but her two sons also. In her sorrow Naomi's heart
turned to Bethlehem, with its cluster of white houses among the hills
of her own country. But before going back she bade her
daughters-in-law return to their mothers' houses, where they would be
happy. They both wept, and Orpah, the elder, kissed Naomi and went
away; but Ruth clung to her and refused to go.

"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee,"
she said; "for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where
thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to
me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

So they went back together to the village of Bethlehem, and Naomi in
her sorrow said to her old friends, when she met them once more, "Call
me not Naomi 'the pleasant,' but Mara 'the bitter;' for God hath dealt
bitterly with me."

Ruth wore the dress of the village girls, of deep green and bright red,
with a white veil streaming over her shoulder, and a row of coins upon
her brow; and she was pleasant to look upon as she went up and down the
stony path which ran from the gate in the wall to the women's well,
carrying her pitcher to get water. As she moved along the path her
eyes often strayed over the plains of dry grass and the fields of
golden grain; for it was the rich harvest time, and she was very poor.

Rising one morning before the clouds were red over Hebron, she went
down into the valley where the harvesters were at work, and followed
the reapers and binders, picking up as a gleaner all the stray heads of
barley she could find. As the binders were women she kept near them;
and they talked kindly to her, for they knew her and had heard her sad
story.

Now when Boaz, the farmer, came down to the village to see how the work
went on in his field, he called out, "God be with you" to his reapers;
and they answered, "May God bless you." Turning to the women, he asked
the name of the strange maiden, and spoke kindly to her, calling her
his daughter, and telling her to keep close to his women, where no one
would touch her, and not to leave his fields. If she was thirsty, she
might drink from the water-bottles from which the reapers could drink
when they wished.

Kneeling before him with head bowed down, as if this farmer were a
king, Ruth thanked him for his kindness to a stranger; and the man
replied that he had hea