So when you see this picture, say to yourselves, "Jesus is my ladder! He is close to me here, He is close to God there! He will never leave me nor forsake me; I can send messages and prayers every time I am lonely or in trouble, and He will send back answers if I wait for them." So Jacob went on his journey over the desert and at length reached the country to the East, where he hoped he would find his mother's relations. XXXVII. Jacob meets Rachel One day Jacob sat down by a well, and looking about him he saw a number of flocks coming near and waiting by the mouth of the well, which had a large stone upon it. So he asked the shepherds whether they knew a man called Laban; and they told him that they did, and that his daughter Rachel was even now coming with her father's flock! So Jacob was very glad to see Rachel, and went to the well and rolled the stone away, and watered the flock for her. And then he told Rachel that his mother was Rebecca, Laban's sister; and she ran and told her father. [Illustration: JACOB WAS VERY GLAD TO SEE RACHEL.] Then there was great rejoicing, and Laban welcomed Jacob to his home, and he began to take care of the flocks. When Jacob had been there a month, Laban asked him what wages he would have, and whether he would stay with him? And Jacob gladly consented, for he loved Rachel very much, and promised to serve Laban for seven years, if he would give him Rachel for his wife. So at the end of the time, Rachel became his wife; and by and by, God sent her a little son called Joseph, who was going to be, many years afterwards, a great ruler in the land of Egypt! XXXVIII. The Story of Joseph You have often heard of Joseph's coat of many colours, and of his being sold by his brothers into Egypt. So I am going to tell you a little about him, and then you will understand how he came to have that beautiful coat. I have read that generally the eldest son was given a bright coloured, beautifully-worked coat; but Joseph was the eleventh son, and Jacob, his father, gave him that pretty coat because he loved him so very much. When his brothers saw it, they felt very jealous, and hated Joseph because his father made him such a favourite. Now jealousy is a very wretched feeling. It is wrong as well as wretched. If boys and girls—or grown up people-give way to jealousy, they may by and by do very unkind and wicked things. The Bible says "Jealousy is cruel as the grave," and you will see as we go on with the story of Joseph, how very true it was in his case. One day Joseph had a very wonderful dream, and he told his brothers about it. He had dreamed that he and his brothers were binding sheaves of corn in a field, and that his sheaf stood upright, and that all the sheaves of his brothers bowed down to his sheaf. This displeased his brothers very much, and they hated him more than they did before.