large sums of money. He often
went with caravans to a port on the shore of the Red Sea, sixty-five
miles from Mecca, and sold there the goods carried by the camels.
Then he guided the long line of camels back to Mecca, and faithfully
paid over to the owners of the goods the money he had received.

Mohammed had no school education. He could neither read nor write.
But he was not ignorant. He knew well how to do the work intrusted
to him, and was a first-rate man of business.


II


One day, when Mohammed was about twenty-five years old, he was
walking through the bazaar or market-place, of Mecca when he met the
chief camel-driver of a wealthy woman named Khadijah (Kha-di'-jah).
This woman was a widow, who was carrying on the business left her
by her husband. As soon as the camel-driver saw Mohammed he stopped