I Sit On The Floor As Comfortable As I Can Make
Myself While He Is Getting Supper.
The flickering light, the
shifting shadows, the strange ones lying asleep, the almost as
strange dusky helpers, the sense of dangers just escaped, the
whining, wailing, barking dogs, my physical pain - all these things
beget within me a strange feeling of loneliness and a longing for
home.
Again and again I ask myself the question, "Why did you
undertake this; why were you not content to go down from Damascus
to Galilee and all of West Palestine by the easy way?" But, again
and again I say to myself: "You would never have been satisfied
had you done so; this is part of the price to be paid for what you
wanted; consider what you get in exchange, value received."
But my reverie is cut short by a groan from my dragoman; he sank
back trembling and said, "Call Haleel!" Together we worked with
him for a half-hour or more until a chill, the result of drinking
too much water on reaching the village, had been overcome. I was
much alarmed at the possible outcome of his sudden illness, for
had he left me thus the situation for me would have been one of
extreme perplexity. In my anxiety for him I forgot for the moment
my own condition. But now I am again a conscious sufferer. So
tired am I that I can scarcely wait until I have sipped a little
tea and eaten a little bread before I have removed hat and shoes
and am stretched out upon the floor to sleep. The horses seem
restless in their stamping; the dogs keep up their barking; the
room is dark; I hear the heavy breathing of those about me; a lone
star peeps in through the small window; and I try to compose
myself for the rest that I so much need. "Is there no balm in
Gilead?" Yes. I thought that I was lying down to a night of
restlessness and fever, but never on couch of down has my rest
been sweeter.
I am awakened at dawn by some one moving about in the room, and I
see a man pick up a gun and pass quickly out. The dogs are barking
savagely throughout the village. Then I look about me. Imagine my
surprise when I discover that I have had five bed-fellows, or
rather FLOOR-FELLOWS! There we lay stretched out in all sorts of
angles and curves - American, Syrian, Circassian; Christian and
Mohammedan - forming a kind of crazy patch-work on the earthen
floor. And imagine my supreme disgust when I discover a big,
dirty, odorous, unshod human foot, erect on the heel and with toes
spread out like a fan, within a few inches of my face! Bah! How
was it that I slept! I turn my face to the wall and soon lose
thought of the disturbing vision in slumber.
It is quite late when again I wake.
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