TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 15 



expedition to freedom, and no man can do more than 

 that. 



But I begged the padre to give Moses his rightful 

 mother at last. For the mother of Moses was not she 

 who took all the credit for it. The mother of Moses 

 was undoubtedly the Princess, his father some hand- 

 some Israelite, and that is why Moses was for ever in 

 heart hankering after his own people, the Israelites. The 

 Princess arranged the little drama of the bullrushes, 

 most sweetly pathetic and tender of stories, arranged 

 too that the baby should be found at the crucial 

 moment, and then gave the little poem to the world 

 to sing through the centuries. 



I shocked the parson profoundly, and he never asked 

 me to subscribe again. 



He was a narrow, bigoted little creature, and I 

 should think has the church and the screen very much 

 to himself by now. I went to hear him take service in 

 the saloon on Sunday. He was quite the sort of 

 padre that makes one feel farther off from heaven 

 than when one was a boy. 



I often wonder why so clever a man as Omar asked : 

 "Why nods the drowsy worshipper outside?" He 

 must have known the inevitable result had the drowsy 

 worshipper gone in. 



I fell asleep during the sermon, and only wakened 

 up as it was about ending, just as the padre closed an 

 impassioned harangue with " May we all have new 

 hearts, may we all have pure hearts, may we all have 

 good hearts, may we all have sweet hearts," and the 

 graceless Cecily says that my "Amen " shook the ship, 



