ings, and with
happy prospects, until one of the frequent famines that were brought
on by want of rain visited their district.

[Illustration: "THE PARCHED AND STERILE FIELDS."]

Leaving the parched and sterile fields around Bethlehem, Elimelech,
his family and his flocks, left their home and settled in the rich and
well-watered lands of the Moabites, beyond the Jordan. As a wealthy
foreigner, he probably was well received by the people of Moab, and
secured good pasturage for his sheep and cattle.

[Illustration: SEEKING PASTURAGE FOR HIS SHEEP.]

But much trouble was in store for this family, notwithstanding its
wealth had enabled them to leave their own famine-stricken lands.
First Elimelech died, and the family was without a head.

[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE LAND OF MOAB.]

Then Mahlon married a beautiful woman of the country in which he was
then living, named Ruth, and his brother Chilion married another named
Orpah. Such marriages were against the law of Moses, because the
Moabites worshipped idols, but as the nation was descended from Lot,
the nephew of Abraham, the marriages were not so bad as they would
have been with women belonging to other of the different tribes of
Canaan.

[Illustration: PLAIN AND MOUNTAINS OF MOAB.]
_From a Photograph._

After a while both of the sons of Naomi died, and she was left a
childless widow in a strange land. By her gracious ways she had won
the affection of both Ruth and Orpah, and now sorrow locked their
hearts together in sympathy. At length, Naomi turned her longing eyes
to her old home in Bethlehem. Ten years had come and gone since she
left it, and now the news had reached her that there was plenty of
food there.

Naomi and her two daughters-in-law started on their way to the land of
Judah. After a while, thinking that they had accompanied her far
enough, Naomi bade Ruth and Orpah return to their own mothers' homes,
and spoke very kindly to them. She kissed them and would have taken
leave of them, but they insisted that they would go with her to the
home of her own people.

[Illustration: "NAOMI BID RUTH AND ORPAH RETURN."]

Then Naomi suggested that they would not be welcome at Bethlehem
because they were Moabites. They would be looked upon with reproach,
strangers in a strange land, and again she pleaded with them to go
home, lest their love for her should prove a sorrow to them.

[Illustration: BETHLEHEM.]

Orpah was persuaded to return and settle