entrance to the camp and hurried on to search for his
brothers. He had learned to find his way about a camp, where for a
short time he had been Saul's armour-bearer. So now he went swiftly
among the soldiers, until at last he found his brothers. "Were they
well?" he eagerly asked them; "and what were they doing?"

[Illustration: Eagerly David began to ask them what it meant.]

But even while he spoke there was a stir among the Philistines, and all
eyes were turned to watch, all ears were strained to hear the enemy's
challenge, which rang out clearly across the narrow valley.

Out of the rank of the Philistines there had stepped a man so tall and
strong that he appeared to be a giant. He was more than nine feet high,
and the armour which he wore was so solid and heavy that it would have
crushed any ordinary man to the earth.

This was Goliath, the great champion of the Philistines. Every morning
and every evening he strode proudly out and defied the Israelites,
bidding them find a champion who would come and fight with him. Once
again his challenge rang out on the clear air,--

"Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to
fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I
prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and
serve us. I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we
may fight together."

A great silence fell after the champion had shouted his last words of
defiance. There was no answer from the Israelites. No man had courage
enough to dream of accepting the challenge.

David looked round him in amazement, and his cheeks burned with shame.
What were the people doing to allow this boasting heathen Philistine to
defy the armies of the living God? Eagerly he turned to the men around
him and began to ask them what it meant. The soldiers answered him
shortly. No, there was no one who dared to go forth and fight Goliath.
The king had promised great rewards to any man who would kill the giant.
But no one had dared to try.

David's elder brothers heard his questions, and seeing how amazed he
was, they began to grow angry. Did he mean to reproach them? Perhaps he
thought of offering himself to fight the champion. It was time that this
shepherd boy should be put in his proper place. So his eldest brother
turned to him with a sneer.

[Illustration: While he kept his father's sheep he had often to defend
them from wild beasts.]

"Why