RUTH AND NAOMI.


 DOES that woman sitting on the bank look to you
as if she had seen a great deal of sorrow? Is not hers a
sad(-looking face? Does it not seem as if the younger one,
whose hand rests so kindly on her shoulder, might be say-
ing some sweet loving words to her? Would you like to
hear all the story, and know the very words the young
woman said ?
 The oldest woman is named Naomi. Years before,
there was a famine in Judea where she lived; and with
her husband and two grown sons she went to live in
the country of Moab, where they hoped to find plenty
and a happy home. The two sons married there: one
married Orpah, the other Ruth. But sorrow came to Na-
omi: first her husband died; in ten years her two sons
had both died, and the three sorrowful women were all
lonely widows. Naomi thought about her home in the
town of -Bethlehem in Judea, where they worshipped
God, and felt that there was nothing in the strange gods
and idol worship of Moab to comfort sorrow.
 She resolved to go back to Bethlehem, and her two
daughters-in-law started with her on the road to Judea.
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