Excerpt From
Palestine the Land of my Adoption
By JW Clapham
In Bereh there is a spring, from which water has flowed delicious and cold since the time of Abraham.
Not far from the spring lives a fellah woman in a humble dwelling of stone.Daily, whether in the home, beneath the vines or in the field, she carries on her tasks in common with her fellow villagers.
During the first Great War, it was the custom of these village woman to sell fruit and vegetables besides the roadside to British soldiers camped in the vicinity. One day a British sergeant strolled along to make a purchase.There was something in the appearance of one of these women which arrested his attention. A stranger in a strange land, he was amazed to have the impression, growing steadily stronger, that he had seen the face of this woman before, but where?”Was it?….Could It be possible?”. Again their eyes met, and a startling revelation dawned upon him.Now he was sure of something. Stepping forward, he proffered her his hand, and uttered a name that must of set a thrill of astonishment through her very soul, And this is the story;
Many years ago a young Moslem set out from Bereh to seek his fortune in America. Being refused admittance to that country, he turned back to Liverpool, and found employment there in a city resteraunt. Here he met and fell in love with a young English girl, whom he finally induced to marry him and return with him to his native land of Palestine. Utterly confused and bewildered by her totally new surroundings, she resolved, none the less, with true British fortitude to adapt herself to her new way of life.This she did so sucessfully that she earned a just repute as a faithful housewife, and as a worker in the field.
Now hard times had come, and her husband had died.This Brtish sergeant who chanced to stroll along was her own cousin, and by accident of meeting the mystery of her whereabouts had been discovered. Stirred by this romantic reunion, and also by her present need, he offered by gallant impulse to return with her to England when the war should be over. But though her position to him seemed forlorn, nothing could induce this modern Ruth to forsake the company of her mother-in-law. Reluctantly the sergeant bade her farewell, leaving her to live out her life in the land of her adoption. The prospects of the woman again brightened, married to a kinsman of her former husbands, she still continues to pick figs,and grapes and pomegranates in the land of Benjamin, and mingle with the sun browned daughters who draw water from the ancient spring at Bereh.
