aking
any promises. He was fond of his little sister, and was far more gentle
and kindly than many another brother would have been in those days in
old Palestine.

For in the Jewish family, girls were not valued so highly as boys, and
were made to feel their unimportance in many ways that would be highly
displeasing to little sisters of to-day. Girls were taught to wait upon
their brothers and to treat them with respect. It was impressed upon
them that the duty of a girl was to be useful and modest and quiet, and
that her chief pleasure should lie in making home happy and comfortable
for her father and brothers.

But in the household of Samuel the weaver, Naomi's lot had not been
quite that of the ordinary Jewish girl. Her father was proud of his
bright, lovable little daughter and had made her his special pet. Her
mother, who had been well taught by her own mother, a "wise woman" of
her day, was careful that Naomi seldom missed the daily lesson that kept
the little girl, to her great delight, only a short way behind Ezra on
the hard road of knowledge.

So Ezra, though he felt his superiority as a boy and the first-born of
his family, could not long resist Naomi's pleading glance nor the
pressure of her little brown hand.

"What wilt thou give me if I do not tell?" asked Ezra, not wishing to
seem to relent too quickly.

"The first bright shekel I find in the highway," answered Naomi saucily.

She was smiling now, and her hand was gently stroking the little lamb's
nose.

"What lamb is this, Ezra?" she asked. "And why hast thou brought it
home? It seems sleepy, poor little creature. Look, its eyes are half
shut."

"It is one of the Temple flock," answered Ezra, looking down at the
quiet little animal in his arms. "But it has a blemish. It runs on three
legs, and it does not see very well. They will not keep it in the
flock--it is not fit for Temple use--and shepherd Eli gave it to me this
afternoon for my own. I helped him find an old ewe that had caught her
foot between two stones, and when I was leaving he gave me the lamb."

By the "Temple flock" Ezra meant the sheep that were destined to be used
as sacrifices in the great Temple at Jerusalem, and which were encamped
all the year round on the hills outside the city. The shepherds of the
flock were friendly to the boy, who declared he meant when a man to be a
Temple shepherd himself. Ezra spent most of his spare time with them,
helping them in their work and