CHAPTER XIII 



RECLAIMING THE EARTH 



A LIMITLESS sweep of sand; a hot blue 

 -^^^ sky, with the merciless sun traveling 

 through it day by day, with never a cloud to 

 break the force of his rays ; here and there a 

 caravan of camels toiling steadily along or 

 grouped by the side of palms in a beautiful 

 green oasis ; out on the wide reaches now and 

 then a strange mirage wherein were houses, 

 and ships, and fountains, and fair streams flow- 

 ing between green banks ; — something like all 

 this passed in procession before the mind of a 

 boy as he looked at the map in the geography 

 he was studying, and saw, outlined in dots, a 

 wide stretch of country marked " Great Amer- 

 ican Desert." All the boy had read or heard 

 of the deserts of Arabia and Africa he pictured 

 here in his own country, and wondered would 

 the day ever come when he would be able to 

 take the long journey across this mighty desert 

 on the back of a rocking camel. 



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