"She is ill!--what do you want there?"

"I would take her the cake," said the child, and his eyes glistened with
tears.

The old woman touched the child's chin with her finger, and some
mysterious power prompted her to bend over him to kiss him. But before
her lips had touched his face she turned away, and said, in a hard tone:

"Lie still! by and bye we will see." Then she stooped, and threw a
brown sack over the child. She went back into the open air, greeted
Nemu, entertained him with milk, bread and honey, gave him news of the
girl who had been run over, for he seemed to take her misfortune very
much to heart, and finally asked:

"What brings you here? The Nile was still narrow when you last found
your way to me, and now it has been falling some time.

[This is the beginning of November. The Nile begins slowly to rise
early in June; between the 15th and 20th of July it suddenly swells
rapidly, and in the first half of October, not, as was formerly
supposed, at the end of September, the inundation reaches its
highest level. Heinrich Barth established these data beyond
dispute. After the water has begun to sink it rises once more in
October and to a higher level than before. Then it soon falls, at
first slowly, but by degrees quicker and quicker.]

Are you sent by your mistress, or do you want my help? All the world is
alike. No one goes to see any one else unless he wants to make use of