BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 117

see how much they loved Benjamin. He hid his own silver
cup in Benjamin’s sack of corn when they went away, and
then pretended he was going to take Benjamin for a slave
as a punishment for stealing it. Now the brothers were
sure that God was punishing them for their sins, and Judah,
the oldest one, said: ‘God hath found out the iniquity of
thy servants.’ He told Joseph all about their story, and
how the heart of their poor old father was bound up in
Benjamin, and he begged Joseph to let Benjamin go, and
take him for a slave in his place, for he could not go home
and see the sorrow of his father. At last Joseph was satis-
fied. He saw that his brothers loved their father and
Benjamin, and felt that they deserved punishment for their
cruelty to him. He could not hide his love any longer. He
sent all his servants out, and he could hardly speak for
weeping as he said: ‘I am Joseph; doth my father yet
live?’

‘“No wonder his brothers were so troubled they could
not answer, but stood trembling before him, and Joseph had
to tell them to come near to him. Then he said again, ‘I
am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.’ He
told them how God had turned their wicked deed into a
blessing, and sent him there to preserve them and save
them through the years of famine. He bade them go home
and tell his father: ‘Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath
made me ruler over all the land of Egypt; come down unto
me, tarry not.’ He promised to give them a place to live,
where they should be near him, and to take care of them
through all the years of famine that were yet to come, and
he bade them tell their father all they had seen, and make
haste to bring him down there.

“ And still they could hardly believe him, or dare to talk