"What is a figure?" said Mr. Dinwiddie. "And if you take away
the literal, where will the spiritual be?"
"True," said papa. "These are things I have not studied."
And then we mounted to the height of Neby Samwil and sat down
for a good long look. Mr. Dinwiddie was here as elsewhere
invaluable. He told us everything and pointed out everything
to us, that we ought to see or know. The seacoast plain lay
below; - spread out for many a mile, with here a height and
there a cluster of buildings, and the blue sea washing its
western border. We could easily see Jaffa, Ramleh and Lydda;
we picked those spots out first which we knew. Then Mr.
Dinwiddie pointed us to Ashdod, and to Ekron, a little to the
left of Ramleh.
"And that is where Nebuchadnezzar was with his army, before he
went up to Jerusalem," I said.
"The first time," said Mr. Dinwiddie. "Yes; there his hosts of
Chaldeans lay in the plain; and there after the place was
taken he impaled the chiefs of the town; and then flushed with
power, came up to Jerusalem and cast banks against it. So he
says; and we know that so Isaiah prophesied he would do; and
we know that Hezekiah bought him off."
"Did he come up this way of the Beth-horons?" I asked.
"I suppose so. And down this way, Joshua chased the fleeing
kings and their followers and overthrew them as they fled down
the pass - what a rush it must have been! - and down there,
down where the green sweeps into the hills from the plain,
there is Ajalon."
"Papa, do you see?"
"I see; but I do not understand quite so well as you do,
Daisy, what you are talking about."
"It is Miss Randolph's own country," remarked Mr. Dinwiddie.
"She is not a Jewess," said papa.
"Pardon me - we have it on authority that 'he is a Jew which
is one inwardly;' - an Israelite indeed," Mr . Dinwiddie
muttered to himself.
I saw papa was puzzled and half displeased. I hastened to turn
the conversation, and showed him where Bethel lay and the
mountains of Ephraim; and finally ordered our luncheon basket
to be brought forward. But we had to leave our position and
choose a shaded place, the sun was growing so hot.
"How long do you expect to remain here - in Palestine, Mr.
Dinwiddie?" something prompted me to ask. He hesitated a
moment or two and then replied "I cannot tell - probably as long as I stay anywhere on this
scene of action."
"You do not mean ever to come home?" I said.
"What is 'home,' Miss Daisy?" he replied, looking at me.
"It is where we were born," said papa.