y had heard
terrible stories of how these fierce Egyptians never allowed spies to
get out of their country alive.

"No, my lord; thy servants have come to buy food," said one. "We are
all one man's sons," cried another. "We are honest men; thy servants
are no spies," pleaded a third.

But the great Egyptian only listened with a frown to their whining
voices. "No," he replied firmly; "you have come to spy out the
weakness of Egypt. Is your father alive? Have you another brother?"

Why was this man so angry with them? they wondered.

"We belong to one family of twelve brothers," Judah replied. "We have
a father, an old man, and another brother, the child of his old age,
and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him
much. We are the sons of one man in Canaan, and truly the youngest is
now with our father, and one other is dead."

Was he still angry? They lifted their dark eyes to the stern face of
the young Egyptian.

"I see you are spies," was the harsh reply, but his voice was softer.
"In this way I will prove you. By the king's life, you shall not go
back unless your younger brother is brought here to me. Send one among
you to bring him, and the rest of you shall be kept in prison until he
returns. So shall I prove whether what you say is true. If you will
not do this, then by the king's life you are spies indeed!" He waved
them away with his hand, and the Egyptian soldiers pushed them out at
the door, telling them that they must come away at once to prison.

As they sat on the earthen floor of the prison looking at each other in
silence, they felt amazed and full of sorrow, thinking that they would
never see their tents and their little ones again. For they did not
know that the king's officer was their own brother Joseph, and that
instead of being angry, he was really filled with joy at seeing them
after twenty years of separation. As for his angry words, he was only
trying them, and meant nothing but kindness, as we shall see.

II.

Joseph's brothers were to be kept in prison until they settled who
should ride back in haste to Hebron to bring Benjamin down into Egypt;
but Joseph's heart was tender, and after a while he began to think that
perhaps he had been too harsh with them.

One man, he told himself, could not carry enough corn to feed all the
starving families in Hebron, and it might be dangerous for him to ride
back alone. His old father, too, would be an