"Why didst thou not awaken me, mother, that I might bid my sister farewell?" he said.
"Thou wert resting, my son, after thy night of pain," answered Sarah. "Thy sister would not have thee awakened, but bid me say to thee that she kissed thee as thou slept. See," pointing to a golden gleam of sunlight which forced itself through the window and lay athwart the bed, "'tis the first ray of the rising sun; ere it sets thy sister will be again with thee."
And the lad lay gazing, with a smile upon his lips, at the shaft of golden light.
Ezra labored all day in the fields. The sun was sinking low in the heavens when he saw approaching the neighbor whose ass he had borrowed.
"Good-evening, neighbor," said Ezra. "Thou art come too soon for thy ass; the maiden hath not yet returned."
"I come not for the ass, neighbor," replied the man, whose name was Simeon. "I bring thee ill tidings."
"What meaneth thou, neighbor?" asked Ezra.
"Ill hath befallen thy little maid," was the reply.
"Ill hath befallen my little maid," repeated Ezra, bewilderedly. "Speak, man, what ill?"