In the Arab world, as anywhere, the arrival of autumn means a return to school. Be it Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Lebanon, children of all ages and sizes pick up their books, grab their lunches and trudge off in the bright sunshine of a Middle East autumn for another year with the three r's—or to be more appropriate, the three ر's.

As dogs resemble the people who own them, so, believes William A. Ward, do gardens reflect the people that grow them. That's the way it seemed in the ancient world, anyway, where the symmetry of Egyptian temples carried over to their gardens and the sprawling magnificence of Babylon showed up in the city's famous, if highly exaggerated, "hanging" gardens.

The first season was over. The first reports were in. Now it was up to the California Arabian Standard Oil Co. {Casoc) to make the decision whether or not to continue the search. It was not long in coming—a strong yes!—and soon the second season got underway with its ever-increasing demands and challenges. In the meantime, Lloyd Hamilton came back for a visit with King Ibn Sa'ud and the wildcatters came wading ashore to put the theories of the geologists to the acid test.

Five years from now, nearly half of Saudi Arabian oil will probably flow through and into facilities that do not now exist. How the men of Aramco estimate today the needs of distant tomorrows and prepare for the massive changes those estimates entail is the subject of Brainerd S. Bates' latest look at the complexities and difficulties faced—and overcome—by the Arabian American Oil Company.

They called it the "Overland Route" and they knew it cut months off the trip out to India. What they did not know was the heroic story of Thomas Waghorn, the towering, stubborn visionary who, to prove that his route was practical, once raced across Europe, rode a donkey into Cairo and at gunpoint forced a captain and his crew to sail in an open boat for six days and nights along the then uncharted coasts of the Red Sea.

In the Arab world worry beads are almost as common as tranquilizers in Scarsdale. Whether as works of art in themselves—in amber, pearl, olive wood and date pits—or as adjuncts to conversation, worry beads, ancestors to rosary beads, offer an almost indispensable way to express interest, approval, impatience, and anger without uttering a single syllable.