And Jacob said, “Esau, this is my wife Rachel, and this is my wife Leah. And I have brought you a present, all this drove of cattle.”
But Esau said, “Thank you, Jacob; keep the cattle. I have enough of my own.” Thus Esau forgave Jacob for the mean things that he had done.
VII
THE COAT OF MANY COLORS
F all his twelve sons, Jacob loved Joseph best. Most of the others were grown men, who were away all day at work in the fields; Benjamin was a baby. But Joseph was a bright lad who was a great companion for his father. And he was a good lad, who could always be trusted to do what was right, while some of the others gave Jacob a great deal of trouble.
Joseph’s older brothers were stout farmers who spent most of their time attending to their cattle. They expected to milk the cows and feed the sheep and ride the camels all the rest of their days, and wished for nothing better. But Joseph, even as a boy, had made up his mind to be a great person, a prince, or perhaps a king. He thought that he would like to sit on a throne, and wear a crown, and be a mighty ruler. And this his father liked; for Jacob, too, in his own boyhood, had made long plans. So his father gave him a coat such as princes wore, a coat of many colors; and he wore it every day, even when he went to tend the sheep,—a shining coat, reaching to his heels. But his older brothers teased him, and called him names, and disliked him.
One time, when they came home from the pasture in their rough clothes, and found Joseph wearing his fine coat, they said, “Well, Prince Joseph, what have you been dreaming about to-day?”
And Joseph said, “I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves came round about, and bowed down to my sheaf.”
And that made his brothers very angry. “What,” they said, “shall you be ruler over us?”
Another time, after the cows were milked and the older brothers came in to wash their hands for supper, and found Joseph with his bright coat flapping about his ankles, they said, “Well, King Joseph, what foolish dream have you had to-day?”