THE PATRIARCH AND THE FIVE KINGS. 5

George did not seem to know very well what to say.
I was sorry for him; so I said to grandfather that because
he was to be asoldier, he did not care about reading any-
thing except battles and sieges.”

“Yes,” George said, “ that is it ; and though there are
some battles in the Bible, I know all about them, so I
need not read them again.”

“T donot think youhave read the accounts of them care-
fully, George, or you would wish to read them again. Can
you tell who fought the first battle mentioned in the Bible?”

“ Was it Cain and Abel, grandfather °” I asked.

“ Nonsense,” said George, “ that was not a battle ; it
was David and the Philistines who fought the first.”

“No,” said grandfather, “we are told of more than
one battle long before David was born.”

“Surely not long before,” said George; “1 do not
remember anything about it.”

“ Attend then,” said grandfather, “and you shall hear
about it.”

“ But grandfather,” I said, “does it do us any good
to hear about battles? for I do not like to hear of people
killing one another.”

“Listen to the story of a battle that I am to tell,
Marianne, and see if you can learn anything from it.

“Tt was two thousand and eighty-three years after
the creation, and one thousand nine hundred and twenty-
one years before the Christian era, that Abram entered
Canaan. He had left his native country, obedient-to the
command of God; he went out not knowing where, for