But it was papa that sat down, and I stood by the window, and
we read together those chapters of the Acts; and papa grew
very much interested, and we had an excellent talk all
breakfast time. The strange dishes at breakfast helped the
interest too; the boiled rice and meat, and the fish and the
pomegranates. I seemed to have my living in Bible times as
well as places. The Mediterranean lay sparkling before us; as
it was before Peter no doubt when he went up to that housetop
to pray. The house is gone; but it is the same sea yet.
"I shall always look upon Jaffa with respect," said papa, at
last; "since here it was that the gates of religion were
publicly set open for all the world, and the key taken out of
the hands of the Jews. It is a little place too, to have
anything of so much interest belonging to it."
"That is not all, papa," I said. "Solomon had the cedar for
the Temple, and for all his great buildings, floated down
here."
"Solomon!" said papa.
"Don't you remember, sir, his great works, and the timber he
had to get from Lebanon?"
"Did it come this way?"
"The only way it could come, papa; and then it had to go by
land up to Jerusalem - the same way that we are going; thirty-
three miles."
"Where did you learn so much about it?"
"That isn't much, papa; all that is in Murray; but now may I
read you about Solomon's floats of timber, while you are
finishing that pomegranate?"
"Read away," said papa. "Pomegranates are not ripe now, are
they?"
"They keep, papa."
Papa laughed at me, and I read to him as much as I liked; and
he was almost as much engaged as I was.
"We'll go out and look at this famous harbour for lumber," he
said. "It is not good for much else, Daisy; I thought
yesterday we should certainly make shipwreck on that reef. Is
it possible there is no better along the coast."
"It is not what we would call a harbour at all, papa. Nothing
but little boats can get through that narrow opening in the
reef; and I suppose, Solomon's cedar timber got through."
"The ships of old time were not much more than our boats, many
of them," said my father. "How delightfully you realise
everything, Daisy!"
"Well, papa, - don't you?"
"Not the past, child. I realise you by my side."
"Papa, if you think about it a little, you will realise Joppa
too."
"I have not your imagination, Daisy. About Solomon's temple, -
there is nothing of it left now, I suppose?"
"Oh, no, papa!"
"It might, Daisy. Thebes is vastly older."
"But, papa, - don't you remember, there was not one stone of
all those buildings to be left upon another stone. Nothing is
left - only some of the foundation wall that supported the
floor, or the platform, of the Temple."