The tribe came back north in time to help Selim harvest the barley. There had been no bread to eat for two weeks before they returned; so, the very first morning, Suleima and another woman went out and pulled a blanket full of barley heads. These they spread out on a smooth, hard piece of ground, and beat the grain out with sticks. Within an hour they had ground enough grain between the two stones of the hand mill to make a barley loaf, and they all had bread for supper. The donkey and the camel were very grate ful to have the barley straw for their sup per. They thought it was a good change from twigs and leaves and tip ends of thorn bushes.
425. Burying the a few days, everybody was busy harvesting and threshing the barley, of which each family had three big camel's hair sacks full. That was more than the camels could carry, along with all their other load. What should they do with the barley? They had no house, and they had to keep moving all the time. The only thing they could do was to hide the sacks of grain. After drying the barley well by spreading it out on blankets in the sunshine for several days, Abdallah, Suleima, and Hakim worked all one night hiding part of it. After dark, they put two full' sacks on the camel, led him off to a secret place, dug a deep, bottle-shaped hole, lined it with six inches of straw, put in the precious Earley, covered it with straw and earth, and carefully carried away in blankets all the earth that was left, so that no one could find their store. In the morning, they were back in
their tent, as though nothing had hap pened. No one knew their secret. The next fall, as they went south again, they would dig up the barley, safe, sound, and dry. In this way they would have a good supply of barley for seed and for their winter bread.
426. The visit to the bar ley was harvested, our nomad campers, now increased by Selim's family, went rov ing on to the northward, always seeking pasture. After a while they came to a town and a railroad that the French people had built. The French rule most of Algeria. In this railroad town, the no mads sold some sheep and wool, and Suleima sold her rug. With the money they bought rifles and cartridges, knives, beads for Suleika, and many other trinkets. Suleima wanted a teakettle and tin dishes, because they are useful articles and light to carry. After much talk Selim bought a little phonograph and some records, made in New Jersey. These were not easy to carry about in the desert, but Arabs dearly love music, and the family rejoiced at having enough money left over to pay for the new treasure. Hakim had been such a good boy and had worked so well at helping tend the sheep, that his father delighted him with a present of a tin watch. Soon the family started away again for another year of tenting in many places, and of living from their flocks and herds.