thee," said Abraham, with a laugh.

The woman placed it before the smallest idol.

"This idol is small and surly," said the boy. "It does not accept thy
offering," and he raised his stick and smashed it.

"Try a bigger idol with thy offering," he said, and the woman did so.

"Thou also hast no manners," said Abraham, addressing the god; "eat,
or I shall smash thee to pieces."

The idol, of course, did not eat, and so Abraham broke it, and the
woman rushed out into the street in great alarm.

Abraham tried all the idols in turn with the food, and as each was
unable to eat, he broke them all except the largest. Before this idol,
which was as tall as a man, he paused. Then, laughing loudly, he
placed the stick which he had used in the idol's hand.

By this time, a crowd, attracted by the cries of the old man and the
woman, had gathered at the door.

"What hast thou done?" they demanded, angrily.

"I? Nothing," answered Abraham. "See, the largest idol holds in its
hand a big stick. It seems to me that he has been angry and has killed
all the others. Ask him why he did this."

The people stood bewildered until Terah and Haran returned.

"What is the meaning of this?" they asked, pointing to the broken
idols.

"Oh! Such fun," replied Abraham. "There has been a fight here. A woman
brought a food offering to the gods, and they quarrelled because they
all wanted it. So the big fellow here got angry, and, taking up the
stick which you see he still holds, he beat the others and smashed
them to bits."

"Absurd!" cried Haran. "The idols cannot do these things."

"Ask the big fellow to strike me if I have told lies," returned
Abraham.

"Cease your nonsense," commanded his father.

"What funny gods yours are," said Abraham, musingly, standing before
the big idol. "Do you think he will hit me if I smack his face?"

Before anybody could stop him, he smacked the idol's face and then
knocked off its head with the stick.

Some of the people ran off to the palace, and soon came an order from
King Nimrod that the idol-breaker should be brought before him.
Abraham, Haran and Terah were seized by the guards and marched off to
the palace.

"Which of you broke the idols?" asked the king, angrily.

"I did, because they were rude and would not accept the offering,"
said Abraham. "How can they be gods if they have no sense?"

"Not altogether a foolish remark," said Nimrod, smiling. "If idols
please thee not, then worship