Children of the Old Testament | Page 9

the
lovely princess came.
Slaves in red tunics, with swords at their sides, bowed low down to the
earth as they opened the palace gates to let out a bright throng of girls,
laughing and singing as they went on their way down to the river; and
the wind blew aside their thin robes of white and pink and soft blue,

showing bare feet thrust into little slippers of red and yellow leather.
Foremost of the band walked the young princess, holding a white bud
of the lotus lily and smelling it as she went, while slave girls kept the
hot rays of the sun from her head with fans of peacock feathers. She,
too, had red slippers on her feet, and her neck and arms shone like pale
copper; but she wore no chains or rings, for she was going to bathe, and
her brown eyes looked with pleasure upon the cool waters of the broad
river.
She did not notice the Hebrew girl sitting on the sand as she walked
along the river's bank; but in a few moments she saw a strange little
black object floating among the green flags, and at once sent some of
her maidens to bring the strange thing to her.
Running down to the water, the girls lifted out the little dripping basket,
wondering what was in it that made it feel so heavy; but soon a little
cry from within told them, and they went quickly with their burden to
the princess, to ask what they should do with it.
The dark eyes of the Hebrew girl were watching them as she sat
playing at odd and even with round stones from the river--a favourite
game of the children of Egypt. She saw them bring the basket to the
princess. She saw her smile, and noticed her pleased cry when they
opened the lid; and she heard her speaking kindly to the little child,
which was crying loudly. The girls were crowding round the open
basket, looking in at the child; and when they placed the basket upon
the ground and looked about them in doubt, Miriam knew that her time
had come, and went timidly forward.
"This is one of the Hebrew children," the gentle princess said, with pity
in her voice, as she looked at the baby's red cheeks, so different from
the brown cheeks of the Egyptian babies. The little boy still wept
loudly, and the princess's heart was touched, for he would not stop
crying. What was to be done?
Running with bare feet upon the hot sand, Miriam, clad in the rough
red and blue of a Hebrew slave girl, drew near to the princess, and
kneeling down at a little distance, said,--

"Shall I run and call a nurse from among the Hebrew women, that she
may nurse the child for thee?"
The princess knew that such baby boys were to be thrown into the river;
but perhaps the meaning of it all dawned upon her as she talked with
her maidens, for she turned with a smile to the kneeling girl, and said
simply, "Go."
With light feet and a beating heart Miriam sped away to the spot where
her mother was hiding, calling to her in Hebrew as she went to come
quickly. The princess and her maidens looked with amusement at the
Hebrew woman as she came swiftly forward and knelt before them; and
the whole of the mother's little plot was clearly seen in her blushing
cheeks and tear-filled eyes. This clever little slave girl had found a
Hebrew nurse very, very quickly!
"Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your
wages," the princess said to the kneeling woman; and she smiled again
when the little child ceased weeping and held up his little chubby arms
as soon as this Hebrew woman's face bent over him. She was indeed
the mother, but the princess would tell no one, for thenceforth the boy
was to be as her own child.
When the little child grew up this good princess took him into her
lovely palace to be her son; and she called him Moses, because that
name meant that he was taken out of the water. And there is a pretty
story told about this same princess by an old Jewish writer, though it is
not to be found in our Bible.
He says that the princess was so proud of the boy that one day she
brought the little fellow to her father the king, that he might see how
beautiful he was. The king took off his golden crown and put it on the
child's curly head; but the little boy took it off again, and putting it
upon the ground, tried to stand upon