"No, dear; no one shall harm this baby," said Mrs. Tompkins.
"It's our baby, isn't it mamma?"
"Yes, my child, unless some one else comes for it who has a better right to it."
"Who could that be, mamma?"
"Perhaps its own father or mother might come—"
"They shan't have it if they do," cried Oleah, stamping his little foot resolutely on the floor.
Joe rose from the low chair on which he had been sitting, and went out, saying something about his father coming down into Egypt.
"Mamma," said Abner, when Joe had gone out, "what makes him say such strange things? He says that he is Joseph, and that his brothers sold him into Egypt, and he calls papa the captain of the guard. He goes out into the fields and watches the negroes work, and says he is Potiphar's overseer, and must attend to his household."
"Poor boy, he is insane, my son," answered Mrs. Tompkins; "he is very unfortunate, and you must not tease him. Let him believe he is Joseph, for it will make him feel happier to have his delusion carried out by others."
"The other day, when we were playing in the barn, Joe and Oleah and me, I saw a great scar and sore place on poor Joe's head, just like some one had struck him. I asked him what did it, and he said he fell with his head on a sharp rock when his brothers threw him into the pit."