s they shaded their eyes with their hands to watch Joseph
coming down the track into the plain.

They expected more riders to follow him, but no more came, and they
wondered who the lonely traveller could be. After a time the newcomer
urged his camel into a trot across the plain, and they soon saw that it
was Joseph.

"Behold, this dreamer cometh!" cried one. Now they had their father's
favourite in their power.

"Let us slay him for his dreams, and throw him into some pit," said
another; "and we will say that some wild beast has eaten him up."

But Reuben, one of the ten, would not hear of hurting the lad, though
he agreed to their putting him into a pit; for he had made up his mind
that when the night came he would help the lad out again, and send him
home to his father.

Shouting to his brothers in his joy at finding them, Joseph urged on
his camel; but no answering shout came back again, and his heart sank
within him. His camel knelt on the ground, and leaping off its back,
he turned to his nearest brother for the kiss of welcome; but a strong
arm warded him off.

He turned to another in surprise, only to meet with the same cold
dislike. He told them what his father had sent, and took out the
presents from the camel-bags, giving them the old shepherd's kind
messages. But it was all of no use. He could not make friends of
these dark, bearded men, whose flashing eyes spoke only of their bitter
hatred towards the young lad their brother.

Seizing him roughly, they stripped him of his coat of many colours, and
leading him to a deep hole in the ground called a pit, they pushed him
in. What would become of his dreams now?

"Let him die there of thirst and hunger," they said, as they turned to
feast upon the good things the lad had brought to them with such a
joyful heart.

Meanwhile Reuben had gone away, so as not to see his brother treated
cruelly; and now the men feasted together in sullen silence, for they
were by no means happy.

While they sat eating they watched a string of camels come over the
hills to the north, and draw nearer and nearer across the plain; and
before long they saw that the travellers were a band of merchants
taking slaves and spices to the distant land of Egypt. Slaves! That
was the very thing; and a flush came over the face of Judah as he said
to his brothers,--

"What shall we gain if we kill our brother? Let us sell him to these
men. Let us not harm him, for, after all