king: I do not know what they had done, but they had made the king so angry that he had said they should be shut up in prison.

So the king had said to Potiphar, the great captain, "Put these men in the prison."

Then Potiphar brought them to Joseph, and told him to keep them safe. Joseph shut them up in a room together, and gave them bread and water every day, and took great care of them.

One morning when Joseph came to see them, he observed that they looked very sad indeed. So Joseph said to them, "Why do you look so very sad ?"

Then they answered, "We have each had a very strange dream to-night, and we think our dreams have some meaning, but we cannot find it out and there is nobody in the prison who can tell us." Then Joseph said, "But my God knows all things: he could tell me the meaning. me your dreams."

Only tell

The butler told his dream the first. He said, "I thought I saw a tree such as grapes grow upon -a vine. It had three branches, but no grapes. While I was looking, I saw little buds, and they turned into grapes, and they grew ripe. I picked the grapes, and squeezed them into a cup, and made wine, and then brought the cup to the king for him to drink, as I used to do."

This was the butler's dream, and God told Joseph the meaning of it.

"You saw three branches," said Joseph;

"something will happen to you in three days. The king will send for you to be his butler again."

When the baker heard this pleasant meaning, he thought that his dream would be pleasant too: so he began to tell it. The baker said, "I dreamt that I was carrying three white baskets on my head, the one on the top of the other. In the baskets

there were baked meats, and birds came and picked the meat out of the top basket."

The baker thought that Joseph would say, “In three days you shall be baker again to the king." But this dream had a sad meaning.

Something will happen to you in three days," said Joseph. "The king will send for you, and will hang you upon a tree, and the birds will pick your flesh off your bones."

So while the butler was pleased with what Joseph had told him, the poor baker was very sorry, because he knew that he must die.

Joseph had one little favour to ask of the butler. You can guess what it was. "When you are with the king of Egypt," said Joseph, "giving him his wine, will you tell him about me? Tell him how I am shut up in prison, and cannot get out. I once lived in a land a great way off, and I was stolen away, and now I am shut up in this prison, though I have done nothing wicked to deserve it. Beg the king to let me out."

You see Joseph did not tell of his brothers' wickedness in having sold him.

In three days the king sent some men to the

It was

prison to fetch the butler and the baker. the king's birth-day, and he had made a feast for his servants, and he had thought of the butler and baker, and had said, "Let the butler come back to me, and let the baker be hanged; I will not for give him." So now both the butler and the baker knew that Joseph had told them the truth.

Did the butler remember Joseph when he was with the king? No, he forgot him. I suppose he was thinking of the fine things he saw, of eating and drinking, of money and clothes, and forgot that poor Joseph was in a prison. The butler was unkind, and worse than unkind; he was ungrate ful. Joseph had been kind to him, yet he was not kind in return; therefore I call him ungrateful. Many children are ungrateful to their parents, who were kind to them when they were little; and all people are ungrateful to God, who has given his Son to die for them.

Poor Joseph waited in vain. let him out of prison. another: summer came, seph was still shut up. ten him. Why did God make him wait so long? That he might learn to be patient. My dear child, if God lets you be sick a long while, it is to make you patient. You should think to yourself, "God will make me well when he thinks best: but haps he means to take me to heaven instead."

No one came to
One day passed, and then
and then winter, but Jo-
Yet God had not forgot-

And has the butler, then, forgot
Poor Joseph's last request;

per

Nor of the tender pity thought,
Shown to him when distrest?

Why does he not of Joseph speak,
When he the cup presents,
Implore the king his bonds to break,
And show his innocence ?

Content, within the palace gay,
He lives on princely fare;
While Joseph mourns the light of day,
And breathes the prison air.

But while the butler I accuse
Of hateful selfishness,
O let me not in pride refuse
My own sins to confess.

Have I remembered all the good
My parents have bestowed,
And in their woes done all I could
To ease their heavy load?

And have I not ungrateful been
Unto the God of love,

And often griev'd him by my sin,
And with his Spirit strove ?*

Yet Jesus, since he left the grave,
To sit upon his throne,
Still intercedes with God to save

Us, who in prison groan.†

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.-Eph. iv. 30

† He is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.-Heb vii. 25.

CHAPTER XV.

JOSEPH, OR THE RELEASE.

I HAVE told you of the great king of Egypt. He was the king of the country where Joseph was. His name was Pharaoh. He had a great many servants, as I told you. He sat upon a throne, wore beautiful clothes, a chain of gold round his neck, a ring upon his hand, and a crown of gold upon his head. He lived in a fine house, and rode out in a chariot drawn by many horses; and as he passed by, people bowed down to the ground. One night, this great king had two very strange dreams. I will tell you what they were.

He thought he was standing by a river, and that seven fat cows came out of the river, and began to eat the grass that grew near. This was a pleasant sight; but, soon after, he saw seven very thin cows, (more ugly than any cows he had ever seen,) come out of the river; and they ate up the seven fat cows; and yet, after they had eaten them, they looked as thin as they did before. Then the king awoke.

But soon he fell asleep, and dreamt that he saw a stalk of corn with seven fine ears growing on it. While he was looking, he saw another stalk with seven very bad ears of corn on it; and these bad ears ate up the seven good ears.

These were Pharaoh's two dreams. He thought