The Garden of Eden 5

The Garden of Eden 5

And Jacob said, “Uncle Laban, I would like very much to have your

daughter Rachel.”

 

And Laban said, “Jacob, I would rather have her marry you than any other

man I know.” And Rachel felt just the same way. So it was settled that

Jacob should work for Laban seven years, and then should marry Rachel.

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few

days for the love he had to her.

 

Now this, you understand, was a long time ago, and far away in Asia,

beyond the Euphrates. And they had a strange custom of marrying two

wives, or three, and sometimes more. So when the seven years were over,

Laban told Jacob that if he wished to marry Rachel, he must first marry

her older sister Leah. “In our country,” he said, “we must not give the

younger before the older.” So Jacob had to marry Leah, who was a good

girl but very near-sighted, and serve seven more years for Rachel. This

was pretty hard for both Rachel and Jacob, but he did it, and when the

seven added years were passed they were married with great joy.

 

Then Jacob felt that it was time for him to go home, for he had gone to

his Uncle Laban’s to spend a month and had stayed fourteen years. All

this time his flocks and herds had grown in number. For Laban gave him

sheep and goats, in payment for his work. But when Laban said, “This

year you shall have for your wages all the brown sheep and all the

speckled goats,” behold, that year almost all of the goats were speckled

and almost all of the sheep were brown. So Jacob got to be very rich. He

had sheep and goats, and cows and camels, and men-servants and

maid-servants. But Jacob was so useful to Laban that Laban was not

willing to let him go.

 

Finally, one day, when Laban was away off shearing sheep, Jacob and

Rachel and Leah gathered all their belongings together, and all their

cattle, and started for Jacob’s home without saying good-by. Off they

went, over the river. And though Laban followed and begged them to come

back, they would not go. Then they journeyed and they journeyed, till at

last Jacob saw in the distance the hills of his own land.

 

Then Jacob began to remember Esau and how he had threatened to kill him.

And he sent messengers to Esau to tell him that he was coming back, and

to find how Esau felt. And the messengers returned and said, “Esau is

coming to meet you with four hundred men.” And Jacob was greatly afraid

and distressed.

 

And that night he had a dream. He dreamed that he was wrestling with a

man; he was trying to throw the man, and the man was trying to throw

him; and neither could master the other. At last, as the sun rose, Jacob

found that the man was an angel, and the angel said, “Let me go, for the

day is breaking.” And Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless

me.” So the angel blessed Jacob, and he awoke. And there across the wide

field was his brother Esau. And Jacob stood up and bowed down before his

brother seven times, because he did not know whether Esau was a friend

or an enemy. But Esau ran to meet him, and threw his arms about his neck

and kissed him.

 

And Esau said, “Who are these with you?”

 

And Jacob said, “Esau, this is my wife Rachel, and this is my wife Leah.

And I have brought you a present, all this drove of cattle.”

 

But Esau said, “Thank you, Jacob; keep the cattle. I have enough of my

own.” Thus Esau forgave Jacob for the mean things that he had done.

 

 

 

 

VII

 

THE COAT OF MANY COLORS

 

 

Of all his twelve sons, Jacob loved Joseph best. Most of the others were

grown men, who were away all day at work in the fields; Benjamin was a

baby. But Joseph was a bright lad who was a great companion for his

father. And he was a good lad, who could always be trusted to do what

was right, while some of the others gave Jacob a great deal of trouble.

 

Joseph’s older brothers were stout farmers who spent most of their time

attending to their cattle. They expected to milk the cows and feed the

sheep and ride the camels all the rest of their days, and wished for

nothing better. But Joseph, even as a boy, had made up his mind to be a

great person, a prince, or perhaps a king. He thought that he would like

to sit on a throne, and wear a crown, and be a mighty ruler. And this

his father liked; for Jacob, too, in his own boyhood, had made long

plans. So his father gave him a coat such as princes wore, a coat of

many colors; and he wore it every day, even when he went to tend the

sheep,--a shining coat, reaching to his heels. But his older brothers

teased him, and called him names, and disliked him.

