kill him, but put him alive into some pit,
in an out-off the-way place." He said this hoping to come back and
rescue Joseph when the others had gone.

They finally consented; so, when Joseph came up, they took off his
coat of many colors and put him into a pit. Probably they did not
handle him at all gently!

Then Reuben went away and the others calmly sat down to eat their
dinner. While they were eating, they looked up and saw a long caravan
with camels loaded with spices and balm and myrrh going from the East
down to Egypt.

Then an idea came to Judah, one of the brothers. "Let us sell Joseph,"
he said, "so we shall get rid of him and no guilt of his blood will be
on our hands."

{179}{180}

[Illustration]
ONE OF THE PYRAMIDS

From an old photograph in the possession of the Springfield Public
Library, and used by kind permission.

Another one of the great pyramids which rise above the level
country of Egypt, monuments to the departed greatness of her rulers.
Recent explorations show that the civilization of Egypt goes back
more than four thousand years before the time of Christ.
[End illustration]

{181}

They drew Joseph, who must have been well frightened by this time, out
of the pit, and sold him to the traders for twenty pieces of silver.

When Reuben came back he was very much distressed, but he did not dare
to tell his father the truth. They agreed to dip Joseph's coat of many
colors in blood and say that a wild beast had eaten him. Then they
went home and pretended to be very sorry and told their poor old
father this lie which they had made up. The father believed it because
they showed him the coat of many colors which they had dipped in
blood. Jacob was very sad and mourned a long time for his boy.

The traders carried Joseph to Egypt and sold him as a slave. He was
treated badly and at last put into prison. While he was there the
Pharaoh, the king of the country, had a dream. He dreamed that he saw
seven fat oxen come up out of a river and feed in a meadow. Then seven
lean and hungry oxen came out of the river and ate up the fat oxen.
Then he saw seven fine full ears of corn on one stalk, but there grew
also seven poor thin ears, which destroyed the good ears.

No one could tell the king what his dream {182} meant, until he heard
that Joseph, who was in prison, was able to tell the meaning of
dreams. So he called Joseph, who was very glad to come out of the dark
prison. Josep