But in spite of their hardships the Israelites increased in numbers, and, to further crush them, Pharaoh ordered that all their boys should be destroyed as soon as they were born. But the people would not obey this order, and then Pharaoh commanded that all boys should be flung into the Nile, the sacred river of Egypt, immediately after their birth. At this time a child was born among the Israelites whose life was to be one of the most remarkable that history has recorded for us. His father's name was Amram and his mother's Jochebed, and they belonged to the tribe of Levi, the third son of Jacob. They had two older children, a son named Aaron and a daughter named Miriam. The mother of this little boy managed to keep him out of sight for three months, and then she made a little boat of the water-reeds called papyrus, fastening them together with clay and pitch. It was not much more than a basket, but she put the baby into it and placed it among the rushes at the edge of the river Nile, leaving her daughter Miriam to see what became of her baby brother. The Egyptians had many beliefs which appear very strange to us now. One of them was that anything surrounded by papyrus would be safe from the crocodiles which infested the river. Possibly Jochebed had some faith in this superstition, for during the time when the Israelites were living contentedly in the land of Goshen, many of them had fallen into the customs of the Egyptians, worshipping Ra, the sun-god, Apis, the sacred calf, and others of their national deities. While Miriam was watching the little boat and its precious burden, the daughter of Pharaoh, with her attendants, came to the river to bathe. She saw the little boat floating among the rushes and ordered it to be brought to her. As she looked down at the baby it cried, and, while she must have known that it was the child of Israelitish parents, her heart went out to it in pity, and she declared that she would bring it up as if it had been her own child. [Illustration: "It was not much more than a basket."] "IT WAS NOT MUCH MORE THAN A BASKET." Miriam then came forward and asked if she might find a nurse for the child. The princess sent her on this errand and the little girl hastened to bring her mother. Then the princess gave the baby into the charge of its own mother, and promised her that she should be paid for taking good care of the child. When the baby had grown to be quite a boy the princess took him to her palace and treated him as if he had been a son of her own. She named him Moses, which means "drawn out," because she had taken him from the water. Then the princess had him trained and taught as though he were really to be a prince. He was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became learned and powerful. All the pleasures and honors of Pharaoh's court were open to him, and from them he could have selected what pleased him most.