Abram was sitting in the door of his tent. Sarai, his wife, was near by and was watching him anxiously, for she could see that he was troubled, but she knew not why. They had just returned to the place near Bethel from a long journey which they took into Egypt because there had been a famine in the land of Canaan. Their flocks and herds were so many that Abram was known as a very rich man in a country where men counted their wealth by the number of cattle they owned. The dark tents of Abram’s servants stretched away over the valley and up on the sides of the low hills, for his followers were many. Lot, Abram’s nephew, also had servants and flocks and herds. His tents were there too, and the smoke was going up from many fires, for it was supper time. As Abram sat looking out over the valley, Sarai questioned softly, “What is it that troubles thee?” And Abram answered, “Thou knowest how I have thought that Lot would always be with us, as he has been all his life; but I cannot now see how that can be. To-day and yesterday, and indeed every day since we pitched our tents in this valley, as I have gone about to see how the herds and flocks were being cared for by the men, I have found quarreling and strife among the herdsmen.” “Quarreling and strife?” “Yea, thou knowest we have had none of that before, but now our cattle are so many and there are so few good pasture lands that were not already in use by the Canaanites and the Perrizzites before we came into the land, and there are so few wells or springs of water beside those that they claim, that there is constant strife between Lot’s herdsmen and ours. Each one claims every spring of water and pasture land, and so they quarrel. We cannot have this kind of thing. Brothers should live together in unity, and I must find a way to end the strife. Of course my men feel in duty bound to find water and pasture for my cattle; that is what they are told to do; and Lot’s men must do the same for his, but we cannot have them fighting about it.” The Lesson Story