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How many of you, little folks, ever heard of a great desert of sand
so hot that if we should try to walk in it bare-foot, we would burn
our feet to blisters? Away down South, where it is always summer,
and where the sun shines so very warm, is one of these great seas of
hot sand, with no trees, or flowers, or brooks to be seen; only in a
few places are green spots, green with grass and palm trees with
springs of water, but these are few and far between.
Now you must know, that a horse cannot travel in this hot sand; it
would burn his feet, to be sure, but then his feet are so heavy that
he would sink away down into it, and he would have to pull his feet
out of it, which would make him very tired indeed.
But the good God has made an animal for the people who have to cross
this desert, whose feet will not sink into the sand, nor burn in it
either. This animal is the camel, the brown, shaggy camel, with its
large hump of fat upon its back.
Have you ever seen a sponge? Is it not soft and light, and if you
press it with anything, does it not always spring up again? The
camel's feet are like a sponge, and never sink into the sand- he can
run over it as fast as a horse on our streets.
I told you before this, that one could find nothing to eat on a
desert, for nothing can grow on hot sand, and there is no water to
be had either.
Well, you all know that a horse drinks water every day, does it not?
If you should forget to give your pet horse water every day, it
would neigh and neigh until it got it, one or two bucketfuls.
Not so with the good old camel. He can do without water for a long
time, because God gave him nine stomachs. When he does drink water,
he needs almost a barrel, or even more than that. Besides, he does
not need to eat every day as we need to. That hump is composed of
fat, and when he gets nothing to eat, he feeds off of that hump-not
by chewing it off from the outside, but by letting the fat down into
his stomach.
Because he is so useful in crossing the desert, in fact because men
could not cross the desert at all if they did not have the camel, he
is called the ship of the desert.
Not long ago, a papa, mamma, and their little children lived in one
of these green spots I told you of (called Oasis). They did not live
in a house, but in a tent made of cloth and tied to poles, such as
our soldiers live in. They had no beds or chairs, but slept and sat
on pretty bright rugs, such as your mamma has before the hearth.
This papa and mamma had a little boy whose name was Dido. Is not
that a funny name for a little boy? A funny, but a good little boy
he was. His face was brown like a nut, not from the sun, because his
papa's and mamma's and little brother's and sister's faces were
brown, also; his hair was as black as could be and very long, his
eyes were black as coal.
The little children could not go to the Kindergarten, or play on the
street, or go to the store for mamma, because there were no such
things as these on the oasis. They had sand enough to play in, more
than they could use. What pretty mounds and sand tents they would
make!
One day while at play in the sand, they heard something bleating
close by, and when they looked up, what do you think they saw? Why,
it was a tiny baby camel, which must have lost its mamma, and did
not know where to go.
They called it, and sure enough it came up to them and was as tame
as could be. They took it home, and papa said, "If no one comes to
claim it, you may keep it." IIe gave it milk to drink and put it in
the tent.
It grew larger and tamer day by day; it would play with the children
like a dog does, but of all the children, it liked ][)!do best,
because he fed it, and hugged and kissed it before it went to sleep
on his rub at night. He loved it so dearly.
After it had been with them for a month, papa said, one day, "I
think no one will. come to claim the camel, so we can keep it as our
own, and now it must have a name, and what shall it be? Suppose we
call him David, that will be a good name, for he is a very fine
camel."
"O papa, you say he is such a fine camel, and I tell you, he is a
very wise camel, also, let us call him Solomon, because he is fine
and wise like the king Solomon."
Papa said, "Yes, we will call him Solomon."
He then put a silver chain, with a little silver bell hanging to it,
around his neck. How proud he was of it, and how soon he learned his
new name! When the children called, "Solomon, Solomon, come here
quick," he would run to them as fast as he could.
He grew and grew until he was so large that if you wanted to climb
upon his hump, you would need a ladder to do so.
One day, mamma said to papa, "papa, all the coffee is used, and so
are the spices; you will have to cross the desert and get us some
from the city."
"Yes, mamma, I will," said papa, "I suppose I can ride Solomon, he
is large and strong enough. I will go in a few days, for I will have
to feed him well and give him a great deal of water first."
Several days had passed, and one evening as the sun was setting,
papa said, " To-morrow morning I will start, and if Dido would like
to go, I will take him with me, as he is now large enough to
travel."
How happy Dido was to go, you can imagine, as he had never been over
the desert on a cannel's back before.
They went to sleep early that night, for they had to be up before
the sun in the morning.
Papa gave Solomon a whole barrel of water to drink; then he motioned
to him to get down upon his knees, which he did; then Dido and his
papa got upon the hump, Dido in front of his papa, and as soon as
they were safely on, Solomon got up and started to run. He hardly
gave them time to say good-bye to mamma and the children. He ran so
fast over the sand, that in a little while they were quite far away
from home.
They rode all day and all the night, Solomon running all the time
over the hot, dry sand, and the next morning, papa said, "If Solomon
keeps on going as fast as he does now, we will be near the city
before the sun sets."
Papa had scarcely finished speaking, when they saw some more camels
with men on their backs. They were very glad to meet some people to
talk to, and ride with over the lonesome desert.
But, alas! when they came nearer, Dido said, "O papa, hurry up and
run Solomon as fast as he can, don't you see what bad faces those
men have?" and then papa saw that they were robbers who would hurt
men.
But up they came as fast as they could, and cried to Dido's papa,
"stop, and give us your money or we will hurt you."
When papa said they had just a little money with them to buy
groceries, they took a large club and hit papa and little Dido over
the head, so. that they both fell in the hot dry sand like dead, and
then they took Solomon, for they saw that he was a valuable camel,
and rode off in great haste.
Well, how long Dido and his papa lay there unconscious, I cannot
tell, but it was a very long time indeed. The first one to open his
eyes was Dido. At first he did not remember what had happened, but
when he saw his papa with a great hole in his head, and the blood
coming out of it, he remembered the robbers.
He called his papa until he also opened his eyes, but he felt so
weak and sick that he could scarcely speak to him.
"Where is Solomon?" was the first thing he said.
"The robbers have taken him," said Dido.
"O dear!" said papa. "Then we will have to die here in the desert,
because we are miles away from an oasis, and I am so thirsty; what
shall we do for water? We will' never see mamma and the children
again."
Papa had scarcely spoken when Dido said, "Papa, listen, listen!
don't you hear something that sounds like a bell away off in the
distance?"
Sure enough, it came nearer and nearer, and who do you think it was?
Why, Solomon, of course. He had run away from the robbers and come
back to them.
When he got to where they lay, he sunk down on his knees, as much as
to say, "Get on my back and I will take you to where water is to be
had." They got on, and he ran and ran, and before long they reached
an oasis, found water and felt better, and proceeded to the city to
buy what they needed.
Solomon, the Camel
A Fictional Short Story by
Agnes Taylor Ketchum & Ida M. Jorgensen
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