over-which, unlike the morning meal, passed without any fastidious criticism on Gabriel's part-and Olly had drawn a small box, her favorite seat, between her brother's legs, and rested the back of her head comfortably against his waistcoat. When Gabriel had lighted his pipe at the solitary candle, he gave one or two preliminary puffs, and then, taking his pipe from his mouth, said gently:

"Olly, it can't be done."

"What can't be done, Gabe ?" queried the artful Olly, with a swift preconception of the answer, expanding her little mouth into a thoughtful smile. "Thet thing."

"What thing, Gabe?"

"This yer marryin' o' Mrs. Markle," said Gabriel, with an assumption of easy, business-like indifference.

"Why?" asked Olly..
"She wouldn't hev me."

"What?" said Olly, facing swiftly around. Gabriel evaded his sister's eyes, and, looking in the fire, repeated slowly, but with great firmness:

"No; not fur-fur-fur a gift!"

"She's a mean, stuck-up, horrid old thing!" said Olly fiercely. "I'd jest like to-why, thar ain't a man az kin compare with you, Gabe! Like her impudence!"

Gabriel waved his pipe in the air deprecatingly, yet with such an evident air of cheerful resignation, that Olly faced upon him again suspiciously, and asked:

"What did she say?"

I

"She said,” replied Gabe slowly, "thet her heart-was-given-to another. think she struck into poetry, and said:

'My heart it is another's,
And it never can be thine.'

Thet is, I think so. I disremember her
special remark, Olly; but you know' women
allers spout poetry at sech times. Ennyhow,
that's about the way the thing panned out."
"Who was it?" said Olly suddenly.
"She didn't let on who," said Gabriel
uneasily. "I didn't think it the square
thing to inquire."

"Well," said Olly.

Gabriel looked down still more embarrassed, and shifted his position. "Well," he repeated.

"What did you say?" said Olly. "Then ?"

"No, afore. How did you do it, Gabe?" said Olly, comfortably fixing her chin in her hands, and looking up in her brother's face.

"Well," said Gabriel, looking up at the roof, "wimen is bashful ez a general thing, and thar's about only one way ez a man can get at 'em, and that ez, by being kinder keerless and bold. Ye see, Olly, when I kem inter the house, I sorter jest chuckled Sal under the chin-thet way, you knowand then went up and put my arm around the widder's waist, and kissed her two or three times, you know, jest to be sociable and familiar like."

"And to think, Gabe, thet after all that she wouldn't hev ye," said Olly.

"Not at any price," said Gabriel positively.

"The disgustin' beast!" said Olly. “I'd jest like to ketch that Manty hangin' round yer after that!" she continued savagely, with a vicious shake of her little fist. "And just to think, only to-day we give her her pick o' them pups!"

Be

"Hush, Olly, ye mustn't do anythin' o' the sort," said Gabriel hastily. "Ye must never let on to any one anything. It's confidence, Olly-confidence, ez these sort o' things allus is-atween you and me. sides," he went on re-assuringly, "that's nothin'. Lord, afore a man's married, he haz to go through this kind o' thing a dozen times. It's expected. There was a man as I once knowed," continued Gabriel, with shameless mendacity, "ez went through it fifty times, and he was a better man nor me, and could shake a thousand dollars in the face of any woman. Why, bless your eyes, Olly, some men jest likes it—it's excitement-like perspectin'."

"But what did you say, Gabe?" said Olly, returning with fresh curiosity to the central fact, and ignoring the Pleasures of Rejection as expounded by Gabriel.

66

Well, I just up and sez this: Susan Markle, sez I, the case is just this. Here's Olly and me up there on the hill, and jess you and Manty down yer on the Gulch and mountings wild and valleys deep two loving hearts do now divide, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be one family and one house, and that family and that house mine. And it's for you to say when. And then I kinder slung in a little more poetry, and sorter fooled around with that ring," said Gabriel, showing a heavy plain gold ring on his powerful little finger, "and jest kissed

her agin and chucked Sal under the chin, and that's all."

"And she wouldn't hev ye, Gabe," said Olly thoughtfully, "after all that? Well, who wants her to? I don't."

"I'm glad to hear ye say that, Olly," said Gabriel. "But ye mustn't let on a word of it to her. She talks o' coming up on the hill to build, and wants to buy that part of the old claim where I perspected last summer, so's to be near us and look arter you. And Olly," continued Gabriel gravely, "ef she comes round yer foolin' around me ez she used to do, ye mustn't mind that—it's women's ways."

