"Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces!"
Now Joseph had learned to know a great deal about dreams, and so he listened to these men and told them what he thought their dreams must mean.
The chief baker's dream was a sad one. He had dreamt of three baskets which he carried on his head—baskets filled with the king's food—but the birds had come and eaten up all the food. "Alas!" said Joseph, "the three baskets must mean three days, and in three days the baker must be hanged, and the birds would come and eat his flesh."
But the cup-bearer's dream was a happy one, for he had seen a vine which bore three clusters of grapes, which he had pressed out into the king's cup and presented to Pharaoh. The three clusters of grapes were again three days, said Joseph, and in three days' time the cup-bearer would be once more free and hand the king his golden cup.
"But think of me when it shall be well with thee," added Joseph to the cup-bearer, "and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For, indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon."
In three days all that Joseph had said came true. The chief baker was hanged, and the chief butler was set free, and stood once more before the king; only he quite forgot the man who had been so kind to him in prison, and for two years never once thought of Joseph.
But at last something happened that reminded him. Once again it was a dream, but this time the dreamer was Pharaoh, the great king. He had sent for all the cleverest men in the land to explain his dreams to him, but no one could find a meaning for them.
Then the cup-bearer suddenly remembered Joseph, and came and told the king all that had happened to him when he was in prison. Surely it would be worth while to try this man. So Pharaoh sent and brought Joseph out of prison, and asked him if it was true that he could tell the meaning of dreams.
He told them what he thought their dreams must mean.