"That he is," said Miss Dawkins. "What a delightful trait of national
character it is to see these men so faithful to their employers." And
then at last they got over the ferry, Mr. Ingram having descended among
the combatants, and settled the matter in dispute by threats and
shouts, and an uplifted stick.

They crossed the broad Nile exactly at the spot where the nilometer, or
river guage, measures from day to day, and from year to year, the
increasing or decreasing treasures of the stream, and landed at a
village where thousands of eggs are made into chickens by the process
of artificial incubation.

Mrs. Damer thought that it was very hard upon the maternal hens--the
hens which should have been maternal--that they should be thus robbed
of the delights of motherhood.

"So unnatural, you know," said Miss Dawkins; "so opposed to the
fostering principles of creation. Don't you think so, Mr. Ingram?"

Mr. Ingram said he didn't know. He was again seating Miss Damer on her
donkey, and it must be presumed that he performed this feat clumsily;
for Fanny Damer could jump on and off the animal with hardly a finger
to help her, when her brother or her father was her escort; but now,
under the hands of Mr. Ingram, this work of mounting was one which
required considerable time and care. All which Miss Dawkins observed
with precision.

"It's all very well talking," said Mr. Damer, bringing up his donkey
nearly alongside that of Mr. Ingram, and ignoring his daughter's
presence, just as he would have done that of his dog; "but you must