“We old people shall die here,” Eliab’s wife added.  But Assir promised Hogla that he would come back for her when she had discharged her filial duties to the end.

Then, turning to her granddaughter, she said encouragingly:  “And we cannot live much longer now.”

Hogla raised her blue gown to wipe the tears from her eyes, exclaiming

“May it be a long, long time yet.  I am young and can wait.”

Hosea heard the words, and again it seemed as though the poor, forsaken, unlovely girl was giving him a lesson.

He had listened patiently to the freed slaves’ talk, but his time was limited and he now asked whether Eliab had summoned him for any special purpose.

“Ay,” he replied; “I was obliged to send, not only to still the yearning of my old heart, but because my lord Nun commanded me to do so.”

“Thou hast attained a grand and noble manhood, and hast now become the hope of Israel.  Thy father promised the slaves and freedmen of his household that after his death, thou wouldst be heir, lord and master.  His words were full of thy praise, and great rejoicing hailed his statement that thou wouldst follow the departing Hebrews.  And my lord deigned to command me to tell thee, if thou should’st return ere his messenger arrived, that Nun, thy father, expected his son.  Whithersoever thy nation may wander, thou art to follow.  Toward sunrise, or at latest by the noon-tide hour, the tribes will tarry to rest at Succoth.  He will conceal in the hollow sycamore that stands in front of Amminadab’s house a letter which will inform thee whither they will next turn their steps.  His blessing and that of our God will attend thy every step.”

As Eliab uttered the last words, Hosea bowed his head as if inviting invisible hands to be laid upon it.  Then he thanked the old man and asked, in subdued tones, whether all the Hebrews had willingly obeyed the summons to leave house and lands.

His aged wife clasped her hands, exclaiming:  “Oh no, my lord, certainly not.  What wailing and weeping filled the air before their departure!  Many refused to go, others fled, or sought some hiding-place.  But all resistance was futile.  In the house of our neighbor Deuel—­you know him—­his young wife had just given birth to their first son.  How was she to fare on the journey?  She wept bitterly and her husband uttered fierce curses, but it was all in vain.  She was put in a cart with her babe, and as the arrangements went on, both submitted like all the rest—­even Phineas who crept into a pigeon-house with his wife and five children, and crooked grave-haunting Kusaja.  Do you remember her?  Adonai!  She had seen father, mother, husband, and three noble sons, all that the Lord had given her to love, borne to the tomb.  They lay side by side in our burying ground, and every morning and evening she went there and, sitting on a log of wood which she had rolled close to the gravestones,