Children of the Old Testament | Page 8

their work.
But for all this they increased more and more in numbers, until the king
was afraid that they might some day side with his enemies and fight
against him, and then he would be in great danger; so he treated them
more cruelly still, and at last ordered all the boy children that were born
to the Israelites to be thrown into the river.
[Illustration: The babe among the bulrushes.]

There was great weeping and sorrow amongst the Hebrew mothers
when they heard of the king's cruel order. And they did many strange
and brave things to save their little ones, and did indeed save many of
them; but many others perished, so that there was grief instead of joy in
the poor Hebrew huts whenever a baby boy was born.
Now, Jochebed, one of those Hebrew mothers, lived in the city of the
great king, so close to the side of the blue Nile that the white walls of
the royal palace were reflected in the water. She had a little baby boy,
so beautiful that she told her husband he must not be thrown into the
river where the crocodiles were, for she herself would save him alive.
She had two other children--Miriam, a girl of fifteen, and Aaron, a little
boy of three--and she told them that they were not to tell any one they
had a little baby brother in the house lest the king's soldiers should
come and take him away and throw him into the river. And she kept her
little baby carefully hidden in the house, running to him every time he
cried lest he should be heard outside, and trembling each time a soldier
passed her door.
For three months she was able to keep her child hidden from the
slave-drivers. Often did she pray to God that he might never be found;
and she loved her baby all the more because of the danger he was in.
But at last a day came when his mother could keep him hidden no
longer. With a sorrowful heart she saw that she must get him away,
although at the moment she could not tell how to do so. Then she
weighed him in her arms, measured him with her hands, and made up a
plan to save him such as only a mother's heart could devise.
She had seen a fair Egyptian princess coming down from the palace
every morning to bathe in the river at a place not far from her hut; and
she thought that if this princess could only see her lovely baby boy she
would save him.
So this Hebrew mother went down to the river and gathered an armful
of strong reeds. With these she wove a stout basket long enough and
wide enough to hold her baby boy. Then she painted it inside and out

with black bitumen, until not a drop of water could get in. She lined it
next with soft cloth of red and green, as mothers line their cradles, and
then it was ready to be placed on the water and save the life of her little
boy.
II.
The morning sun shone brightly on the broad surface of the Nile,
turning the Pyramids on the banks into dull gold, and lighting up the
palaces of the city; and while the white-robed priests went up to the
temple roof to beat the brass gong and chant their hymn to the morning,
the poor Hebrews flocked in thousands out of their little yellow huts, to
do their heavy tasks amongst the wet, brown clay by the riverside.
Taking Miriam with her, Jochebed, the Hebrew mother, stole out of her
hut, carrying a little black basket shaped like a boat, with something
asleep in it, hidden under her wide blue cloak. Crossing the fields, she
went down to the riverside and along the path until she came to the
beach of golden sand where the red-feathered hoopoes strutted in the
sun--the place where the princess came to bathe, not far from the lilies
of white and yellow.
As they went she told Miriam what she was to do when the princess
came, and then stepping down to the water's edge at a place where the
lilies grew thick, she opened the basket, kissed something in it, and
covered it over again. Stepping into the water, she gently put down the
little basket to float among the water-flags, where the princess could
not help but see it as she came along the path on the bank above.
With tears running down her cheeks, this Hebrew mother turned away,
praying, as she went, that all would be well with her little child; while
Miriam, going a short way off, sat down on the sand to watch until