o return. Nice advice
from an angel, wasn't it?

[Illustration: (Abraham entertaining the three angels.)]

The next scene in which the lovely Sarah distinguishes herself, and
nobly sustains her record for disobedience and a determination to
follow the dictates of her own sweet will, was when Abraham
entertained the three angels.

Now hobnobbing with angels wasn't an every-day affair, even in that
age when angels were more plentiful than they are now.

And Abraham was naturally a little excited, and he "hastened into the
tent unto Sarah," and said: "Make ready quickly three measures of fine
meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth;" and he gave orders to
a young man to kill a calf, etc. And after a while the supper was
served, with all the delicacies the rich and great could afford, and
everything appeared that he had ordered--except Sarah's cakes. They
were simply and inexplicably _non est_.

Of course it was a pretty shabby thing for a woman to go back on her
husband in his hour of need, and when there were angels in the house
too; but she did it, thereby sustaining her reputation for crookedness
and general contrariness as a wife.

And yet it has always been preached to us that we should obey our
husbands "even as Sarah obeyed Abraham." Well, we're willing, since
all she had to do was to look pretty, be agreeable, and do exactly as
she pleased.

But the very fact that Sarah has been held up as an example for us to
follow proves that the men had not read up her record intelligently,
or else in their extremity they were presuming on our ignorance while
trying to enforce order and submission.

But that was not the worst of it. When she heard the angel tell
Abraham that she should have a son she ridiculed the idea.

She had the germ of the infidel in her heart, and lacked Abraham's
credulity, and would not believe anything, even if an angel did say
so, unless it was backed up by reason and common sense, and so she
laughed behind their backs.

Now it appears that angels object to being ridiculed as well as other
folk, and when they heard her giggling they demanded to know the
reason of Abraham. It was exceedingly naughty for her to place her
husband in such a predicament, and when she found she was getting the
whole family into an uproar she denied the charge, which shows that to
her other charming and wifely qualities she added the art of
equivocating.

[Illustration: (And he sent Hagar and Ishmael ou