The next day he could scarcely be recalled to consciousness. Indeed it was judged well to leave nature to recover herself. The women of the colony took it in turns to watch by his side, and were ready, when he awoke for a few moments, with a cup of milk, the only thing which he seemed to relish. By degrees his slumbers grew more peaceful, and on the morning of the second day after his arrival he woke calm and collected. It was Ruth who then happened to be on duty at his side. When he saw her, he said, “Lady, I have a story to tell, and the chief of this place should hear it. Let him make haste to come, for I feel that I cannot rest while it is untold.” Ruth sent one of her children to fetch her husband. The stranger refused to postpone his narrative till he should have gathered a little more strength. “Nay,” said he; “it is like a weight upon my soul, and I would lighten me of it by committing it to faithful ears.” “Speak on,” said Seraiah. Then the lad told his story. “My name is Abimelech, and I come from Jerusalem. My father and mother are dead; but I lived with my grandmother, the mother of my father, and his brethren, my uncles. There were seven of them, the eldest being some thirty-and-three years of age, and the youngest twenty; but my father that is dead was the first-born. On the first day of the month, coming home about the eleventh hour from the school of the Rabbi Zechariah——” “Are there then yet those who teach in the city?” interrupted Seraiah. “Yes,” answered the lad, “but they do it by stealth, for the reading of the Law is strictly forbidden by the Governor. But we learn it notwithstanding, and verily if the heathen should destroy every roll that there is of the Holy Books in the whole world there are those who could replace them from memory. I pretend not to so much; but I could say three out of the five books of Moses, the man of God.” “Praised be the Lord God of Israel,” cried Seraiah, “who hath not left Himself without a witness! But go on with your story.”