She could not bear to stay longer on the roof. Pale and panting for
breath, she hurried to the camp. Milcah followed, and wherever they
encountered people who lived in Succoth, they received respectful
greetings.

The new comers from Zoan,--as the Hebrews called Tanis,--Pha-kos, and
Bubastis, whom they met on the way, did not know Miriam, yet the tall
figure and stately dignity of the prophetess led them also to make way
respectfully or pause to answer her questions.

The things she learned were evil and heart-rending; for joyously as the
procession had marched forward on the first day, it dragged along sadly
and hopelessly on the second. The desert wind had robbed many of the
strong of their power of resistance and energy; others, like the
bondman's wife and nursling, had been attacked by fever on the pilgrimage
through the dust and the oppressive heat of the day, and they pointed out
to her the procession which was approaching the burial-place of the
Hebrews of Succoth. Those who were being conveyed to the bourn whence
there is no return were not only women and children, or those who had
been brought from their homes ill, that they might not be left behind,
but also men who were in robust health the day before and had broken down
under burdens too heavy for their strength, or who had recklessly exposed
themselves, while working, to the beams of the noon-day sun.

In one tent, where a young mother was shaking with the chill of a severe
attack of fever, Miriam asked the pallid Milcah to bring her medicine
chest, and the desolate wife went on her errand with joyous alacrity.
On the way she stopped many and timidly asked about her captive husband,
but could obtain no news of him. Miriam, however, heard from Nun,
Hosea's father, that Eliab, the freedman whom he had left behind, had