AT THE school, agreeable to the expectations of Barzello, the four
Hebrews made astonishing progress in their multiform studies. Those
profound sciences which had cost their teachers years of ceaseless toil
were, by these four young men, mastered with apparent ease. They soon
became objects of wonder to their instructors, and were pronounced
favorites of the gods. Ashpenaz often would have an interview with them,
and soon they became the objects, not only of his admiration, but also of
his friendship. This became visible to their fellow-students, and
jealousy, accompanied by malice, found a ready entrance to more than one
heart. Alas, for poor fallen humanity!

Among the students from the city of Babylon there were two young men,
brothers, whose father, by a sudden freak of fortune, had arrived at the
possession of much wealth. For some years these young men's advantages
had been quite favorable, and withal they had not been negligent in their
studies. They were exceedingly vain of their acquirements, and their
pride and arrogance kept pace with their vanity. The success of others,
to them, was invariably a source of mortification.

They had already heard complimentary reports of the youths of Judah from
no mean sources; and they became their foes, and were determined to see
them humbled. As students, they met but seldom, and the real acquirements
of the Israelitish youths were not known to these envious Chaldeans. With
these two victims of vanity and envy was cast the unhappy lot of another
youth, their cousin. He was of "humbler birth," as the term is used, but
almost infinitely their superior in everything that beautifies and adorns
humanity. He was frank, generous, noble, and endowed with no small share
of natural wit. For his conceited cousins he was anything but a pleasant
companion; and daily was their arrogance rebuked by his far-searching
repartees. Thus have we introduced to the reader three young Chaldeans,