with his brothers and said, "What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him" to kill him. And the saying pleased his brothers, because they knew that they should get some money for him, and they hoped to quiet their uneasy consciences by selling him for a slave, instead of killing him. So when the Ishmaelitish merchants passed by they drew Joseph up out of the pit, and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver; and the merchants took Joseph with them into Egypt.

Now after the other brothers had left the pit, Reuben, who wished to save Joseph, went back to it, but, behold, Joseph was not in it. This grieved Reuben much, for he did not know what had become of the lad, and feared that his brothers had killed him after all; and he rent his clothes and was very sad.

After the merchants had taken Joseph away, the brothers who sold him wished to hide their wickedness from their father Jacob; so they took Joseph's coat of many colours and dipped it in the blood of a young goat, which they killed for the purpose, and then brought it to their father Jacob, and told him they had found it, and asked him if it really was Joseph's coat.

When Jacob saw it he knew that it was Joseph's, and said, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces." And Jacob was very much grieved, and mourned for Joseph many days, and his deceitful sons pretended to mourn with him, and to try to comfort him. They did indeed succeed in deceiving their old father for a time, but their sin found them out at last, and all their wickedness was exposed to their father, and brought to light by the overruling of the great God whom they had so sorely offended.

JOSEPH IS BOUGHT BY POTIPHAR.

WHEN the Ishmaelitish merchants arrived in Egypt, they sold Joseph to a rich man who wanted a slave. This man's name was Potiphar, and he was the captain of the king's guard of favourite soldiers.

At first Joseph worked hard as a common slave. A slave is a man, woman, or child, who belongs to another person. In England no one is allowed to buy or sell people, but in Egypt it was allowed, and in many places even now slaves are bought and sold as if they were dogs or horses.

When a master buys a slave, he makes him do work without being paid for it. The master gives his slave food and clothes, but the slave must do just as the master pleases. However hard he is made to work, or however cruelly he is treated, he can never go away and serve another master. It often happens that when a master has more slaves than he wants, he sells some of them, and then sometimes one person buys a mother and another a child, or one buys a husband and another