JA-COB had twelve sons, and he was more fond of Jo-seph than of all the rest; for he was the child of his old age. And he gave him a fine coat, and made a great pet of him. This did not please the rest of the sons, and they showed their hate of Jo-seph in all sorts of ways. One night Jo-seph had a strange dream, and he told it to Le-vi, Sim-e-on, and the rest, and it made them hate him all the more. He said, As we bound sheaves in the field, lo, my sheaf rose and stood up straight. And your sheaves stood round, and bowed to my sheaf. And those who heard him said, Shalt thou in-deed reign o'er us? And his words and his deeds filled them with a fierce hate. And it was not long ere he told them of a fresh dream he had had, in which he saw the sun and moon and e-lev-en stars bow down to him. And he told it to Ja-cob, and his e-lev-en sons. And Ja-cob took him to task, and said to him, What does this dream mean? Are all of us to bow down to the earth to thee? And he made up his mind to watch these signs, which might be sent of God. [Illustration: JO-SEPH'S DREAM.] Now Ja-cob had large flocks of sheep and goats at Shech-em, and all of his sons but Jo-seph had gone there to feed them. And Ja-cob said to Jo-seph, Go and see if it be well with thy breth-ren, and with the flocks, and bring me back word. And Jo-seph went out from the vale of Heb-ron to the land of Shech-em. When he came there he found that his broth-ers had gone on to Do-than. And Jo-seph went to Do-than and found them. And as soon as he came in sight they thought of a way in which they might get rid of him. [Illustration: SHECH-EM, THE FIRST CAP-I-TAL OF THE KING-DOM OF IS-RAEL.] Come, let us kill him, they said; and throw him in-to a pit, and say that a wild beast ate him up. Then we shall see what will be-come of his dreams. But Reu-ben heard it, and saved him out of their hands. And he said, Let us not kill the lad. Shed no blood; but cast him in-to this pit, and lay no hand on him. For he meant to take him out of the pit, and bear him home to his fath-er. But when Jo-seph came near these men who should have been kind to him, they took off his coat and threw him in-to the pit, which was dry, or he would have drowned. These old dry wells were left as traps in which to catch the wild beasts that prowled round in the dead of night, and well these bad men knew what would be Jo-seph's fate. As they sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a lot of men and cam-els on their way to E-gypt, with spices, and balm and myrrh. [Illustration: JO-SEPH SOLD BY HIS BROTH-ERS.] And Ju-dah--one of Ja-cob's sons--said, Let us not kill the lad, for he is of our own flesh, but let us sell him to these men. And the rest thought it was a good scheme. So they drew Jo-seph up out of the pit and sold him for a small sum, and those who bought the lad took him down with them to E-gypt.