There came a time when Nabal had an opportunity to show kindness, to pay back, in part at least, his appreciation for the protection David and his men had given Nabal’s shepherds from Bedouin and other desert robbers. It was sheep-shearing time, a season of gladness and of feasting. David and his men were shut up in the wilderness of Engedi, driven thither by the persecutions of Saul. Doubtless they were in need of food, and David thought that the owner of three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats, in the very midst of the sheep-shearing festivities, could send him a token of remembrance in his hunger and need. So David sent ten of his young men with salutations of peace and prosperity, and a request for any favor he felt disposed to give. But Nabal answered the young men saying, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” The young men returned to David with the message of Nabal, and, naturally enough, David felt insulted and outraged. Taking a band of four hundred men, he resolved to impress upon Nabal who the “son of Jesse” was, and to make him pay dearly for his foolhardy conduct. But, in the meantime, one of Nabal’s servants told Abigail how David’s young men had been treated. Evidently this thoughtful and prudent servant knew the excellency of his mistress, and could trust her to act wisely in the emergency which was upon them. So he told her all. Told how David and his men had been “a wall” unto the shepherds “both by night and by day,” and for all this kindness Nabal, his master, had “railed” upon David’s messengers. [Illustration: THE BEAUTIFUL ABIGAIL MEETING DAVID.] Abigail immediately grasped the situation and at once despatched a small procession of provision-bearers along the way David would come. In this she did not even take Nabal into her counsel, and she prepared to pay bountifully for the conduct of her foolhardy husband.