. I am ready to try and I hope I can win."

AN OLD, OLD STORY

It was a dark and rainy day when about the inn-fire, close to the great
caravan way that led through Canaan, in the land of Palestine, a group of
camel-drivers and travelers were gathered. They looked very different from
what they do to-day, for nearly four thousand years have passed since
then. But they were all huddled together listening to stories and songs.

In the group there were men from Egypt; there were men from Babylon, the
great city far to the East; there were men from the land of Canaan; and
then there were some wandering nomads who had lately come from the East
and so were called by the Canaanites "Hebrews," which means, "People from
the Other Side." Most of these men were shepherds, but they loved to meet
with the camel-drivers and learn of the customs and habits of the people
of other lands. 'Twas a strange group of men sitting about the little
fire.

In those days, as now, men loved to tell stories that had come down to
them from their fathers and grandfathers, and often they found that a
story from Egypt was but little different from one that had been told in
Babylonia. So they loved to listen to the story-tellers.

But on this day it had rained and rained till the streams were full and
the way was very hard to go. Thus there were very many men in the inn.
'Twas the turn of the Babylonian, so he began,

"I will tell you one of the very oldest of our stories--about a great
rain-storm.

"Years and years and years ago the Gods in heaven began to fear that
the men of the earth were going to live forever and so they made a
plan by which to destroy them. There should be a great rain for days
and days and days, and all these men and women and children should be
drowned. Then the Gods would be free from their worries.

"But one of the Gods named Ea had a friend who lived on the earth,
and so he sent word to him to go with all his family into a big, big
ship and take with him two of every kind of animals. Utnapishtim, the
friend, did as he was told.

"Then the rain came and for six days and nights there was no let-up
at all. Deeper and deeper it grew till the Gods in heaven grew afraid
and cowered in the highest corner of heaven. By this time every
living thing, except the ones in the big ship, was destroyed.

"But after six days, the rain ceased. Then the man sent out a dove,
but it returned, for it