Now you lie down and rest a bit, while I stay up and tend the fire.

At midnight I will wake you and lie down myself while you watch." Aaron lay down with a bundle of twigs under his head for a pillow, and, muttering a snatch of a prayer, was fast asleep in a twinkling.

Manasseh was now left undisturbed to devise something new and surprising against his brother's awakening.

Tearing a leaf from his sketch-book, he wrote as follows: "DEAR BROTHER AARON:--I cannot close my eyes in sleep while death threatens our brothers Simon and David.

Nor can I endure the thought of my birthplace being turned into a bloody battle-field, and of the horrors of war invading the peaceful valley whither I am bringing my bride, and which has ever looked upon bloodshed with disapproval.