BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 193:

‘In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as
Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot, even to
the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.”

Absalom had a wonderful head of hair. As he walked
abroad, its long thick sweeping locks swayed to and fro, and
at the distance his tossing curls looked “like a flock of
goats on Mount Gilead.” No poet ever wrote a poem on
Absalom’s gentleness, or his filial loyalty, or his brotherly
love; but many poems were written on that very remarkable
head of hair. Absalom was obliged to have his hair cut once
a year. It grew so much, and got so heavy, that it made
his head ache terribly. When the barber cut his hair,
nothing pleased the vain young prince so much as to have what
was cut off weighed. Sometimes the barber would cut off
as much as would weigh from five to six pounds—enough, as
one writer says, to have made a comfortable head of hair
each for at least forty people. It was a wonderful head of
hair, and dearly Absalom paid for it.

Poor Absalom! It was his great misfortune to be a
beautiful prince! It would have been a thousand times bet-
ter for him if he had not been so beautiful. Better—much
better—if his lot had been cast amongst the lowly. He
would have been happier far, if he had been a simple shep-
herd boy, or had been kept busy from radiant morning till
dewy eve, tending vineyards and trimming vines.

He was a great favorite with his father from his child-
hood, though he almost broke his father’s heart. Very
early in his life he took up a quarrel in which his brother
Ammon was concerned, and after nursing his anger in secret,
for two whole years, he invited all the family to a sheep-shear-
ing feast at Baal-hagor. His father David excused himself, and
so was spared the sight of the tragedy that followed. When