essing his lips upon her brow, he bade her give him a tablet, wrote
a few words on it, flung it into the hollow trunk of the sycamore, and
said:

"For Hosea, no, for Joshua, the son of Nun, if he comes while I am
absent. The Lord has great deeds for him to accomplish, when he learns
to expect loftier things from the Most High than from the mighty ones of
earth."

With these words he left her; but Aaron who, as the oldest, was the head
of her tribe, lingered and told her that a man of worth sought her hand.
Miriam, with blanching face, replied:

"I know it...."

He looked at her in surprise and with earnest monition, added:

"As you choose; yet it will be wise to consider this. Your heart belongs
to your God and to your people, and the man whom you wed must be ready,
like yourself, to serve both; for two must be one in marriage, and if
the highest aim of one is not also that of the other, they will remain
two till the end. The voice of the senses, which drew them together,
will soon be mute and nothing will be left to them save discord."

Having said this, he went away, and she, too, was preparing to leave
the others; for on the eve of departure she might be needed in the
house whose hospitality she enjoyed. But a new incident detained her, as
though bound with fetters, under the sycamore.

What cared she for the packing of perishable wares and providing for
bodily needs, when affairs which occupied her whole soul were under
discussion! Elisheba, Naashon's wife, any housekeeper and faithful slave
could attend to the former wants. Higher things were to be determined
here--the weal or woe of her people.

Several men of distinction in the tribes had joined the elders under the
sycamore; but Hur had already departed with Moses.

Uri, the son of the former, now appeared beneath the ancient tree. The
worker in metals, who had just come from Egypt, had talked in Memphis
with persons who were near to the king and learned that Pharaoh was
ready to remove great burdens from the Hebrews and grant them new
favors, if Moses would render the God whom he served propitious to him
and induce the people to return after they had offered sacrifices in the
wilderness. Therefore it would be advisable to send envoys to Tanis and
enter into negotiations with the Sublime Porte.

These proposals, which Uri had not yet ventured to moot to his father,
he, with good intentions, brought before the assembled elders; he
hoped that their acc