ited her there,
while in front was only poverty and loneliness. Ruth only clung the
closer as she sobbed out her tender, loving words.

"Entreat me not to leave thee," she said, "or to return from following
after thee: 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. The
Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

The tender words brought comfort to the heart of Naomi, as soft rain
brings refreshment to the hard, dry earth. After all, she was not
quite alone; she still had some one to love and care for. So together
they journeyed on again, and at last came to the winding road which
led up to the town of Bethlehem, nestling like a white bird upon the
long ridge of hills.

Naomi knew every step of the way. It seemed almost like a dream to
tread on more that winding road, to pass through the city gates and
find her way to the little house she knew so well. Although she had
been gone so many years there were still people who remembered her,
and these came running out to greet her.

"Is this Naomi?" they asked wonderingly.

They could scarcely believe that this sad, broken-down woman could be
the pleasant-faced, happy girl who had gone away with her husband and
boys in the year of the great famine. But as they listened to her
story they did not wonder that she seemed so old and talked so
bitterly. It made them look very kindly upon the beautiful girl who
kept so close to her mother-in-law, who had given up everything rather
than leave her alone.

[Illustration: He spoke very kindly.]

Naomi had been quite right when she had told Ruth that poverty lay
before them. She had come back quite empty-handed, and it was
necessary to find some work at once which would at least provide them
with daily bread. Ruth, looking out over the fields where already the
barley was being cut, made up her mind to go and work there. The poor
were always allowed to follow the reapers and glean the stray ears of
corn that fell unnoticed. She might at least gather enough to feed her
mother-in-law and herself.

Very happily, then, Ruth set out, and found her way into the harvest
field, which belonged to a rich man called Boaz. The reapers treated
her kindly when she timidly asked for permission to glean there, and
when the master arrived to see how the harvest went, he too noticed
her at once, for she was very beautiful.

"Whose damsel is t