new relations. As she advances in years she often returns to the habits
of her youth, while she almost invariably adopts the practice of her own
mother in the early nurture and training of her children.

He who would have reformed France was taught that he must begin his work
by training mothers. And thus the ancient patriarch foresaw that the
great nation that was to descend from him, like to the stars of heaven
for multitude, would long bear the impress of the character of the
mother who rocked it in the first cradle of its existence, and his
wisdom was manifested in the pains which he took to secure a good
lineage and right habits and principles. The foresight of the father
could go no farther. Time must test the individual character.

After they left the tents of Bethuel, the train, now augmented by the
presence of the bride and her immediate attendants, her nurse and
handmaids, slowly wended its way back to the tents of the patriarch,
pursuing the natural highways of the country,--now by the stream, then
across the plain, then through the desert, sandy, barren, trackless;
then winding through the mountain pass, encamping during the heat of the
day by the fountain and under the shade, and pursuing their journey in
the cool of the evening and of the morning.

Love or devotion, or the mingling of both, led Isaac out into the fields
at eventide to meditate, and his feet turned towards the route by which
his messengers might be expected, and the eye of his servant descried
him afar off, and he pointed him out to the stranger. And while the
messenger seems to have hasted to meet his master and give an account of
his mission, Rebekah descended from her lofty seat and covered herself
with a veil.