'One moment,' replied Saul, deeply anxious for the fate of David, for he heard the generous-hearted digger groan, and heard David's wife sobbing. 'Keep your hold and stand firm for a little while. You are safe there for a time. There is something here in my own tent I must see to at once.' Then he called, 'David! David! Are you hurt?' The voice of David's wife answered him with sobs and cries. 'He can't move, Saul! He can't move! O, my poor dear David! He has broken his leg, he says, and his back is hurt. What shall I do? O, what shall I do?' But although she asked this question, she--true wife and woman as she was--was attending to the sufferer, not thinking of herself. 'God pity us!' groaned Saul, and raised his hand to the storm. 'Pity us! pity us! he cried. But the pitiless snow fell, and the soft flakes danced in the air. Then Saul cried, 'David's wife! The child! the child!' 'Let me be, wife,' said David; 'I am easier now. Pile up those seats again; make them firm. Don't hurry. I can wait I am in no pain. Lift our little daughter to Saul, and the provisions afterwards.' She obeyed him; she piled the seats one above another. Then brought the child to David. He took her in his arms, and kissed her again and again.' 'My pet! my darling!' he moaned. 'Kiss father, little one!' And the rough man pressed this link of love to his heart, and kissed her face, her hands, her neck, her lips. 'Now, wife,' he said, and resigned their child to her. David's wife stood silent for a few moments with the child in her arms, and murmured a prayer over her, and blessed her, and then, keeping down her awful grief bravely like a brave woman, climbed to the height, and raised her arms to Saul with the child in them. Only her bare arms could be seen above the tent's roof. 'Come, little one,' said Saul, and stooping down, at the risk of his life, clutched the child from the mother's arms, and heard the mother's heart-broken sobs. 'Is she safe, Saul?' 'She is safe, dear woman.' Other heads rose from other tents and turned despairingly about. But no help for them was near. They were in their grave. David's wife raised the provisions to Saul, and went down to her husband. 'Wife,' said David, 'leave me, and see if you can reach Saul. It will be difficult, but you may be able to manage it.' [Illustration] She looked at him tenderly. 'My place is here, David,' she said; 'I shall stay with you, and trust to God. Our child is safe, in the care of a good man.' He tried to persuade her, but she shook her head sweetly and sadly, and simply said, 'I know my duty.' He could say no more, for the next moment he swooned, his pain was so great. Then his wife knelt by him, and raised his head upon her lap.