ael.

Now, at one time there lived in a little cottage on the hill of Ramah,
not far from what is now Jerusalem, a certain man named Elkanah, whose
wife Hannah had a little boy named Samuel. The child was dearly loved
by his parents, and especially by his mother, who had made up her mind
that her son, when he grew up, should become a priest of the God of
Israel.

The child Samuel grew, amid sunshine and wind, at his father's home on
the hill of Ramah, watched by his mother with loving care; for when the
time came, he was to be given to the priests in the great tent of the
tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh. Three times the mother and child saw
the blossoms cover the twisted branches of the olive trees and fade
again; three times the valley was filled with golden wheat swaying in
the wind, and the song of the reaper was heard in the fields.

Three happy years in Ramah, and the little child could run about, and
talk, and shout, and take care of himself when the camels and oxen were
near; then Hannah said she must how give him up to the priests. So
with her husband she rode away upon a sure-footed ass, down the hills
to the great festival at Shiloh, through rocky passes and across
foaming streams; and her face was sad, for the little child of three
sitting in her lap she would not bring back again.

She took with her a sack of meal and a leather bottle of wine, while a
servant led a young bull. The animal was to be killed and burnt, while
the meal and wine were to be given to the priest at the tabernacle; for
these things were all to be offered as gifts to God.

Before long they saw the tabernacle on the hill of Shiloh, with its
broad tent-roof of red sheepskins, as well as the hundreds of little
black tents of the tribesmen, some grouped into camps with a flag,
others clustered round the springs and pools of water under the trees;
and soon Hannah and her boy mingled with the crowds thronging into the
walled space about the tabernacle.

With beating heart the mother saw the bull killed and her meal and wine
given to the busy priests. Taking her child by the hand, she led him
forward to the doorway of the tabernacle, where sat Eli, the aged chief
priest. The little child clung to his mother's dark-red robe as he
stood with naked feet before the old man, the hem of his sleeveless
tunic scarce reaching to his knees, and his head uncovered.

"Oh my lord," said the mother, "I prayed for this child as a gift from
God