informed him that his son would be ready to join his people. She also
learned that the wounded Ephraim had found shelter in his uncle's tent.

Was the lad's illness serious, or what other cause detained Hosea in
Tanis? These questions filled Miriam's heart with fresh anxiety, yet
with rare energy she nevertheless lavished help and comfort wherever she
went.

Old Nun's cordial greeting had cheered her, and a more vigorous, kind,
and lovable old man could not be imagined.

The mere sight of his venerable head, with its thick snow-white hair and
beard, his regular features, and eyes sparkling with the fire of youth,
was a pleasure to her, and as, in his vivacious, winning manner, he
expressed his joy at meeting her again, as he drew her to his heart and
kissed her brow, after she had told him that, in the name of the Most
High, she had called Hosea "Joshua" and summoned him back to his people
that he might command their forces, she felt as if she had found in him
some compensation for her dead father's loss, and devoted herself with
fresh vigor to the arduous duties which everywhere demanded her
attention.

And it was no trivial matter for the high-souled maiden to devote
herself, with sweet self-sacrifice, to those whose roughness and uncouth
manners wounded her. The women, it is true, gladly accepted her aid, but
the men, who had grown up under the rod of the overseer, knew neither
reserve nor consideration. Their natures were as rude as their persons
and when, as soon as they learned her name, they began to assail her with
harsh reproaches, asserting that her brother had lured them from an
endurable situation to plunge them into the most horrible position, when