218 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

grandfather? They would not have been killed surely
if they had gone into the town.

Grandfather. Perhaps not; but they might have been
prevented carrying the message to David. They thought
a woman going to the well was not likely to excite sus-
picion, and that they might get away from that place very
quietly. Yet in spite of all their precautions they had
been observed, and Absalom was told of it. Men were
sent in pursuit ; so the young priests saw it was neces-
sary for them to hide. They went into a village called
Bahurim, where a woman let them down into a well
which was in her court. On the top of the well she
spread a cloth, and on the cloth she spread ground corn.
When the pursuers came asking for Jonathan and Ahi-
maaz, she told them that they had crossed the water.

Marianne. That was not true, grandfather. She
ought not to have said it.

Grandfather. She ought not; a lie cannot be justi-
fied. The messengers of Absalom continued their search,
but not finding those they sought, they returned to
Jerusalem. So the sons of the priests got out of their
hiding place, and continued their journey in safety. They
delivered their message to David, and he acted upon it
without delay. Before dawn next day he and his whole
band had crossed the Jordan. They made their way to a
city called Mahanaim, where they received great kindness.
The chiefs of the children of Ammon, and of the Gilead-
ites brought food to him and his men. An abundant
supply of sheep, corn, butter, cheese, honey, and vege-