but at last the long caravan came slowly over the fields of
Mamre to Hebron, and Isaac, whom the Lord had kept alive to see his son
once more, was there in his tent waiting for him.

But soon after this he died, an hundred and eighty years old, and Esau
came, and the two brothers laid their father in the cave that Abraham
bought when Sarah died, and where he had buried Rebekah, and Jacob
became patriarch in place of his father.

CHAPTER VI.

JOSEPH, THE CASTAWAY.

Of all the sons of Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin were the dearest to him,
because they were the sons of his beloved Rachel, who had died on the
journey from Syria into Canaan. They were also the youngest of all the
twelve sons. When Joseph was about seventeen years old, he sometimes
went with his elder brothers to keep his father's flocks in the fields.
He wore a long coat striped with bright colors, which his father had
given him, because he was a kind and obedient son, and could always be
trusted.

Once he told his father of some wicked thing his brothers had done, and
they hated him for it, and could not speak pleasantly to him.

Joseph had many strange and beautiful thoughts when he looked across
the fields to the hills, and up into the starry sky at night. He also
had some strange dreams that he told to his brothers. He said that he
dreamed that they were binding sheaves in the field, and that his sheaf
stood up, while the sheaves of his brothers bowed down to it.

Again he dreamed that the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars bowed
down to him.

His father wondered that he should have such thoughts, and reproached
him saying, "Shall I and thy brethren indeed come and bow down
ourselves to thee to the earth?" and his brothers said,

"Shalt thou indeed rule over us?" and they hated him.

When they were many miles from home with the flocks their father sent
Joseph to see if all was well with them. It was a long journey, and
when they saw the boy coming they did not go to meet him, and speak
kindly to him, but they said,

"Behold this dreamer is cometh. Let us slay him, and cast him into
some pit, and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him, and we
shall see what will become of his dreams."

But Reuben, the eldest, said,

"Let us not kill him; but cast him into this pit," hoping to take him
out secretly, and send him to his father.

So when Joseph came near, they robbed him of his coat of many colors,
and cruelly cast him into