hat shall we say unto my lord, or how shall we clear ourselves? We
are my lord's servants."

Then said Joseph:

"The man in whose hand the cup is found he shall be my servant, and as
for you, get you up in peace unto your father."

Then Judah came nearer to Joseph, and all his soul came forth into his
voice as he said:

"O, my lord, let thy servant speak a word in my lord's ears!"

Then he told the story of their coming down into Egypt, and of the old
father and young brother whom he had asked them about; of the love of
this father for the little one, for his mother, and his brother now
dead. He reminded Joseph that he had told them to bring the boy to
him, and that they had said, that if the boy should leave his father,
his father would die; but the governor had said "Except your youngest
brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more."

Then Judah told the story of the father's grief when he found that he
must let Benjamin go down into Egypt, that they might buy a little
food; how he spoke of his two sons, that were the sons of Rachel--that
one had been torn in pieces, and now if mischief should befall the
other, it would bring his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. He asked
Joseph what he should do when he returned to his father without the
lad, seeing that his life was bound up in the lad's life, and Judah
begged him, as he had made himself surety for the lad, to take him to
be his slave, but to let Benjamin return to his father with his
brothers.

"For how shall I go up to my father," said Judah, "and the lad be not
with me?"

Then Joseph could bear it no longer. He told all the Egyptians to go
out of the room, and then weeping so that the Egyptians and the people
in the king's house heard, he made himself known to his brothers.

[Illustration: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers]

"I am Joseph, your brother," he said, "whom you sold into Egypt," and
he begged them to come near to him.

"Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves," he said, for he saw that
they were terrified, "for God sent me before you to save your lives by
a great deliverance. It was not you that sent me hither, but God, and
he hath made me a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."

Then he told them to hasten and go to his father and tell him this, and
ask him to come down at once, with all his flocks and herds, and dwell
in Goshen, the best part of Egypt, for years of famine were yet to come.

Then Joseph t