BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 211

Still there are some touching stories in the life of this
‘more gentle prophet. Just as Christ found a home and welcome
in the little cottage home of Bethany, so Elisha found a
peaceful and pleasant resting place in the little village of Shu-
nam. There was a devout woman, probably of considerable
wealth, who served the God of Israel, who, with her husband,
urged the prophet to make their house his home whenever in
his wanderings he came near. The prophet’s chamber on the
wall was simply furnished with bed and table, with stool and
candlestick, and was kept sacred to his service. Many were
the peaceful hours Elisha spent in Shunem. From the window
of his chamber on the wall Elisha could see the verdant
slopes of Mount Tabor, for Tabor was but tive miles away.
But the home of Shunam could not charm death from the
threshold any more than the home of Lazarus and Martha
and Mary.

The pious Shunammite had an only son—the son of her
mature age——-and one day he was busy in his father’s fields
among the reapers. It was high noon, and the sun smote
him and he fell, and as he fell, his father caught him and
said:

“What ails thee, my boy?”

‘““Oh, my head, my head!” was all the poor boy could
say.

“Carry him to his mother,’
And on his mother’s knee he died.

That was a sad day in Shunam. How gladly the
bright boy had obeyed his mother when she wished him to-

"was the father’s charge.

take water to the field!
“Haste thee, my child!” the Syrian mother said,
“ Thy father is athirst "—and, from the depths
Of the cool well under the leaning tree,
She drew refreshing water, and with thoughts