before the appointed time was up David
returned to Saul once more to tell him what he had done.

This was followed by days and nights of rejoicing among the young men
of David's camp. The young women decked their hair with flowers, and
danced to the sound of the timbrels, as they praised the beauty and
goodness of Michal, the king's daughter; and the young men danced and
shouted round the camp fires, praising David, the bridegroom, as a
mighty man of valour. Saul was unwilling to give up Michal to the
young captain; but he now feared him greatly, and could not break his
promise. So David got the young princess Michal to be his wife; and
after the death of Saul and Jonathan, who were both slain in battle, he
became king of the Israelites, as Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, had
foretold.

KING DAVID'S LITTLE BOY.

Sunshine fell upon the walls of King David's palace on Mount Zion. The
trees in the royal gardens swayed in the breeze, and the doves
fluttered up to the windows; but all was hushed and still within.
Black slaves glided to and fro with naked feet, and the women took off
their tinkling armlets and talked in whispers; for in a little chamber,
with shaded window and curtained door, a dark-eyed mother sat watching
her child--the king's child--whose flushed cheeks showed that he was
very ill and near to death.

Now when he heard that his boy was so ill, the king, who was now a man
of middle age, threw himself upon the floor of his room in the
bitterness of his grief and prayed to God to spare the life of the
child.

His friends came and stood round and spoke to him, trying to comfort
him; but he would not rise, nor let them raise him up, nor would he
take any food. So he passed the dark night in praying and in sorrow,
while the mother watched the child by the light of a small lamp, and
slaves stood outside the chamber door to keep silence.

The morning came, and sunshine fluttered on the trees in the king's
gardens and on the hills round the town. Then the king asked for the
child, but the answer was that he was no better; and all the people saw
that King David's grief was very great, and they wondered. For the
monarch had fought in many cruel battles, and beaten his enemies, and
caused the death of many men and women, and even children, and he had
done many cruel things in his lifetime.

He now had riches and honour and numerous children, and was the great
king of Jerusalem, living in a palac