"Bring me, I pray thee, a little water in a dish, that I may drink."

She looked at the man's strange figure, with the long black hair
falling over his sheepskin mantle, and turned away with her bundle of
sticks, intending to bring a drink of water to him; and when he saw
that she was going home, he called again,--

"Bring me also a morsel of bread in thine hand."

The woman, who was dressed in the rough blue and red clothing of the
country, with a few brass coins in her hair, and glass beads round her
neck, came nearer, and he saw from her face that she was plainly in
deep distress.

"As thy God liveth," she said earnestly, "I have not one cake left, but
only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse. I am
only gathering a few sticks, that I may go home and bake one more cake
for my son and myself, that we may eat it and then die."

"Fear not," replied the wild man in a gentle tone; "go and do as thou
hast said: but make me a little cake first, and bring it to me, and
afterwards make a cake for thyself and thy son. For thus saith the God
of Israel, 'Thy barrel of meal shall not waste, nor thy cruse of oil
fail, until the day that He sendeth rain upon the earth.'"

The woman wondered at his strange words, but she believed the man, and
went away to her poor home; there she soon kindled a fire, and baked a
little cake, and took it out to the hungry prophet sitting outside the
city gate. Then she returned and baked another cake for herself and
her son. And we are told that after that her barrel never lacked meal,
neither did the oil in her cruse fail, according as the prophet had
said; and Elijah stayed with the woman at her humble home.

Now it happened some time later that this widow's son fell sick and
died, and his mother came to Elijah in great distress. Then the
prophet took the boy and carried him up into the loft where he slept,
and stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to the
Lord,--

"O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again."

And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came
into him again, and he revived. Then Elijah took him and brought him
down out of the loft, and placed him in his wondering mother's arms,
and said, "See, thy son liveth."

And the woman said, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and
that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."

THE SHUNAMMITE'S BOY.

After the work