s and three nights he was kept in his living prison, and
was able to pray to God, and to know where he was.

"The waters compassed me about," he said, "even to the soul; the depth
closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went
down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about
me forever."

Then he praised and thanked God, for he knew that he meant to save him.
And when the Lord spoke to the fish, it threw Jonah out upon the dry
land.

[Illustration: Jonah thrown on the dry land]

The second time Jonah heard the voice of the Lord telling him to go to
Nineveh and preach the words that should be given him to say, and this
time he obeyed.

It was a long journey to Nineveh, and when Jonah reached it he found
that the city was so great that it would take three days to walk around
the walls.

The walls were a hundred feet high. And so broad that three chariots
could be driven on them side by side. The walls had fifteen hundred
towers, each two hundred feet high. Inside the walls lived hundreds of
thousands of people, many of them rich merchants or princes and nobles
who lived in palaces, and thought only of their own pleasure and glory.
They had grown very selfish and wicked.

When Jonah had walked a day's journey into the city, he began to cry in
the streets the message God had given him,

"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

The people began to tremble and be afraid of the strange voice that
went up and down the long streets crying out these terrible words.
They began to believe in Jonah's God, and to repent.

They repented in the eastern way, by putting on a garment of coarse
sack-cloth, and sitting in ashes. All did this, even to the king, who
took off his beautiful robes and sat down in ashes before the Lord. He
also proclaimed a fast to all the people, and urged them to "turn every
one from their evil way."

When the Lord saw that they turned away from their sins, for He could
look into their hearts, and read all their thoughts, He was satisfied,
and said he would not destroy Nineveh.

But Jonah, who could not read the hearts of men, was not satisfied. He
was very angry. He wanted to have the Ninevites see that he was a true
prophet, for if no destruction came upon them he feared that they might
call him a false prophet. So he complained to God, and said,

"Now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me, for it is better
to die than t