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around and gazed in silent admiration. Then the baby, who never before
had seen the purple and fine linen of majesty or the sparkling jewels
of wealth, knowing this was the opportunity of his life put up his
hands in welcome and said in the universal language of babyhood, "Ah,
goo! ah, goo!" He was a worthy child of a great mother, and the minute
he was left to himself he came before the footlights and with one word
captivated his audience, and a storm of kisses fell upon his lips and
neck and arms. And when the girls ceased lest they should kiss him to
death, he looked at them a minute, and then he opened his mouth and
laughed a little soft, gurgling laugh; a laugh so sweet that I'm sure
even the terrible God of the Jews must have smiled had he heard it.

He didn't laugh because he felt particularly funny, but because the
little diplomat, bent on conquest, wanted to show a tiny tooth that
came into his mouth one day, he didn't know how.

He had never seen it himself, but he knew it was there and was a
treasure, for one time in the dead of the night when all his dread
enemies, the Egyptians, were fast asleep, and the wind howled and the
rain beat upon the roof, his mother brought his father to his hiding
place and holding the light high up above his head, she touched him
lightly under the chin and said: "Laugh, now, and show papa baby's
tooth." Then he did as he was told and his father looked long and
carefully and then laughed too, kissed him and went away.

When the girls saw it they all smiled and kissed him too.

About this time he wanted his mother and "the babe wept."

When the king's daughter saw his red lips quivering and the tears
hanging on his long, curling lashes, love and compassion filled her
heart, and thinking of her father's wicked command: "Every son that is
born ye shall cast into the river," she said, sadly, "this is one of
the Hebrews' children."

Then his sister--I suppose it was the same one who had "stood afar off
to wit what would be done to him" and who had approached--said, "Shall
I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse
the child for thee?"

"And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go.' And the maid went and
called the child's mother."

"And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, 'Take this child away and nurse
it for me and I will give thee thy wages.' And the woman took the
child and nursed it." Wasn't that the sublimest conquering of ambition
and crime by l