adings 227

Peter Denies Christ 232

He heard their complaints 235

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is one of the two or three oldest books in the world, but
unlike most of the ancient books, it is found not only in great
libraries, but in almost every home of the civilized world; and it is
not only studied by learned scholars, but read by the common people; and
its many stories grasp and hold the attention of little children. Happy
is that child who has heard, over and over again, the Bible stories
until they have become fixed in his mind and memory, to become the
foundations of a noble life.

It is with the desire of aiding parents and teachers in telling these
stories, and aiding children to understand them, also in the hope that
they may be read in many schools, that a few among the many interesting
stories in the Bible have been chosen, brought together and as far as
necessary simplified to meet the minds of the young.

[Signature: Jesse Lyman Hurlbut]

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE

The first man's name was Adam and his wife he called Eve. They lived in
a beautiful Garden away in the East Country which was called Eden,
filled with beautiful trees and flowers of all kinds. But they did not
live in Eden long for they did not obey God's command, but ate the fruit
of a tree which had been forbidden them. They were driven forth by an
angel and had to give up their beautiful home.

[Illustration: _They were driven forth by an angel_]

So Adam and his wife went out into the world to live and to work. For a
time they were all alone, but after a while God gave them a little child
of their own, the first baby that ever came into the world. Eve named
him Cain; and after a time another baby came, whom she named Abel.

When the two boys grew up, they worked, as their father worked before
them. Cain, the older brother, chose to work in the fields, and to raise
grain and fruits. Abel, the younger brother, had a flock of sheep and
became a shepherd.

While Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, they could talk
with God and hear God's voice speaking to them. But now that they were
out in the world, they could no longer talk with God freely, as before.
So when they came to God, they built an altar of stones heaped up, and
upon it, they laid something as a gift to God, and burned it, to show
that it was not their own, but was giv