irl fixedly for a moment. Then she put up her
hand and leaned on the soft young shoulder.

"Am I not left?" she asked.

Rachel passed her arm about the bowed figure, with some compunction for
her complaint.

"My mother's friend!" she exclaimed lovingly. "I know she died in
peace, remembering that I was left to thy care."

"I mind me," she continued after a little silence, "how tender and
frail she was. Thou wast as a strong tree beside her. I seem to
myself to be mighty compared to my memory of her."

Deborah took the white hand that lay across her shoulder. "Thou art
like to thy father. Thy mother was black-eyed and fragile--born to the
soft life of a princess. Misfortune was her death, though she
struggled to live for thee. Praise God that thou art like to thy
father, else thou hadst died in thine infancy."

"Nay, hath my lot been sterner than the portion of all Israel?"

"Of a surety, thou canst guess it, for are there many of thy tribe like
thee--without a kinsman?"

Rachel shook her head, and the old woman continued absently: "Of thy
mother's family there were four, but they died of the heavy labor. Thy
father, Maai, surnamed the Compassionate, was the eldest of six. They
were mighty men, tawny like the lion and as bold--worthy sons of Judah!
But there is none left--not one."

"Ten!" Rachel exclaimed, "and not one remaineth!"

"Aye, and they died as though they were plague-smitten--in pairs and
singly, in a little space."

Deborah felt a strong tremor run through the young figure against which
she leaned, and the arm across her shoulder was withdrawn, that the
hand might clear the eyes of their tears.

The old woman discreetly held her peace till the girl should recover.

"Thou must bear in mind, Rachel," she began, after a long silence,
"that Egypt had an especial grudge against thy house,--hence, its
especial vengeance. Seti, the Pharaoh, began the oppression of the
children of Israel, but the bondage was not all-embracing, in the
beginning. There were Hebrews to whom Egypt was indebted and chief
among these was thy father's grandsire, Aram. Seti paid the debt to
him by sparing his small lands and his little treasure and himself when
he put Israel to toil. Thy father's father, thy grandsire, Elihu,
younger brother to Amminadab, who was father-in-law to Aaron, came to
his share of his father's goods when Aram was gathered to his fathers.
This was in the latter days of Seti. Thy grand