Children of the Old Testament | Page 5

His old father, too, would be anxious. So he sent word to
the prison that the brothers might all go home but Simeon, who must
stay in prison until the rest came back with their young brother.
He also gave orders that they were to have their corn-sacks filled, and
that each man's money was to be secretly tied up again in the mouth of
his sack.
All the brothers were glad but Simeon, who begged them to come back
as quickly as they could; and riding on their high camels, with their
well-laden asses tied to each other in a long line, they left the Egyptian
city, thankful to get away, and went back to their old father in Hebron.
Jacob was glad to see them again, but he would not believe their story
about Simeon being left behind; and he refused to let them have
Benjamin, for he said that Joseph was once taken and never came back,
and that the same fate would befall the other son of his old age.
When they said that the Egyptian ruler had ordered them to bring their
young brother down, their old father only asked, with flashing eyes,
why they told the Egyptian that they had another brother. They replied
quite truly that he asked them the question. Jacob did not believe them,
and this made him all the more determined not to trust Benjamin with
them.
But the corn which they had brought was soon finished, and the old
man urged his sons to go back to Egypt for more. They refused to do so

unless they could take Benjamin with them; and after holding out for a
long time, at last their father yielded. He bade them make up a little
present of honey and dates and simple country things for the terrible
Egyptian, hoping that the great man would not be unkind to his
youngest son. Then with hands upraised he asked God's blessing upon
his sons, and with a sorrowful heart saw them ride away.
Mounted on strong camels, and followed by a string of asses with the
empty corn-sacks on their backs, the ten brothers left the Vale of
Hebron, and rode slowly across the hot desert to one of the gates of the
great Egyptian wall. Again they came to the island, and were ferried
over to the city as before.
The camels knelt in the wide marketplace, where Joseph had been sold
as a slave twenty years before, to wait while one of the brothers went to
tell the doorkeeper of Joseph's house that the ten shepherds of Canaan
had returned with their youngest brother. After waiting for a time they
were told that the king's officer would see them.
Joseph was glad when he heard that his brothers had come back again,
and that they had brought his youngest brother with them. Pulling his
black wig down over his brow to hide his pleasure, he ordered them to
be brought in; and when they came and knelt before him, it was not on
Judah or Reuben, but on the young man Benjamin, that he fixed his
searching eyes.
His brother had grown so much that he hardly knew him for the little
boy who used to run about the camp holding his hand as he took him to
see the little lambs and the small black kids at play.
"Take these men to my house, for I shall dine with them to-day," was
all Joseph said. The brothers were amazed when the meaning of the
Egyptian words was made known to them. And when the gates of the
courtyard closed behind them, they thought they were prisoners again,
and sat down on the stone pavement to sigh and mourn.
But at noon there came a loud knocking at the gate, and the red and
green chariot of the great Egyptian drove in, and soon they were

summoned to stand before him. With their simple presents in their
hands, they went through the garden and into his beautiful house, and
kneeling, laid the gifts at his feet.
"Is your father well?" the great man asked in a kindly voice. "The old
man of whom you spoke--is he still alive?"
"Thy servant our father is alive and in good health," they answered
humbly.
"Is this your younger brother, of whom you spoke?" he asked again,
speaking as if he did not know one from another. Benjamin answered
with a low bow; and Joseph said, "May God be gracious to thee, my
son!" Then Benjamin looked up at him, and Joseph felt the tears
coming into his eyes; and rising from his chair, to the surprise of the
men, he left the hall. They did not know why he had done so. But if
they had seen