most dear.

"Nay, nay," he murmured, and the scale containing duty, love, and filial
obedience suddenly kicked the beam. He was what he was--the leader of
ten thousand men in Pharaoh's army. He had vowed fealty to him--and to
none other. Let his people fly from the Egyptian yoke, if they desired.
He, Hosea, scorned flight. Bondage had sorely oppressed them, but the
highest in the land had received him as an equal and held him worthy
of the loftiest honor. To repay them with treachery and desertion was
foreign to his nature and, drawing a long breath, he sprang to his feet
with the conviction that he had chosen aright. A fair woman and the
weak yearning of a loving heart should not make him a recreant to grave
duties and the loftiest purposes of his life.

"I will stay!" cried a loud voice in his breast. "Father is wise and
kind, and when he learns the reasons for my choice he will approve
them and bless, instead of cursing me. I will write to him, and the boy
Miriam sent me shall be the messenger."

A call from the tent startled him and when, springing up, he glanced at
the stars, he found that he had forgotten his duty to the suffering lad
and hurried to his couch.

Ephraim was sitting up in his bed, watching for him, and exclaimed: "I
have been waiting a long, long time to see you. So many thoughts crowd
my brain and, above all, Miriam's message. I can get no rest until I
have delivered it--so listen now."

Hosea nodded assent and, after drinking the healing potion handed to
him, Ephraim began:

"Miriam the daughter of Amram and Jochebed greets the son of Nun the
Ephraimite. Thy name is Hosea, 'the Help,' and the Lord our God hath
chosen thee to be the helper of His people. But henceforward, by
His command, thou shalt be called Joshua,--[Jehoshua, he who helps
Jehova]--the help of Jehovah; for through Miriam's lips the God of her
fathers, who is the God of thy fathers likewise, bids thee be the sword
and buckler of thy people. In Him dwells all power, and he promises to
steel thine arm that He may smite the foe."

Ephraim had begun in a low voice, but gradually his tones grew more
resonant and the last words rang loudly and solemnly through the
stillness of the night.

Thus had Miriam uttered them, laying her hands on the lad's head and
gazing earnestly into his face with eyes deep and dark as night, and
while repeating them he had felt as though some secret power were
constraining him to shout them aloud to