"That is Aod, son of Barak, my relative. He wants to serve thee, lord.
May I take him?"
The prince shrugged his shoulders.
"This is thy place," answered he; "take those who please thee. But if these people increase so, they will soon master Memphis."
"Thou canst not endure my brethren," whispered Sarah, as she dropped to his feet frightened.
The prince looked at her with astonishment.
"I do not even think of them," answered he, proudly.
These little happenings, which fell on Sarah's soul like drops of fire, did not change Ramses with regard to her. He was kind and as fond as he had been, though his eyes turned more frequently to the other bank of the river, and rested on the mighty pylons of his father's palace.
Soon he discovered that others were yearning because he was in a banishment of his own choosing. A certain day from the opposite shore a stately royal barge pushed out into the river; it crossed the Nile from Memphis, and then circled near the prince's villa, so near that Ramses could recognize the persons in it. In fact he recognized beneath the purple baldachin his mother among court ladies, and opposite, on a low stool, the vice-pharaoh, Herhor. They did not look toward the villa, it is true, but the prince divined that they saw him.
"Ha! ha!" thought he. "My worthy mother and his worthiness the minister would be glad to entice me hence before his holiness returns to Memphis."
The mouth Tobi (the end of October and beginning of November) came. The Nile had fallen a distance equaling the stature of a man, and one-half in addition, uncovering daily new strips of black clammy earth. Wherever the water withdrew a narrow plough appeared drawn by two oxen. Behind the plough went a naked ploughman, at the side of he oxen a driver with a short club, and behind him a sower, who, wading to his ankles in earth, carried wheat in an apron, and scattered it almost in handfuls.