But as the years went on, Josh-u-a grew so old that he could not lead his men to war as he used to do. And he called his flock to him and told them how good the Lord had been to them. And he bade them love the Lord and serve him, and put from them all strange gods. He said, Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. [Illustration: JOSH-U-A AND THE STONE OF WIT-NESS.] And the men said, The Lord hath done great things for us, and him will we serve, for he is our God. And Josh-u-a took a great stone and set it up 'neath an oak tree that stood near where the ark was kept at Shi-loh. And this stone, he said, was to be a sign of the vow they had made there to serve the Lord. And when the talk was at an end, the men went to their own homes. And ere long Josh-u-a died. And they laid him in the part of the land that God gave him as his own, on the north side of the hill of Ga-ash. Then the chil-dren of Is-ra-el went to war with the tribes that were in the land of Ca-naan, as Josh-u-a had told them to do. But they did not drive them all out, as they should have done, but made friends with those that were left, and were led in-to sin, and were made to serve as bond-slaves. And when they were sick of their sins, and sought the help of the Lord, he sent men to rule them, and to lead them out to war and set them free from these friends who proved to be the worst kind of foes. Now there was a man in Is-ra-el whose name was Jeph-thah. He was a brave man, and had done great deeds, but the chil-dren of Is-ra-el were not kind to him, so he fled from their land, and went to live in the land of Tob. But when the Jews had need of a man to lead them out to war, they thought of Jeph-thah. And they said, Come, and be at the head of us when we go out to fight the Am-mon-ites. And Jeph-thah said, If I go with you, and win the fight, will you make me judge in Is-ra-el? And they said they would. Now ere the fight took place, Jeph-thah made a vow that if the Lord would let him win he would give to God--that is, would slay and burn as if it were a lamb--the first who came out of his doors to meet him when he went back to his home. Jeph-thah should not have made this rash vow, and need not have kept it if he had asked God to for-give the sin. He went out to fight the Am-mon-ites, and by the help of the Lord the chil-dren of Is-ra-el were set free from them. [Illustration: JEPH-THAH AND HIS DAUGH-TER.] When the fight was at an end Jeph-thah went back to his home, and the first to come out to meet him was his own child, a fair young maid, whose face was bright with joy. She was all the child that Jeph-thah had, and when he saw her he rent his clothes and told her of the vow he had made. And she said, My fath-er, if thou hast made a vow to the Lord, do with me as thou hast said. And he took his child and did to her as he had said he would, and all the young girls in Is-ra-el wept for her.