"I'd like to ketch her at it!" said Olly. Gabriel looked at Olly with a guilty satisfaction, and drew her toward him.

"And now that it's all over, Olly," said he, "it's all the better ez it, is. You and me'll get along together ez comfortable ez we kin. I talked with some of the boys the other day about sendin' for a schoolmarm from Marysville, and Mrs. Markle thinks it's a good idee. And you'll go to school, Olly. I'll run up to Marysville next week and get you some better clothes, and we'll be just ez happy ez ever. And then some day, Olly, afore you know it-them things come always suddent-I'll jest make a strike outer that ledge, and we'll be rich. Thar's money in that ledge, Olly, I've allus

allowed that. And then we'll go-you and me-to San Francisco, and we'll hev a big house, and I'll jest invite a lot of little girlsthe best they is in Frisco, to play with you, and you'll hev all the teachers you want, and women ez will be glad to look arter ye. And then maybe I might make it up with Mrs. Markle-"

"Never!" said Olly, passionately.

"Never it is!" said the artful Gabriel, with a glow of pleasure in his eyes, and a slight stirring of remorse in his breast. "But it's time that small gals like you was abed."

Thus admonished, Olly retired behind the screen, taking the solitary candle, and leaving her brother smoking his pipe by the light of the slowly dying fire. But Olly did not go to sleep, and half an hour later, peering out of the screen, she saw her brother still sitting by the fire, his pipe extinguished, and his head resting on his hand. went up to him so softly that she startled him, shaking a drop of water on the hand that she suddenly threw round his neck. "You ain't worrying about that woman, Gabe?"

"No," said Gabriel, with a laugh.

She

Olly looked down at her hand. Gabriel looked up at the roof.

"There's a leak thar that's got to be stopped to-morrow. Go to bed, Olly, or you'll take your death."

great Dome of the Rock rises in its midst, surrounded with cypresses and olive-trees, marble fountains, arches, domes, cupolas, and graven pulpits, while the great Dome itself rests upon a broad platform of Jerusalem limestone.

The Sakhra is the rocky pinnacle or apex of the rocky spur forming the surface and foundation of the Haram, and the difficulty has been to place it in the Temple area so that this crown of the mountain shall not stand in the way of the pavements and courts. In fact theorists have not known where to place this uprising rock; it stands in the way of every theory yet proposed. It has ever been a mystery why it was permitted to exist at all where the rock was cut to suit a platform level and foundation, and its existence is the standing problem of to-day among Temple theorists much more so, in fact, than the site of the Temple itself, for its existence unsettles every other problem, and makes any theory of the site of the Temple an impossibility, which does not first settle the problem of its own existence and site. It would seem at first sight as if Solomon's plan would have necessitated its removal in order to level down the rock for the foundations of the pavements and courts. Why, then, was it left? Why not cut down to the foundation or platform level? It stands so much in the way that there is barely level space enough on which to place the Temple pavements without an immense filling in of earthy material, or else of vaults and substructures, no matter where you place the Temple Area. It could not be placed anywhere without being upon a slope of the mountain, or in a valley. The rock in the north-east quarter of the Haram is 162 feet below the crown of the rock; the south-west quarter is 150 feet lower, and the south-east quarter is 163 feet below the Sacred Rock. This is a concise statement of the problem to be solved.

The foregoing illustration of rival theories which now occupy the field will give, better than any lengthened description, the different arrangement of the Haram Area proposed by Dr. Porter (who agrees with Dr. Robinson), Messrs. Williams, Lewin, Fergusson, Warren, and Beswick. The plans will also give a definiteness to the reader's conceptions which no mere words can convey. Mr. Beswick's plans and discoveries have never before been published, and what we now make known is but a mere outline of what he proposes to publish in a work on which he is now engaged.

THE METHOD ADOPTED IN FIXING THE SITE.

The preceding statement will have prepared the reader for a clear understanding of the main difficulties in fixing upon the exact site of the Temple Area and its boundaries, and of the merits of the rival theories which have been proposed as solutions of this most interesting and hitherto most difficult problem in Jerusalem topography.

The discovery of this site was made by Mr. S. Beswick, C. E., of New York city, who, after making the subject of Jerusalem topography a specialty for several years, at length formed a conception of the exact site of the Old Temple of Solomon and Herod. To verify that conception, he visited the Haram for the purpose of making a reconnaissance survey and fixing upon two sites: 1st. A base line of verification which everybody would admit, from which offsets or perpendicular distances could be made to the given stations; 2d. A central station, from which a standard offset could be made, and conveniently joined to the base of verification, such central station to be a natural formation, and not a work of art; all other sites and distances to be determined by these.

