The Yoke | Page 4

the girl shook her head and gazed out of the low entrance of the
tent. Her face was full of trouble. Once again the old woman looked at
her with suspicion in her eyes. Presently the girl asked, coloring

painfully:
"Was Atsu commanded to hold me for this guest of Merenra's--ah!" she
broke off, "did Atsu name him?"
"Not by the titles by which the man would as lief be known," Deborah
answered grimly, "but I remember he called him 'the governor.'"
There was a brief pause.
"Not so," she resumed, answering Rachel's first question. "Atsu but
overheard him say to Merenra to see to it that thou wast taken from toil
and made ready to journey with him to Bubastis."
"He can not take me by right save by a document of gift from the
Pharaoh," Rachel protested indignantly.
"Of a truth," the old woman admitted; "but Merenra is chief
commander over Pa-Ramesu and how shall thine appeal to the Pharaoh
pass beyond Merenra if he see fit to humor this ravening lord with a
breach of the law? The message summoning him in haste to Pithom
before the order could be fulfilled was all that saved thee. And if
Merenra return ere thou art safely gone, thou art of a surety undone."
Rachel moved away a little and stood thinking. The old woman went
on with a note of despondency in her voice.
"Alas, Rachel! thou art in eternal peril because of thy lovely face.
Beauty is a curse to a bondwoman. What I beheld in truth yesterday I
have seen in dreams--the discourteous hand put forth to seize thee and
the power back of it to enforce its demand. And yet, I would not wish
thee old and uncomely, for that, too, is a curse to the bondwoman," she
added with a reflective shrug of the shoulders.
"If I but knew his name--" Rachel pondered aloud.
"What matter?" the old woman answered almost roughly. "Suffice it to
know that he is a knave and a noble and hath evil in his heart against

thee."
"Now, if I might dye my hair or stain my face--" Rachel began after a
pause.
"Thou foolish child! It would not wear, nor hide thy charm at all!"
"But I dread the quarries for thee, Deborah. If only we might be hidden
here, somewhere."
"Come, dost thou want to marry Atsu?" the old woman demanded
harshly.
The girl turned toward her, her face flushed with resentment.
"Nay! And that thou knowest. For this very mingling with Egypt is
Israel cursed. The idolatrous have reached out their hands in marriage
and wedded the Hebrews away from the God of Abraham. When did an
Egyptian desert his gods for the faith of the Hebrew he took in marriage?
Not at any time. Therefore have we fed the shrines of the idols and
increased the numbers of the idolaters and behold, the hosts of Jehovah
have dwindled to naught. Therefore is He wroth with us, and justly. For
are there not pitiful shrines to Ra, Ptah and Amen within the boundaries
of Goshen? Nay, I wed not with an idolater," she concluded firmly.
Deborah's wrinkled face lighted and she put a tender arm about the girl.
"Of a truth, then, it is for me that thou wouldst avoid the quarries," she
said. "I did but try thee, Rachel."
Rachel looked at her reproachfully, but the old woman smiled and drew
her out into the open.
Without, Israel of Pa-Ramesu made ready to surrender a tenth of her
number to the newest task laid on it by the Pharaoh. Quarrying was
unusual labor for an Israelite and the name carried terror with it. Long
had it meant heavy punishment for the malefactor and now was the
Hebrew to take up its bitter life. The hard form of oppression following

so closely upon the promise of liberty by Moses had diversified effects
upon the camp. There was rebellion among the optimists, and the less
hopeful spirits were crushed. There was the scoffer, who exasperates;
the enthusiast, the over-buoyant, who could point out favorable omens
even in this bitter affliction; and it could not be divined which of these
troubled the people more. But whatever the individual temper, the
entire camp was overhung with distress.
Israel had gathered in families before her tents--the mothers hovering
their broods, the fathers tramping uneasily about them. In the heart of
each, perhaps, was an indefinable conviction that he should fall among
the tens. Since Israel had died in droves by hard labor in the
brick-fields and along the roadways and canals, in what numbers and
with what dire speed would not Israel perish in the dreaded stone-pits!
Just outside the doorway of their shelter, Deborah and Rachel
overlooked the troubled camp.
"Moses comes in