Then Jochebed made a sort of basket-cradle of the reeds from the River, and she daubed it with slime and made it water-tight. And then she called her little daughter Miriam to her side, and they laid the beautiful baby in his little bed, and Miriam took the basket and carried it down to the water's edge. And, when no one was looking, she hid it in the thick bulrushes which grew there. Then she sat at a distance and watched.
By and bye Miriam saw Pharaoh's daughter, the Princess, and her maidens, come down the road towards the water, and though her heart beat fast, and she was dreadfully afraid, she found they had only come to bathe in the river.
Then she saw as they walked along by the edge, that Pharaoh's daughter noticed something strange among the rushes, and sent her maid to fetch it. And when the Princess opened the basket, there was the beautiful baby crying, and Pharaoh's daughter was grieved to see it cry, and she said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children!" How all the maidens crowded round to gaze at the beautiful baby!
It seems as if Miriam had been coming nearer and nearer, till she stood among the group of maidens who were gazing down at the sweet baby; and she said, looking up into the Princess's face, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?"
And here I notice two or three things about this young girl. First, I think she loved God, and like her Father and Mother, she trusted Him.
Next, I see that she was a patient little girl, and an obedient girl. She did what her mother had told her most faithfully. She also used the common sense God had given her; and in spite of her awe of the Princess, she bravely did the wisest thing she could have done.
She saw that Pharaoh's daughter had taken a great liking to her baby brother, and I think she thought this might be God's way of saving him from death.
So the Princess said "Go!" And Miriam ran, like an arrow from a bow, straight to her Mother, to tell her to come and see after her own baby!
You can think of that Mother's joy. God had seen the faith of that Hebrew Father and Mother, and had answered their prayers to save their child.
And when Jochebed hurried to the River side, and lifted the baby from its cradle into her safe arms, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."