“Go, each of you, to your mother’s house,” she said; “the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.”  But they both wept and clung to her, saying, “Surely we will return with thee into thy land.”

Naomi, however, thought they would be unhappy if they left their own country, and she urged them to stay there and let her go alone; so one of them kissed her over and over again and promised to do as she bade; but the other, who was named Ruth, would not leave her.

“Entreat me not to leave thee,” she pleaded, “or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me and more, also, if aught but death part thee and me.”

Then Naomi stopped urging her to return, and they went together to Bethlehem, where the friends of Naomi were very glad to welcome her and greeted her in a very friendly manner, saying again and again, “Is this Naomi?”

[Illustration:  The ascension into heaven.]

But she answered:  “Call me not Naomi, but call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”  She said this because Naomi means “pleasant” and Mara means “bitter,” and the sorrowing widow felt that her life was a bitter rather than a pleasant one, since she had been bereaved of her husband and sons.

There lived in Bethlehem a man named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, and who was also very wealthy.  He had a large farm and many people, both men and women, worked in his fields, and as it was about the beginning of the barley harvest when the two women came to Bethlehem, these fields presented a busy appearance.

Ruth wished to do something to help support herself and her mother-in-law, so she begged Naomi to let her go into the fields and glean after the reapers—­that is, to gather up the barley that was left after they had made up the sheaves—­and Naomi told her that she might go.

[Illustration:  The prodigal son.]

Ruth happened to choose the field of Boaz to work in, and when the wealthy man came into the field and saw her, he said, “The Lord bless thee!” but he did not know who she was.

As he went away he inquired of the head reaper about the young woman, and afterward he said to Ruth:  “Go not to glean in another field, but keep here close to my maidens.”  He also spoke to his young men about her, telling them to be kind and courteous to her, and he bade her go and drink of the water which they drew whenever she was thirsty.

When Ruth wondered at his kindness and asked him why he was so good to a stranger, he told her that he had heard of her love for Naomi and her unselfish devotion, and he said:  “The Lord reward thee, and a full recompense be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”  He invited her also to sit with his reapers at meal-time, and he waited upon her that she might have enough to eat and drink.