itten
and died.

And David and Bath-sheba were married, but surely, as they stood by
the cradle of the little boy who died, the cold hands of the valiant,
betrayed Uriah must often have pushed them asunder, and a dark shadow
born of their guilty hearts must have passed between them and the
child. Perhaps when the feast was the gayest a battle field rose
before them, and when the music was the loudest and the sweetest,
thrilling through it, they heard a dying moan.

When Joab wanted to reconcile David to Absalom, he wished a mediator
with wit, tact and delicacy; with the eloquence of an orator and the
subtle flattery of a Decius Brutus, and whom did he choose? A man? No:
He sent for "a wise woman," and we read that he instructed her what to
do, but judging from other women we are sure she instructed
him--anyway she went to the King, and she talked like a lawyer, she
plead with eloquence, she confessed charmingly, and she flattered with
the cunning of her sex, saying, "for as an angel of God, so is my Lord
the King to discern good and bad," and "my Lord is wise, according to
the wisdom of an angel of God," which you will admit was putting it
pretty strong. But then, men who didn't work for their living in those
days were used to strong language--of praise. Perhaps it is
superfluous for me to add that the "wise woman" accomplished her
mission.

We are told in poetic language that David "was ruddy, and withal of a
beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to," and perhaps that was
the chief reason (although women always adored a man of valor,
intelligence and strength) that "Michal, Saul's daughter, loved
David," and thus gave him the proud distinction of being the first man
who was ever loved by a woman--at least the first one we have any
authentic, official record of.

Once upon a time David had prepared to wipe Nabal, who was a very rich
man, and his followers, from the very face of the earth, because a
young man "told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent
messengers out of the wilderness, to salute our master, and he railed
on them."

Nabal was a churlish miser and little to be trusted, and it seems
Abigail, who "was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful
countenance," had heard nothing of this little affair, but she was
equal to the emergency and she at once prepared many presents of wine,
and figs, and raisins and other good things, and made haste to go out
and meet David, and if possible