“What does a wild olive tree mean, Miss Harson?” asked Clara.

“It means, dear, one that has grown without being cultivated, like our wild cherry and plum trees.  The wild olive is smaller than the other, and inferior to it in every way.  There are a great many olive trees in Palestine, and a place where they must have been very plentiful is called by a name which we often see in the Bible.—­What is it, Malcolm?”

“Is it ’the Mount of Olives’?” said Malcolm.

“Yes, and it is sometimes called ‘Olivet.’  It is mentioned in the Old Testament as well as in the New.  In Second Samuel it is written:  ’And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot:  and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up[10].’”

[10] 2 Sam. xv. 30.

“What was the matter?” asked Edith.

“King David’s wicked son Absalom had risen up against his father because he wished to be king in his stead.  You remember how he was caught by the head in the boughs of an oak during the very battle that he was fighting for this purpose; so we know that he did not succeed in his wicked plan, but lost his life instead.—­The Mount of Olives is described as ’a ridge running north and south on the east side of Jerusalem, its summit about half a mile from the city wall and separated from it by the valley of the Kidron.  It is composed of a chalky limestone, the rocks everywhere showing themselves.  The olive trees that formerly covered it and gave it its name are now represented by a few trees and clumps of trees.  There are three prominent summits on the ridge; of these, the southernmost, which is lower than the other two, is now known as ’the Mount of Offence,’ originally ‘the Mount of Corruption,’ because Solomon defiled it with idolatrous worship.  Over this ridge passes the road to Bethany, the most frequented route to Jericho and the Jordan.  The side of the Mount of Olives toward the west contains many tombs cut in the rock.  The central summit rises two hundred feet above Jerusalem and presents a fine view of the city, and, indeed, of the whole region, including the mountains of Ephraim on the north, the valley of the Jordan on the east, a part of the Dead Sea on the south-east, and beyond it Kerak, in the mountains of Moab.  Perhaps no spot on earth unites so fine a view with so many memorials of the most solemn and important events.  Over this hill the Saviour often climbed in his journeys to and from the Holy City.  Gethsemane lay at its foot on the west, and Bethany on its eastern slope.’”

During the reading of this description of the Mount of Olives, Miss Harson showed the children pictures of the different spots mentioned, and thus they were not likely soon to forget what had been told them.

“Who can repeat some words from the New Testament about this mountain?” asked Miss Harson.