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seph. Each began to search his sack. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

They were all in great trouble; they knew not how the cup was put into the sack; and they took their way back again to the city, which they had just left; here, they fell down before Joseph, offering to become his servants. Joseph said, he would not keep them all, he would take only the one who had taken the cup. The brothers thought of their poor father; they remembered how he had loved Joseph; they feared he might die, if he should lose this dear son also. Judah begged Joseph to take him for a servant, and to let Benjamin go home.

Joseph could no longer deceive his brothers; he commanded the people who were by to go out. For some time he wept too much to speak; when he could speak, he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold-Does my father live?" His brothers could not answer him; but this great and generous man told them not to be grieved; he kissed them all, and wept very much when he took Benjamin in his arms. Benjamin was younger than Joseph; he was a child when Joseph was sold, and could not have hated him, or have known what was done to him.

The king was very kind to Joseph's brothers; he sent their father many presents, when they went back to him. Joseph invited his brothers to come and live with him in Egypt, and sent for his father to come likewise.

Jacob could hardly believe that Joseph was alive when his sons told him so; after some time, however, he did believe it, and afterwards went

with them into Egypt. When he had seen Joseph, he was willing to die; but he lived happily with his children in Egypt seventeen years. Jacob died in Egypt; his sons lived and died there also. They were all very happy.

This is a very beautiful story; it is found in nine chapters of the book of Genesis; the first book in the Bible. It begins in the thirty-seventh chapter (the thirty-eighth chapter contains nothing about Joseph) and ends in the fortyseventh.

There are some parts of this story, some words in it, which children cannot understand. What has been read you can understand. When you are older, you will love to read it in the Bible.

The names of Jacob's sons were, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin.

Jacob was sometimes called Israel; his children were called Israelites. The children which lived after them were also called Israelites. When they first went into Egypt, there were seventy persons in all of them.

Four hundred years passed away. The sons of Jacob died; their children all died; they left children, who had children, and they also had children. At the end of four hundred years, there were many thousand persons in Egypt of the posterity of Jacob. When the Israelites first went into Egypt, the people of Egypt

treated them very kindly. After some time, when there were many Israelites, the Egyptians became cruel to them: they made slaves of the Israelites.

EXPLANATIONS.

Shepherd-A man who takes care of sheep. Pit-A deep place in the earth, deeper than & cellar.

Drugs-Substances used for medicine.
Famine-Scarcity of food.

Spies-Dishonest people, who go about with a secret intention to learn what they can concerning others, and afterwards to relate what they have seen of other people's conduct. Spies frequently intend to injure those whose actions they observe; they seldom undertake such business from mere impertinence; they are com monly hired by some enemy or tyrant, who wishes to control or to injure those who are watched by spies.

Prostration-Respect shown to great men by lying down at their feet. This is done now in some countries. Persons among us, who wish to show respect to others, only bend their bodies, or bow; but in Asia, princes, and men in high stations, expect that those who visit them will prostrate themselves before them.

Posterity-Those who live after us.

Slave-A person who is obliged to work for another without pay; who can do nothing as he pleases, but must do what his master pleases; he may be bought and sold, like a horse, or any other animal. The man who owns the slave is

his master.

In the Bible, slaves are often called bondmen and bondwomen. Persons who are not slaves are freemen. There have been slaves every where, at all times. There are not so many slaves now, in the world, as there have been. Every year there are more and more freemen; perhaps in a few years there will be no slaves at all.

Negroes are now slaves in the United States, and in the West Indies.

The Spaniards, when they went to live in the West India Islands, treated the poor natives so badly, that they almost all died; then there were not enough people to do the work; so the Spaniards went to Africa, and stole and bought men, and carried them to the West Indies. This was more than two hundred years ago. Since then, there have been many negro slaves in different parts of America.

Some of these slaves are treated kindly, and made very happy; some are treated cruelly, and made very miserable.

MOSES.

THE Egyptians treated the Israelites so cruelly, that they began to be afraid the Hebrews would treat them in the same manner. The king of Egypt ordered that all the little boys, born among the Hebrews, should be killed as soon as they were born, and that the little girls might be left alive; so that in a few years there might be no Hebrew men; and that the girls when

grown up, should marry Egyptian husbands; that in time there should be no Hebrews.

One of the Hebrew women had a little boy. She made a cradle, and hid it among the tall rushes, or flags, which grow by the water side. One day the king's daughter came to the place where the infant was hidden, to wash herself in the river; she saw the cradle, and sent her maid, who was with her, to fetch it to her.

The maid carried it to the princess, and the little boy cried; the princess pitied him; she said, "this is one of the Hebrews' children;" and she sent her maid for a nurse to take care of the child. The maid went to the child's mother; the princess gave her the child, and bid her take care of him. The princess called his name Moses.

Moses grew finely, and the princess had him taught very well, and he grew up a wise and good man. When Moses had become a man, he one day saw the Hebrews very hard at work, and he saw one of the Egyptians strike a Hebrew ; he was angry at this; and as nobody was near to hinder him, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

Soon after, Moses saw two Hebrews fighting together; he went to them, and tried to part them; but one of them said, "Do you intend to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid when he heard this. Soon after, the king heard that Moses had killed an Egyptian, and the king determined to kill Moses. Therefore, Moses went away to Midian, another country.

When Moses was in Midian, he was one day

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