them a mess of food from before him; but to his brother Benjamin he sent a mess five times as large as any of the others. And the men feasted, and ate and drank largely, and made themselves merry, and enjoyed themselves greatly.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CUP.

AND Joseph commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth; and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money." And the steward did so.

And the next morning, as soon as it was light, Jacob's sons loaded their asses with the sacks of corn and set out to return home to their father. But before they had journeyed far on the way, Joseph sent his steward after them; and he told his steward to overtake them as quickly as possible, and to reproach them for rewarding evil for good by taking his master's silver drinkingcup away with them.

And when the men heard the charge that Joseph's steward brought against them, they were sadly troubled, and knew not what to do; for none of them were aware

that the cup had been put into Benjamin's sack. And they said to the steward, "God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing: behold, the money which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of my lord's house silver or gold? With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die and we also will be my lord's bondmen." And the steward agreed with them that if the cup were found in any of their sacks, the man in whose sack it was should become a slave and remain in Egypt.

Now as soon as they had done speaking they began to take down the sacks from off the asses and to open them; and the steward searched their sacks, beginning with the sack belonging to the eldest, and examining each of them in succession until he came to the sack of Benjamin the youngest, and to their great surprise and grief the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

Here was indeed a heavy trial for them, for they knew that if they returned home without their brother Benjamin, their father would grieve so much that he would pine away and die; and beside all this Judah had said that Jacob might kill his two sons if he brought not Benjamin back in safety.