Umm Amer remained an hour, contending in her soul with con-flicting passions; then she rose and prayed to God, and peace returned to her heart. Then, with resolve and firmness, she went to where the rifle hung, took it up, and hur-ried out. She was gone some time, then came back carrying in her hands the most precious thing in existence — a bottle of medicine.

She had sold the rifle to her neighbor Abu Hasan, who sells arms secretly to the free fighters; then she walked to the pharmacy and bought the medicine for her only son in the dead of night. The mother arrived to find her boy still asleep, and she sat down beside him, smiling in triumph — and that was the only time Umm Amer ever smiled for herself. For she had done a great deed, worthy of a smile and of admiration.

•

Suddenly the sick boy woke trembling and opened his mouth, and her eyes fastened on his lips. He cried out: "I saw him!! I saw my father... I saw him on... on the shore of Jaffa... He is ordering me to win back the homeland... At your call, Palestine! Here I am... Ah... here I come to you... beloved Jaffa..."

In vain the mother tried to calm her son. He forgot that he was feverish, forgot that he was sick, and remembered nothing but beautiful Jaffa. The boy sprang up, shouting:

"Bring me the weapon, Mother!"

And for the first time, the mother was slow to answer her son's wish. The son looked at his mother, and quickly his eyes turned to the wall — and he did not find the rifle. He cried from

the depths of his heart: "Where is it??"

The mother answered, tears in her eyes: "I sold it — I sold it, my son, to buy you the medicine."

The son said in horror: "Medicine!! Medicine for me? Do you think that I am sick, Mother?... No — it is the homeland that is sick... Listen... There they are, shelling our Jerusalem with cannon. By God, morning shall not come before I have watered the soil of Jerusalem, thirsty for vengeance, with their blood. Farewell... farewell, Mother; I am going where the heroes go." And the son kissed his mother's hand and hurried out of the room.

•

What had happened? Merciful

heavens! Umm Amer stayed frozen in her place for some moments; then suddenly she woke from her daze. Where is Amer? Where has he gone? No doubt the fever has carried off his reason.

Umm Amer knelt, raised her hands to heaven, and went on praying until the break of dawn — not that God might return her son to her safe, for she had vowed him to the homeland from his birth — but praying for the homeland.

In the morning there came a knock at the door. She opened it, and there stood a soldier before her. She stepped back and said in a deep voice: I know what you are going to say. "Amer died a martyr." Yes... I know that.

The soldier stood nailed to his place, looking at her. Her face was