and his family, the other, a larger dwelling, which
sheltered, besides the grey-haired owner and his wife, his son-in-law
Aaron with his wife, children, and grand-children, and Miriam. The aged
leader of his tribe, who had assigned the duties of his position to his
son Naashon, extended his hand to every messenger and listened to his
story with sparkling eyes, often dimmed by tears. He had induced his
old wife to sit in the armchair in which she was to be carried after the
people, that she might become accustomed to it, and for the same reason
he now occupied his own.

When the old dame heard the messengers boast that the fair future
promised to the people was now close at hand, her eyes often sought her
husband, and she exclaimed: "Yes, Moses!" for she held her son-in-law's
brother in high esteem, and rejoiced to see his prophecy fulfilled. The
old people were proud of Aaron, too; but all their love was lavished
upon Eleasar, their grandson, whom they beheld growing up into a second
Moses. Miriam had been for some time a new and welcome member of the
household. True, the warm-hearted old couple's liking for the grave
maiden had not increased to parental tenderness, and their daughter
Elisheba, Aaron's active wife, had no greater inclination to share the
cares of the large family with the prophetess than her son Naashon's
spouse, who, moreover, dwelt with her immediate family under her own
roof. Yet the old people owed Miriam a debt of gratitude for the care
she bestowed upon their granddaughter Milcah, the daughter of Aaron and
Elisheba, whom a great misfortune had transformed from a merry-hearted
child into a melancholy woman, whose heart seemed dead to every joy.

A few days after her marriage to a beloved husband the latter, carried
away by passion, had raised his hand against an Egyptian tax-gatherer,
who, while Pharaoh was passing through Succoth toward the east, had
attempted to drive off a herd of his finest cattle for "the kitchen of
the lord of both worlds." For this act of self-defence the hapless man
had been conveyed to the mines as a prisoner of state, and every one
knew that the convicts there perished, soul and body, from torturing
labor far beyond their strength. Through the influence of old Nun,
Hosea's father, the wife and relatives of the condemned man had been
saved from sharing his punishment, as the law prescribed. But Milcah
languished under the blow, and the only person who could rouse the pale