his father would only tell him if he had sinned against the law, instead of rending his garments, he would do all the law commanded to obtain forgiveness.  Was there, he asked, anything in the law against cock-fighting? or in the traditions?  It was a pastime of the heathen:  he knew that, and had hoped a day of fasting might be suggested to him, but if this offence was more serious than he had supposed he besought his father to say so.  Tell me, Father, have I sinned against the law?

The question seemed to exasperate his father who at last cried out:  of what value may be thy Hebrew studies and a knowledge of the language, if the law be not studied with Azariah?  Does not the Book of Leviticus ever lie open before thee?  How has the law been affronted?  The law given by the Lord unto Moses.  My own son asks me this.  “And if a soul sin and hear the voice swearing and is a witness whether he has sinned or known of it, if he did not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.”  Was there no swearing at thy cock-fight?  Plenty, I reckon.  All day was spent listening to swearing, hearing the name of the Lord taken in vain:  a name we don’t dare to pronounce ourselves.  Joseph sat dumbfounded.  So Azariah never taught thee the law?  All the time goes by wasted in the reading of Greek plays.  We read Hebrew and speak it, Joseph answered, and it was your wish that I should learn Greek.  And, Father, is there any reason to worry over a loss of repute?  For my sin will be known to nobody but God, unless told by thee, and thou’lt keep it secret.  Or told by Azariah, Dan answered moodily, who never teaches the law, but likes Greek plays better.  Well, thou shalt hear the law from me to-night, for I can read Hebrew, not, belike, as well as Azariah, but I can read Hebrew all the same.  Mother, hand me down the Scriptures from the shelf.

CHAP.  IV.

Well, Dan, you must make up your mind whether you are going to look out for one who will teach him better, or let him remain with Azariah, who likes teaching him, for he is a clever but oft-times an idle boy.  I don’t know that I should have said idle, she added, and sat thinking of what word would describe Joseph’s truancy better than idle, without, however, finding the word she needed, and her thoughts floated away into a long consideration of her son’s anger, for she could see he was angry with Azariah.  But the cause of his anger she could not discover.  It could not be that he was annoyed with Azariah for coming to complain that he was often kept waiting:  and it was on her tongue to ask him why he was so gloomy, why he knitted his brows and bit his lips.  But she held back the question, for it would not be long before Dan would let out his secret:  he could not keep one.  And Dan, knowing well his own weakness and his mother’s shrewdness (she would soon be guessing what was passing in his mind), began to animadvert on Azariah for his residence in