stammered, and said he would speak to them himself and ask them to give him a fixed wage. She agreed; and after that he would bring her coins, and she would give him a portion of them and hide the rest away for him in a little box.

O God, how she walked in those days with her eyes open and her inner sight shut! She worked and gathered her children under her wings, gazing into their faces to divine from them the intentions of the future! "Bassam" nearing young manhood and helping her; "Habib" nearing ten, reviving hope in her; "Basma" at eight, opening out and growing, filling her with assurance! How far she was from the truth, how blind, as she hid those forbidden coins in the box and wept over them for joy and pride!... How was she to know that her son's hand, which circled her neck at night trembling with tenderness, joined the hands of ruffians by day and reached out to forbidden things and stole them, steady and unshaking! Yes, they were three, and the eldest was an angel until that day — that day of green, glorious spring! It was a Sunday; she was hanging out the wash in the morning with her children playing around her, when suddenly Bassam sprang up saying he wanted to buy them some ice cream. Habib stood up asking to go with him; his brother refused and ran out; Habib ran after him calling on him to stop, and she shouted at him not to follow his brother — and then she heard Bassam's screaming. She dropped what was in her hands and ran back to the street, and found Habib flung on the ground before a gleaming automobile, his head split open, his face dyed... Only three hours she waited at the hospital, and then they let her put her arms around him and lay her cheek against his cheek, rigid, staring, unable to stir.. They thrust into her hand money

paid by the rich owner of the car. She took it without feeling that she was taking anything; she saw nothing but her boy's split head and his hair dyed a red the color of roses... And when she came a little to her senses and remembered her son and her daughter, she cried out in anguish:

"Come to me, my darlings, come to my arms.".. Her daughter threw herself upon her breast, and

Bassam stood before her with a face frozen of glance and strange of feature, and said:

"I saw him, Mother — I saw him kill my brother! He was lighting his cigarette, and he didn't stop the car until after he had killed him! I will kill him one day with this hand of mine; I will kill him and split his head open. He is a rich tyrant who kills an innocent and goes free, as though he had

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