yes and dark hair that
curled. Rachel gazed at it long and tenderly. Then she said, "Bring me
water while there is yet time."

When the water was brought she dipped her trembling hand into it, and
made the sign of the Cross upon the babe's forehead, baptising her with
the name of Miriam, after that of her own mother, to the service and the
company of Jesus the Christ.

"Now," she said, "whether she live an hour or an hundred years, this
child is a Christian, and whatever befalls, should she come to the age
of understanding, see to it, Nou, who are henceforth the foster-mother
of her body and her soul, that she does not forget the rites and duties
of her faith. Lay this charge on her also as her father commanded, and
as I command, that should she be moved to marriage, she wed none who is
not a Christian. Tell her that such was the will of those who begat her,
and that if she be obedient to it, although they are dead, and as it
seems strengthless, yet shall their blessing be upon her all her life's
days, and with it the blessing of the Lord she serves."

"Oh!" moaned Nehushta, "why do you speak thus?"

"Because I am dying. Gainsay me not. I know it well. My life ebbs from
me. My prayers have been answered, and I was preserved to give this
infant birth; now I go to my appointed place and to one who waits for
me, and to the Lord in Whose care he is in Heaven, as we are in His
care on earth. Nay, do not mourn; it is no fault of yours, nor could any
physician's skill have saved me, whose strength was spent in suffering,
and who for many months have walked the world, bearing in my breast a
broken heart. Give me of that wine to drink--and listen."

Nehushta obeyed and Rachel went on: "So soon as my breath has left me,
take the babe and seek some village on the shore where it can be nursed,
for which service you have the means to pay. Then when she is strong
enough and it is convenient, travel, not to Tyre--for there my father
would bring up the child in the strictest rites and customs of the
Jews--but to the village of the Essenes upon the shores of the Dead sea.
There find out my mother's brother, Ithiel, who is of their society, and
present to him the tokens of my name and birth which still hang about
my neck, and tell him all the story, keeping nothing back. He is not a
Christian, but he is a good and gentle-hearted man who thinks well of
Christians, and is grieved at their persecution, since he wrote to my
father repro