The two standard sites were satisfactorily determined by that reconnaissance. The western wall of the Haram ash Shárif, or so much of it as was left standing by Titus when Jerusalem was destroyed, was selected as the base of verification; the Sakhra was taken as the central station, and the line which joined the two together was the first standard offset by which all others were determined. The sides of the Court of Gentiles (Herod's Court), Court of Israel, and Court of the Priests, and even of the Holy House itself, were then taken and treated as a series of offsets and perpendiculars, and referred to the western wall as the base line for their verification as to length and breadth. The Sakhra was in fact a central station to the whole Temple Area.

These two things-the western wall, which he selected for his base line of verification, and the Sakhra, from which the first standard offset was drawn-are all that is left by the vandals under Titus of the original foundations and superstructure resting thereon. The eminent success which has resulted from this judicious selection, and the prac tical foresight which led to their adoption, will directly influence Palestine exploration in the Holy City for many years to come.

Mr. Beswick quietly visited the Haram with a working plan of his own making, which showed what had been done, and what had been left undone; what to do, and where to go and do it; what to discover, and where to find it. He had reason, therefore, to hope for the very best results from his reconnaissance survey. The elaborate measurements which form the basis of his verifications, and upon which his identifications of so many sites are grounded, are so numerous, varied, and full of detail, and applied to so many places and sites, that no amount of reading, or investigation at a distance, could ever have afforded the opportunity to develop so completely as he has done, a discovery which has seemed. hitherto involved in inexplicable mystery. He has, however, completed the proof which fixes the site of the Temple in the Haram,

and makes the Sakhra the absolute central spot of the Old Temple Area. And the proof is so simple that any one can verify

it for himself. The standard offset, or fundamental measurement which fixes this site of

the Temple, places the Sakhra at a distance of 250 cubits -369.26 ft.—from the western wall of the Inclosure, regarded as a base of verification. It will introduce a central fact to the attention of the civilized world; and there can be but one opinion as to its value and significance, and the revolution which its revelations will make in the field of Jerusalem topography.

THE SITE FIXED BY DIVINE COMMAND.

The distance of the apex of the Sakhra from the western wall as a base of verification is a fundamental measurement, and a leading test of the discovery claimed; and it is the most simple and satisfactory verification of the exact site of the Temple. If this distance or standard offset be admitted, then the Sakhra,. or Sacred Rock, was sim

ply a Central Core to the whole Temple Area, around which all the pavements and courts were built up, and to which they were fastened and united as one solid mass. The whole platform of pavements taking hold of the Sakhra as a Central Core, solid and immovable, according to the following Divine command that they should place the Temple Area around this rock as a center:

"This is the law of the house. Upon the top [Hebrew rosh-head, summit, vertex, apex, or tiptop] of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house."-Ezek. xliii., 12.

Now the whole limit of the Sakhra round about would be as follows: On the north the mountain was limited by the valley lying between the Bezetha hill and the Temple Area; on the east it was limited by the Kedron valley; on the south by the Hinnom and Kedron ravines; and on the west by the Tyropoon ravine. Thus the "whole limit thereof round about" was well defined by ravines; and on all these sides the extreme limit had to be built up to the required level of the platform of the outer court. Josephus gives a similar description:

"The hill was encompassed with a wall around the top of it. Joined together as a part of the hill itself to the very top of it. On the very top of all ran another wall. In the midst of which was the Temple itself.”—“Jew. Antiq.” xv., II, 3.

mand which fixes definitely the exact site of the Temple Area to be "the whole limit round about the top of the mountain." And this is the only passage where the site is ever definitely named. And, what is most remarkable, this notable passage has never been noticed by any one of the numerous explorers of Jerusalem. Yet, from this supreme stand-point, Mr. Beswick has studied the whole subject de novo. He foresaw that the Old Rock of Moriah had a special place in the Temple; that it acted as a Central Core, and carried upon its shoulders all the Temple pavements and courts, and. upon its head ("upon the top of the mountain") rested as a crown the Temple itself. His discovery solved a problem, which has resisted every other attempt at solution: that the special place of the Old Rock in the Temple Area has been the cause of its preservation, and which, when determined,

This Law of the House is a Divine com

would enable the discoverer to settle all other questions of a topographical and numerical nature in relation to distance, area, and boundary. We will cite the Bibof the Temple Area are based. lical evidence upon which his measurements