Then Jacob began to remember Esau and how he had threatened to kill him. And he sent messengers to Esau to tell him that he was coming back, and to find how Esau felt. And the messengers returned and said, “Esau is coming to meet you with four hundred men.” And Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And that night he had a dream. He dreamed that he was wrestling with a man; he was trying to throw the man, and the man was trying to throw him; and neither could master the other. At last, as the sun rose, Jacob found that the man was an angel, and the angel said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” And Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” So the angel blessed Jacob, and he awoke. And there across the wide field was his brother Esau. And Jacob stood up and bowed down before his brother seven times, because he did not know whether Esau was a friend or an enemy. But Esau ran to meet him, and threw his arms about his neck and kissed him. And Esau said, “Who are these with you?” And Jacob said, “Esau, this is my wife Rachel, and this is my wife Leah. And I have brought you a present, all this drove of cattle.” But Esau said, “Thank you, Jacob; keep the cattle. I have enough of my own.” Thus Esau forgave Jacob for the mean things that he had done. VII THE COAT OF MANY COLORS Of all his twelve sons, Jacob loved Joseph best. Most of the others were grown men, who were away all day at work in the fields; Benjamin was a baby. But Joseph was a bright lad who was a great companion for his father. And he was a good lad, who could always be trusted to do what was right, while some of the others gave Jacob a great deal of trouble. Joseph’s older brothers were stout farmers who spent most of their time attending to their cattle. They expected to milk the cows and feed the sheep and ride the camels all the rest of their days, and wished for nothing better. But Joseph, even as a boy, had made up his mind to be a great person, a prince, or perhaps a king. He thought that he would like to sit on a throne, and wear a crown, and be a mighty ruler. And this his father liked; for Jacob, too, in his own boyhood, had made long plans. So his father gave him a coat such as princes wore, a coat of many colors; and he wore it every day, even when he went to tend the sheep,--a shining coat, reaching to his heels. But his older brothers teased him, and called him names, and disliked him. One time, when they came home from the pasture in their rough clothes, and found Joseph wearing his fine coat, they said, “Well, Prince Joseph, what have you been dreaming about to-day?” And Joseph said, “I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves came round about, and bowed down to my sheaf.” And that made his brothers very angry. “What,” they said, “shall you be ruler over us?”