SI4 BEA UTIFUL ESTHER.

sent messengers to Mordecai; she told him she would
try to save her people; but if any persons went in before
the king without being called, they were punished with
death, unless he would hold out to them the golden
sceptre. She told Mordecai to gather all the Jews in the
city, and fast and pray for her for three days; and she
would do the same with her maids.
 The third day she dressed herself in her most elegant
clothes, sweet with costly perfumes, and went to the
entrance of the room where the king sat on his throne.
He saw her-he reached out the golden sceptre-she
came nearer and touched the top of the sceptre. What
wilt thou, Queen Esther? What is thy request? It
shall be given thee, to the half of the kingdom !"
 Only that the king and Haman will come to-day to
a feast I have prepared."
 While they sat at the feast, the king said again,
" What is thy request, 0 queen? Even to the half of
the kingdom, it shall be done." Come again to-morrow
to the feast I will prepare for the king and Haman."
Haman went home and told his wife all his honors, the
king's notice, the queen's invitation, the feast again the
next day; "but all that is nothing," he said, so long as
I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate." His
wife had a plan. "Make a high gallows, and speak to
the king and have this Jew hung." That pleased Haman;
carpenters were soon at work, and the gallows ready.