ried; the Lord do so to
me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

And so they came to Bethlehem, and the old friends of Naomi greeted her
tenderly, and welcomed her back. It was about the beginning of the
barley harvest.

There was a good and great man in Bethlehem named Boaz, and he was of
the family of Naomi's husband. He had a field of barley where the
reapers were at work, and Ruth asked Naomi if she should not go and
glean after the reapers, to get grain, for they were poor.

Naomi said, "Go, my daughter," and she went.

When Boaz came out of the town into his field and greeted his reapers,
he said to his servant having charge of the reapers,

"What maiden is this?" and he told him that she was the Moabitish girl
who had come back with her mother-in-law Naomi.

Then Boaz spoke very kindly to Ruth, and told her to stay with his
maidens, and freely drink of the water drawn for them, and Ruth bowed
before him and asked why he should be so kind to a stranger. He told
her that he knew all her kindness to her mother-in-law since the death
of her husband, and how she had left her own family and country to come
among strangers, and he blessed her, saying,

"A full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose
wings thou art come to trust."

Then he told her to sit down and eat bread with them, and he helped her
to the parched corn with his own hands, and when they returned to work
he told his young men to let her glean among the sheaves and reprove
her not, and to let some handfuls fall purposely for her to glean.
When Ruth went home Naomi said,

"Where hast thou gleaned to-day?" and Ruth told her. Then Naomi
blessed Boaz, and told Ruth that he was one of their near relatives.

And so Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz through all the barley and
the wheat harvest. When all the reaping was done, the grain was
threshed on a piece of ground made very smooth and level. The sheaves
were beaten, and then the straw was taken away, and the grain and chaff
below it was winnowed. By this the chaff was blown away and only the
grain was left.

When Boaz winnowed his barley Naomi told Ruth to go down to his
threshing floor and see him for he had a feast for his friends.

So after the feast Ruth came near to him and said,

"Thou art our near kinsman," and Boaz said,

"May the Lord bless thee my daughter," and with many kind words he gave
her six measures of barley to take to Naomi.