Then the king sent at once for Jo-seph, and said to him: In my dream I stood on the bank of the Nile. And there came up out of the riv-er sev-en fat cows, and they fed in a field near by. Then sev-en lean cows came up that were naught but skin and bone. And the lean cows ate up the fat cows. And yet no one would have known it, for they were just as lean as when I first saw them. Then I woke, but soon fell a-sleep once more. Then I dreamt, and in my dream I saw sev-en ears of corn come up on one stalk, full and good. And lo, sev-en ears that were thin and dried up with the east wind sprang up af-ter them. And the poor ears ate up the good ones. Jo-seph said, For sev-en years there will be no lack of food in the land, and all will go well; and then there will come a time of great want, and rich and poor will be in need of food, and not a few will starve to death. Let the king choose a wise man to see that corn is laid up in the land when the good years bring the rich growth, so that there will be no lack of food in the years when the crops are small. [Illustration: PHA-RA-OH'S DREAM.] And the king said to Jo-seph, Since God hath showed thee all this there is none so wise as thou art. So he put him in charge of all the land of E-gypt, and he was to rank next to the king. And the king took a ring from his own hand and put it on Jo-seph's hand, and when he rode out, men bowed the knee, and his word was law in all the land. And Jo-seph took a wife, and he who was brought to E-gypt a slave, was now a rich man. And there came years when the grain grew rank in the fields, and the crops were large. And Jo-seph saw that a large part of it was laid up, and that there was no waste of the good food. For the end of those rich years came and then there was a time of dearth in all the lands, when the earth would not yield, and men and beasts were in want of food. But there was no lack of corn in E-gypt. And Jo-seph sold the corn that he had stored in the barns, and crowds came in to buy it. When Ja-cob heard that corn could be bought in E-gypt, he told his sons to go down and buy some, that they might not starve to death. And ten of them went down to buy corn in E-gypt. But Ja-cob kept Ben-ja-min at home, for fear he would be lost to him as Jo-seph was lost. [Illustration: JO-SEPH AND HIS BROTH-ERS.] When Ja-cob's ten sons came to the place where Jo-seph was, they bowed down to the ground. And Jo-seph knew them at once, but they did not know him, or give a thought to his dreams. And Jo-seph spoke in a rough voice, and said, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Ca-naan to buy food. And he said, Ye are spies, and have come to see how poor the land is. And they said to him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are we come. We are all one man's sons; and we are true men, and not spies. But Jo-seph would have it that they were spies.