BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 57

e

evil. Of a thousand murderers who have died upon the
scaffold, probably not a score of them meant to commit
murder in the beginning. Thomas Hood never said a truer
thing, than when he said:

“ Evil is wrought by want of thought
As much as want of heart.”

What horror must have possessed the soul of Cain as he
looked into the face of his dead brother!—dead by his own
wicked hand. What worlds he would have given, if they
had been his to give, to have recalled that cruel blow!
He had hardly realized the terrible situation, when the
voice of God broke upon his ear.

“And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abet thy
brother?”

Of all questions that could possibly be need) could any
question have cut to the heart like a knife, as this question
must have done.

There is an old legend, but of little worth, that says
that after the murder Cain was at his wit’s end to know
what to do with the dead body; and that after carrying it
about from place to place, he grew weary and fell asleep on the
side of the mountain, and that when he awoke, a huge bird,
with a dead bird near, came to Cain and said he would
show him what to do, and at once began making a hole
with his beak, and when the hole was large enough, he put
the dead bird in it and covered it over with loose earth;
and so, the legend goes on to say, Cain was taught how to:
bury his brother. But the legend is very clumsy and
unnatural, and at best only serves to give force to the
thought that Cain had tried to hide his brother from alll
mortal sight. And if Cain had sought to hide his brother