No doubt everybody has heard of Ben Holliday—­a man of prodigious energy, who used to send mails and passengers flying across the continent in his overland stage-coaches like a very whirlwind—­two thousand long miles in fifteen days and a half, by the watch!  But this fragment of history is not about Ben Holliday, but about a young New York boy by the name of Jack, who traveled with our small party of pilgrims in the Holy Land (and who had traveled to California in Mr. Holliday’s overland coaches three years before, and had by no means forgotten it or lost his gushing admiration of Mr. H.) Aged nineteen.  Jack was a good boy—­a good-hearted and always well-meaning boy, who had been reared in the city of New York, and although he was bright and knew a great many useful things, his Scriptural education had been a good deal neglected—­to such a degree, indeed, that all Holy Land history was fresh and new to him, and all Bible names mysteries that had never disturbed his virgin ear.

Also in our party was an elderly pilgrim who was the reverse of Jack, in that he was learned in the Scriptures and an enthusiast concerning them.  He was our encyclopedia, and we were never tired of listening to his speeches, nor he of making them.  He never passed a celebrated locality, from Bashan to Bethlehem, without illuminating it with an oration.  One day, when camped near the ruins of Jericho, he burst forth with something like this: 

“Jack, do you see that range of mountains over yonder that bounds the Jordan valley?  The mountains of Moab, Jack!  Think of it, my boy—­the actual mountains of Moab—­renowned in Scripture history!  We are actually standing face to face with those illustrious crags and peaks—­and for all we know” [dropping his voice impressively], “our eyes may be resting at this very moment upon the spot where lies the mysterious grave of Moses!  Think of it, Jack!”

      “Moses who?” (falling inflection).

“Moses who!  Jack, you ought to be ashamed of yourself—­you ought to be ashamed of such criminal ignorance.  Why, Moses, the great guide, soldier, poet, lawgiver of ancient Israel!  Jack, from this spot where we stand, to Egypt, stretches a fearful desert three hundred miles in extent—­and across that desert that wonderful man brought the children of Israel!—­guiding them with unfailing sagacity for forty years over the sandy desolation and among the obstructing rocks and hills, and landed them at last, safe and sound, within sight of this very spot; and where we now stand they entered the Promised Land with anthems of rejoicing!  It was a wonderful, wonderful thing to do, Jack!  Think of it!”

      “Forty years?  Only three hundred miles?  Humph!  Ben Holliday would
      have fetched them through in thirty-six hours!”

The boy meant no harm.  He did not know that he had said anything that was wrong or irreverent.  And so no one scolded him or felt offended with him—­and nobody could but some ungenerous spirit incapable of excusing the heedless blunders of a boy.