[Illustration:  Walking northward over the mountains]

One of his brothers, whose name was Reuben, felt more kindly toward Joseph than the others.  He said: 

“Let us not kill him, but let us throw him into this pit, in the wilderness, and leave him there to die.”

But Reuben intended, after they had gone away, to lift Joseph out of the pit, and take him home to his father.  The brothers did as Reuben told them; they threw Joseph into the pit, which was empty.  He cried, and begged them to save him; but they would not.  They calmly sat down to eat their dinner on the grass, while their brother was calling to them from the pit.

After the dinner, Reuben chanced to go to another part of the field; so that he was not at hand when a company of men passed by with their camels, going from Gilead, on the east of the river Jordan, to Egypt, to sell spices and fragrant gum from trees to the Egyptians.

Then Judah, another of Joseph’s brothers, said, “What good will it do us to kill our brother?  Would it not be better for us to sell him to these men, and let them carry him away?  After all, he is our brother, and we would better not kill him.”

His brothers agreed with him; so they stopped the men who were passing, and drew up Joseph from the pit, and for twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph to these men; and they took him away with them down to Egypt.

After a while, Reuben came to the pit, where they had left Joseph, and looked into it; but Joseph was not there.  Then Reuben was in great trouble; and he came back to his brothers, saying:  “The boy is not there!  What shall I do!”

Then his brothers told Reuben what they had done; and they all agreed together to deceive their father.  They killed one of the goats, and dipped Joseph’s coat in its blood; and they brought it to their father, and they said to him:  “We found this coat out in the wilderness.  Look at it, father, and tell us if you think it was the coat of your son.”

[Illustration:  For twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph]

And Jacob knew it at once.  He said:  “It is my son’s coat.  Some wild beast has eaten him.  There is no doubt that Joseph has been torn in pieces!”

And Jacob’s heart was broken over the loss of Joseph, all the more because he had sent Joseph alone on the journey through the wilderness.  They tried to comfort him, but he would not be comforted.  He said:  “I will go down to the grave mourning for my poor lost son.”

So the old man sorrowed for his son Joseph; and all the time his wicked brothers knew that Joseph was not dead; but they would not tell their father the dreadful deed they had done to their brother, in selling him as a slave.

THE DREAMS OF A KING

The men who bought Joseph from his brothers were called Ishmaelites, because they belonged to the family of Ishmael, who, you remember, was the son of Hagar, the servant of Sarah.  These men carried Joseph southward over the plain which lies beside the great sea on the west of Canaan; and after many days they brought Joseph to Egypt.  How strange it must have seemed to the boy who had lived in tents to see the great river Nile, and the cities thronged with people, and the temples, and the mighty pyramids!