had arrogantly
patronized; for they were but shepherds and as such contemptible to the
Egyptians, whose opinions he shared.

His own father was also the owner of herds and, though he held him in
high esteem, it was in spite of his position and only because his whole
character commanded reverence; because the superb old man's fiery vigor
won love from every one, and above all from him, his grateful son.

He had never ceased to gladly acknowledge his kinship to him, but
in other respects he had striven to so bear himself among his
brothers-in-arms that they should forget his origin and regard him in
everything as one of themselves. His ancestress Asenath, the wife of
Joseph, had been an Egyptian and he had boasted of the fact.

And now,--to-day?

He would have made any one feel the weight of his wrath who reproached
him with being an Egyptian; and what at the last new moon he would
only too willingly have cast aside and concealed, as though it were a
disgrace, made him on the night of the next new moon whose stars were
just beginning to shine, raise his head with joyous pride.

What a lofty emotion it was to feel himself with just complacency the
man he really was!

His life and deeds as an Egyptian chief now seemed like a perpetual lie,
a constant desertion of his ideal.

His truthful nature exulted in the consciousness that the base denial
and concealment of his birth was at an end.

With joyous gratitude he felt that he was one of the people whom the
Most High preferred to all others, that he belonged to a community,
whose humblest members, nay even the children, could raise their
hands in prayer to the God whom the loftiest minds among the Egyptians
surrounded with the barriers of secrecy, because they considered their
people too feeble and dull of intellect to stand before His mighty
grandeur and comprehend it.

And this one sole God, before whom all the whole motley world of
Egyptian divinities sank into insignificance, had chosen him, the son
of Nun, from among the thousands of his race to be the champion and
defender of His chosen people and bestowed on him a name that assured
him of His aid.

No man, he thought, had ever had a loftier aim than, obedient to his God
and under His protection, to devote his blood and life to the service of
his own people. His black eyes sparkled more brightly and joyously as he
thought of it. His heart seemed too small to contain all the love with
which he wished to make