Benjamin.

How dear Benjamin must have been to his old father Jacob, dearer than ever after
Joseph had been taken from him. _He was his youngest son, like Joseph the child of
Rachel the wife he loved so much.. He had always been very fond of him; but when
Joseph was gone and he thought he would never see him again, but would go down to his

" grave mourning for the son he had lost, he loved Benjamin more than ever. He was all
that was left to comfort him in his old age, for his brothers by their dad conduct were only
an anxiety to him. : re

So he clung. to Benjamin for fear he should lose him too, He, would never let him
out of his sight lest some harm should happen to him.

This was the reason why, when the famine came into the lan Canaan where Jacob
lived with his family, and news was brought that there was corn to be had in the land of
Egypt, he had sent his ten elder sons to try and buy some, but Benjamin stayed at home
with him. But when they came back bringing the corn with them and told their father all
the strange things that had happened to them, and how the governor had spoken roughly
to them and asked them questions about their home and would not believe what they
said ; and when they finished their story by giving their father the governor’s message
that they were not to go back for more corn unless Benjamin their youngest brother went
with them, and that he had kept.Simeon in prison as a hostage till Benjamin came, we cannot
wonder that the old man’s heart sank within him and that he cried, “‘ Me have ye bereaved of
‘my children ; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these
things are against me.” Better starve than let the boy go with the brothers who had taken
so little care of Joseph, perhaps like him never to come back to him again. No, no, he
will not part with his youngest child. “My son shall not go down with you: for his
brother is dead, and he is left alone.. If mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go