, your dear mother
who loves you so, and must leave you now and see you no more!"

Now what it was in that wild plea that touched the consciousness of the
child at last, only God Himself can say. But first Naomi's cheeks grew
pale at the embrace of the arms that held her, and then they reddened,
and then her little nervous fingers grasped at Ruth's hands again, and
then her little lips trembled, and then, at length, she flung herself
along Ruth's bosom and nestled close in her embrace.

Ruth fell back on her pillow now with a cry of Joy; the black woman
stood and wept by the wall and Israel, unable to bear up his heart any
longer was melted and unmanned. The sun had gone down, and the room was
darkening rapidly, for the twilight in that land is short; the streets
were quiet, and the mooddin of the neighbouring minaret was chanting in
the silence, "God is great, God is great!"

After awhile the little one fell asleep at her mother's bosom, and,
seeing this, Fatimah would have lifted her away and carried her back
to her own bed; but Ruth said, "No; leave her, let me have her with me
while I may."

"No one shall take her from you," said Israel.

Then she gazed down at the child's face and said, "It is hard to leave
her and never once to have heard her voice."

"That is the bitterest cup of all," said Israel.

"I shall not return to her," said Ruth, "but she shall come to me, and
then, perhaps--who knows?--perhaps in the resurrection I shall hear it."

Israel made no answer.

Ruth gazed down at the child again, and said, "My helpless darling! Who
will care for you when I am gone?"

"Rest, rest, and sleep!" said Israel.

"Ah, yes, I know," said Ruth. "How foolish of me! You are her father,
and you love her also. Yet promise me--promise--"

"For love and tending she shall never lack," said Israel. "And now lie
you still, my dearest; lie still and sleep."

She stretched out her hand to him. "Yes, that was what I meant," she
said, and smiled. Then a shadow crossed her face in the gloom. "But when
I am gone," she said, "will Naomi ever know that her mother who is dead
had wronged her?"

"You have never wronged her," said Israel. "Have done, oh, have done!"

"God punished us for our prayer, my husband," said Ruth.

"Peace, peace!" said Israel.

"But God is good," said Ruth, "and surely He will not afflict our child
much longer."

"Hush! Hush! You will awaken her," said Israel, not thinking what he
said. "No