ed any
want. And it was always Moses whom they blamed.

Moses was very patient with them; but once he was so angry that he was
tempted to disobey God's direction, and as a punishment God told him
that though he should see the Promised Land from afar he would never
enter it himself.

There on the mountain top he stood, gazing into the far distance,
where the Land of Canaan, that fair land flowing with milk and honey,
lay stretched out before him. Then he bowed his head to God's will.
The murmuring people never saw their great leader again. He "was not,
for God took him."

RUTH, THE GLEANER

Along the hot, dusty road that led from the country of Moab to the
fair land of Judah three women were walking with bowed heads and
weary, halting steps. Their sorrowful, heavy eyes took no pleasure in
the summer beauty of the harvest fields, the shimmering silver of the
olive trees, and the rich promise of the vineyards which bordered
their way. The whole world looked sad to them, seen through a mist of
tears.

There behind them, in the land of Moab, each of these women had left
green graves, which held all they loved best. Naomi, the eldest, was
perhaps the most desolate. Her thoughts went back to the time when she
was as young and fair as the two daughters-in-law who walked at her
side--when with her husband and her two boys she had trod that very
road, seeking a home in a strange country to escape the famine which
threatened them in her own land. Now she was returning to her native
town of Bethlehem, a childless, lonely widow.

The younger women, who were the wives of those two dead sons, were
very sorrowful too, but for them there might yet be happiness in the
world. They still had near and dear relatives and many friends in
Moab, which was their native land. They had come far enough now, and
it was time for them to return.

"Turn again, my daughters," said Naomi, "and go your way."

Their homes lay behind, and she must journey on alone to the little
hill town which she had not seen for so many long years. They had
kindly come so far to see her on her way, but they must come no
farther.

So the little party halted, and one of the young women, weeping
bitterly, kissed her mother-in-law and turned to go back. But the
other one, whose name was Ruth, clung to Naomi, and would not leave
her.

In vain the elder woman urged her to return, and pointed out that
Orpah had gone, that home and friends and happiness awa