could find no place to rest. Later he sent
out a raven and it did not come back, so he knew the waters were
going down. Then he made a great sacrifice to the Gods and they came,
they saw the great destruction and they gloated over it, pleased that
their plan had worked so well."

There was applause when he had finished from many of the group, but the
Hebrews did not applaud. They had been taught that there was one true God,
not many Gods. They had been taught that God was kind to all and not one
that gloated over destruction of men. They were not pleased with the story
of the great flood.

Then there came nights out under the stars and they heard the stories of
how the earth was made; of how man came to be; of the meaning of many of
the things that they saw all about them. But in every story there were
found Gods who were cruel, who were unkind, who quarreled and fought.
There were many, many Gods, but none was like unto their God.

As the old Hebrews listened to all these old, old stories from the
countries about them which were told so often, they shook their heads
sadly and said,

"We have come into this country to live and bring up our children. But if
they hear these stories, they will believe some of them and forget the
true God. They must have stories of their own that show how great and
mighty is the God of Israel. But what shall we do about these stories? If
we say the stories are false, they will laugh at us and say, 'Why, our
people have known these stories since long, long before there was a Hebrew
on the earth. What our fathers have told us as true is surely true.' And
if we say to our children, 'You must not listen to these stories,' they
will be all the more eager to listen. What shall we do?"

Finally it was decided that the stories of the Egyptians and the
Babylonians must be remade so as to be fit for their children to hear and
they must teach the beliefs of their own religion in stories of their
own.

So, many weeks later as the men were gathered out under the stars on a
beautiful night, one of the best of the Hebrew story-tellers said
quietly,

"I have listened to stories about the making of the world from many of you
but I think my story is better than any you have told. Would you like to
hear the story of how the God of Israel made the world?"

"'Tis a Hebrew who is talking," said one. "I didn't know you people had
any stories. Give it to us. Then we can compare it with our own gre