that it would have been an easier death.

"God will surely help us," said the woman.

"We are all alone amongst serpents and beasts of prey," said the man. "We
have no food and no water. How can God help us?"

He tore his clothes in despair and pressed his face against the earth. He
was hopeless, like a man with a mortal wound in his heart.

The woman sat upright, with her hands folded upon her knees. But the
glances she cast over the desert spoke of unutterable despair.

The palm heard the sorrowful rustling in its leaves grow still stronger.
The woman had evidently heard it too, for she looked up to the crown of
the tree, and in the same moment she involuntarily raised her arms.

"Dates, dates!" she cried.

There was such a longing in her voice, that the old palm wished it had not
been any higher than the gorse, and that its dates had been as easy to
reach as the red berries of the hawthorn. It knew that its crown was full
of clusters of dates, but how could man reach to such a dazzling height?

The man had already seen that, the dates being so high, it was impossible
to reach them. He did not even lift his head. He told his wife that she
must not wish for the impossible.

But the child, which had crawled about alone and was playing with sticks
and straws, heard the mother's exclamation. The little one could probably