98 P UNISHMENT.

children were torn in pieces. Could there have been any
little girls in that wicked crowd? The two bears could
not eat so many, but they could kill them; and they were
mother-bears, and we do not know how many hungry,
sharp-eyed cubs they had in the woods waiting for a feast
of tender meat. Did not those children pay dearly for
their mocking words? What did they mean by it?
 A little while before, Elijah, an old prophet, had been
taken up to heaven. As he and Elisha stood together
near the bank of a river, a chariot and horses of fire came
between them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into
heaven. When Elisha could see the fiery chariot and the
departing prophet no longer, he picked up the mantle
which had fallen from Elijah. It was a sort of long loose
cape or cloak, such as you see in the picture blowing over
Elisha's shoulder. With that mantle Elijah struck the
river, and the waters rolled back and left a path of dry
ground for them to walk over. When Elisha went back
alone after Elijah had been taken to heaven, he struck the
river with the same mantle and it divided, and he went
back on dry ground again. Probably Elijah's being taken
to heaven so strangely had been talked about among all
the people, and that was why the children were making
fun of it when they said, Go up! Go up, thou bald-head."
 Was that any excuse for doing as they did? Is it
right to make fun of old people? Is it safe to speak
mockingly of any one or of anything belonging to God?