 

One time, when they came home from the pasture in their rough clothes,

and found Joseph wearing his fine coat, they said, “Well, Prince Joseph,

what have you been dreaming about to-day?”

 

And Joseph said, “I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the

field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves came round

about, and bowed down to my sheaf.”

 

And that made his brothers very angry. “What,” they said, “shall you be

ruler over us?”

 

Another time, after the cows were milked and the older brothers came in

to wash their hands for supper, and found Joseph with his bright coat

flapping about his ankles, they said, “Well, King Joseph, what foolish

dream have you had to-day?”

 

And Joseph answered, “To-day I dreamed that the sun and the moon and

eleven stars bowed down to me.”

 

Even his father did not quite like that. “What,” he said, “shall your

mother and I and your brothers bow down to you?”

 

But his brothers hated him. And once, when four of them so misbehaved

themselves that Joseph told his father what they had done, they hated

him yet the more.

 

Now, when Joseph was seventeen years old, his brothers took the sheep

one day and led them so far in search of green pastures that their

father did not know where they had gone. So he called Joseph. “Joseph,”

he said, “you know which way your brothers went; go after them and see

if all is well with them and with the flocks, and bring me word again.”

So Joseph started out to find his brothers, and here he searched and

there he searched, till at last he found a man who knew where they had

gone, and there they were. So his brothers looked up, and in the

distance, shining in the sun, they saw the coat of many colors, like a

walking rainbow. And they said, “There is the dreamer!” And some said,

“Come, now, let us kill him and we shall see what will become of his

dreams.” And others said, “No, let us not kill him. That will do us no

good. Let us sell him; we will get some money.” So when Joseph came

near, they laid hold of him, and pulled off his colored coat, and put

him down in a deep pit till they should make up their minds what to do

with him, whether to kill him or to sell him.

 

There, then, was Joseph, in the pit, calling and crying; and his

brothers sat down to eat their supper. And as they ate, they saw in the

distance a caravan of merchants on their camels, riding down from Gilead

with bags of spices and balm and myrrh, to Egypt. And as they passed,

the brothers hailed them and said, “We have a boy to sell. What will you

give for him?” And they pulled up Joseph out of the pit, and the

merchants looked at him, and said, “We will give twenty pieces of

silver.” So Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty pieces of silver. And

the merchants put him on the back of a camel, and away they went.

 

Then said the brothers one to another, “What shall we say to father?”

 

And some said, “Let us kill a goat, and take the coat of many colors and

dip it in the blood, and tell father that we found it in a field.” And

that they did. They carried the bloody coat to Jacob, and said, “See

what we found. Is it not Joseph’s coat?”

 

And Jacob cried out at the sight of it. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s

coat. Some wild beast has devoured him. Joseph is no doubt torn to

pieces.” And he mourned for him, day after day, and nobody could comfort

him.

 

But the men of the caravan carried Joseph down to Egypt, and there sold

him to a man named Potiphar, who

 

[Illustration: THERE IS THE DREAMER]

 

was the captain of the guard and the keeper of the king’s prison, and he

put Joseph into the prison to wait upon the prisoners.

 

The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh. And in Pharaoh’s prison at that

time were the king’s chief butler and chief baker. One morning, when

Joseph took them their breakfast, he saw that they both looked very sad.

 

So he said, “What is the matter? Why do you look so sad?”

 

They said, “We have each had a strange dream, and nobody can tell us

what it means.”

 

Joseph said, “Tell me what it was.”

 

Then the butler answered, “In my dream I saw a vine with three branches,

and ripe grapes grew upon them, and I pressed the juice into Pharaoh’s

cup.”

 

And Joseph said, “I will tell you the meaning of that: in three days,

Pharaoh will take you out of prison, and you will again be his chief

butler. When that comes true, remember me and bring me out of this

prison.”

 

Then the baker said, “In my dream, I had on my head three baskets full

of bread for Pharaoh, and the birds came and ate the bread of the top

basket.”

 

And Joseph said, “In three days, Pharaoh will take you out of prison and

cut off your head.”

 

And all this came to pass, for the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and

he pardoned the chief butler, and beheaded the chief baker. The butler, however, did not remember Joseph.