190

THE STORY OF MOSES.

And I bent down and kissed her
And placed her on my knee.

"Once, long ago, in countries
Far, very far away,

Where the cold snow-storm never comes,
And all is bright and gay,

"There lived a king, so cruel,

He gave this stern command,
That all the little children

Must die, throughout the land.

"But still there was one mother
Who kept her baby dear,
And quickly hushed its crying,
In silence and in fear;

"But when she could no longer

Her precious baby hide,

She did not like to throw him
Upon the rushing tide;

"And so a little basket

She made, of rushes stout,
And plastered it with clay and pitch
To keep the water out.

"Then in this basket-cradle

She put the little child;

DAVID IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.

191

And quietly he floated down
Among the rushes wild.

"Just then the king's own daughter
Came to the water's edge,
And saw the basket floating
Among the grass and sedge.

"She drew it from the water,
And called the babe her own,
And kept him till to be a man
That little boy had grown.

"And when you read the Bible,-
Which you will learn to do,-
You'll see how great and good he was,
And how God loved him, too."

DAVID IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.

DAVID and his three captains bold

Kept ambush once within a hold.

It was Adullam's cave,

Nigh which no water they could have,

Nor spring, nor running brook was near

To quench the thirst that parched them there.

Then David, king of Israel,

Straight bethought him of a well,

192

DAVID IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.

Which stood beside the city gate,
At Bethle'm; where, before his state
Of kingly dignity, he had

Oft drunk his fill, a shepherd lad;
But now his fierce Philistine foe
Encamped before it he does know.
Yet ne'er the less, with heat opprest,
Those three bold captains he addrest;
And wished that one to him would bring
Some water from his native spring.
His valiant captains instantly

To execute his will did fly.

The mighty three the ranks broke through
Of armed foes, and water drew
For David, their beloved king,

At his own sweet, native spring.

Back through their arméd foes they haste,
With the hard-earned treasure graced.
But when the good king David found
What they had done, he on the ground
The water poured. "Because," said he,
"That it was at the jeopardy

Of your three lives this thing ye did,
That I should drink it, God forbid."

CHARLES LAMB.

HERODIAS'S DAUGHTER.

193

HERODIAS'S DAUGHTER.

ONCE on a charger there was laid,
And brought before a royal maid,
As price of attitude and grace,
A guiltless head, a holy face.

It was on Herod's natal day,
Who o'er Judæa's land held sway.
He married his own brother's wife,
Wicked Herodias. She the life

Of John the Baptist long had sought,
Because he openly had taught
That she a life unlawful led,
Having her husband's brother wed.

This was he, that saintly John,
Who in the wilderness alone
Abiding, did for clothing wear
A garment made of camel's-hair;
Honey and locusts were his food,
And he was most severely good.
He preached penitence and tears,
And waking first the sinner's fears,
Prepared a path, made smooth a way,
For his diviner Master's day.

Herod kept in princely state

His birthday. On his throne he sate,

M