So they came to Jacob and said, "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." At first Jacob's heart fainted, because he could not believe them. But when they told him the whole story, and showed him the wagons, his spirit revived, and he said; "It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive; I will go and see him before I die." So they all journeyed to Egypt; and Joseph came in his chariot to meet Jacob, and fell on his neck and wept a good while. And Joseph brought Jacob into the presence of King Pharaoh, and Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was. Jacob said: "I am a hundred and thirty years old. Few and evil have been the years of my life; they have not been so many as the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings. Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence. And Pharaoh gave the Israelites (that is, Jacob and his sons and their tribe, for Jacob was also called Israel) the land of Goshen for their flocks and herds, and they dwelt there. - ROBERT BIRD. Adapted. Ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good. 1. Why were Joseph's brethren jealous? 2. What did they do with him? 3. Where was Joseph taken? Genesis 1. 20. 4. What work was he given to do? 10. What did he make them do? 11. Tell about their second visit to Egypt. 12. How did Joseph treat his brothers? 13. How did Jacob feel when he heard about Joseph ? 14. What did Pharaoh do for Joseph's family? LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS I THE future president of the United States was eight years old when he spent the winter with his father, mother, and sister in the "half-faced camp" on Pigeon Creek. He was growing fast. Already he was a long-legged, spindling, uncouth little fellow, with a shock of black hair, dreamy-looking eyes, a hatchet face, and a skin tanned and sallow from his outdoor life. He was not a pretty boy; I doubt, even, if he was healthy looking. But his muscles were hard and tough; he was sturdy, strong, and wiry; and he could endure cold and heat, poor food and privation, even better than many a trained athlete who, to-day, puts himself into what is called "condition." He wore a homespun shirt of cotton and wool, woven D by his mother and colored with a dye made from roots and bark; he had deerskin breeches and a deerskin hunting shirt, while his feet, when he did not go barefoot, were shod with deerskin moccasins; on his head was a queer cap cut from a raccoon skin with the tail left on and hanging down the back of the boy's neck. It was, indeed, rough living in the Lincoln home on Little Pigeon Creek. When he was "good and ready" Thomas Lincoln set about building a better shelter for his family than the forlorn "half-faced camp.' The new building was not such a great improvement; but it was more like a house. It was a rough cabin of logs, without door, window, or floor. But it seemed so much better than the shanty in which they had been living, that Abraham and his sister felt quite princely. The boy had helped at building the new house; and when it was finished and he could climb up to the loft by the ladder of pegs which he had driven into the logs, he would fling himself down on his bed of dried leaves and think it all quite comfortable and homelike. You would have turned up your nose at such accommodations and said you never could feel at home in such a place; but little Abraham Lincoln had never known anything better. To him the home-made furniture of three-legged stools, rickety pole-bedstead built into the logs, and hewn-log table were sufficient to sit on, sleep on, and eat on. What more could a boy need? But before the winter set in there came sad days. A terrible sickness what we call an epidemic visited that section of Indiana. Many people died from it, and among these was the mother of Abraham. It was a terrible blow to the Lincoln children. Their father was not fitted to care for them or be tender to them; and they had grown to depend upon their sad-faced, hard-working mother for instruction, help, and companionship. She could not give them much, if any, of these things; but what little she could do for them she did cheerfully, and when she was taken from them they were poor indeed. They buried her in the forest. No clergyman was within call; her husband himself made her rough coffin; and many a time, little neglected Abraham would sit by the mound that was his mother's forest grave and cry, long and bitterly, wishing her back again. The life of the mother of Abraham Lincoln had been a hard and dreary one. She had known little but poverty, worry, and work. But she dearly loved her forlorn and ragged little nine-year-old son, and it was to him that she turned as she was dying and gave her last message. "Be kind to father and sister," she said, placing her hand on the boy's head; "be good to each other, won't you? I've tried to teach you to do so. I hope you'll live, Abe, to remember your mother, love your folks, and pray to God." Sarah tried to "keep house"; and her father, in his |