Then Lot and his two daughters hurried on. They reached a great cave, and ran and hid themselves in it. The city was now a blackened ruin. Lot's wealth was destroyed. He had no silver, no gold, no cattle, no home—only the cave, and grateful was he that he had even that.
DEPARTURE OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL.
HAGAR.
Who can speak a mother's anguish,
Painted in that tearless eye,
Which beholds her darling languish,
Languish, unrelieved, to die!
It was not very long after the destruction of Sodom that there was born into the home of Abraham and Sarah a beautiful little baby boy—even as God had promised.
There was great rejoicing among the people of Abraham's household. Feasts were held, sacrifices were offered up, and Abraham gave the child the name of Isaac.
One of Sarah's maids, whose name was Hagar, had a son, too, called Ishmael. One day this boy mocked at Isaac, and Sarah said he and his mother must be sent away.
So Abraham called Hagar and told her she must go, and he gave her some bread and a bottle of water, and sent her forth into the wilderness.