VII THE COAT OF MANY COLORS

F all his twelve sons, Jacob loved Joseph best. Most of the others were grown men, who were away all day at work in the fields; Benjamin was a baby. But Joseph was a bright lad who was a great companion for his father. And he was a good lad, who could always be trusted to do what was right, while some of the others gave Jacob a great deal of trouble.

Joseph’s older brothers were stout farmers who spent most of their time attending to their cattle. They expected to milk the cows and feed the sheep and ride the camels all the rest of their days, and wished for nothing better. But Joseph, even as a boy, had made up his mind to be a great person, a prince, or perhaps a king. He thought that he would like to sit on a throne, and wear a crown, and be a mighty ruler. And this his father liked; for Jacob, too, in his own boyhood, had made long plans. So his father gave him a coat such as princes wore, a coat of many colors; and he wore it every day, even when he went to tend the sheep,—a shining coat, reaching to his heels. But his older brothers teased him, and called him names, and disliked him.

One time, when they came home from the pasture in their rough clothes, and found Joseph wearing his fine coat, they said, “Well, Prince Joseph, what have you been dreaming about to-day?”

And Joseph said, “I dreamed that we were all binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves came round about, and bowed down to my sheaf.”

And that made his brothers very angry. “What,” they said, “shall you be ruler over us?”

Another time, after the cows were milked and the older brothers came in to wash their hands for supper, and found Joseph with his bright coat flapping about his ankles, they said, “Well, King Joseph, what foolish dream have you had to-day?”

And Joseph answered, “To-day I dreamed that the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.”

Even his father did not quite like that. “What,” he said, “shall your mother and I and your brothers bow down to you?”

But his brothers hated him. And once, when four of them so misbehaved themselves that Joseph told his father what they had done, they hated him yet the more.

Now, when Joseph was seventeen years old, his brothers took the sheep one day and led them so far in search of green pastures that their father did not know where they had gone. So he called Joseph. “Joseph,” he said, “you know which way your brothers went; go after them and see if all is well with them and with the flocks, and bring me word again.” So Joseph started out to find his brothers, and here he searched and there he searched, till at last he found a man who knew where they had gone, and there they were. So his brothers looked up, and in the distance, shining in the sun, they saw the coat of many colors, like a walking rainbow. And they said, “There is the dreamer!” And some said, “Come, now, let us kill him and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” And others said, “No, let us not kill him. That will do us no good. Let us sell him; we will get some money.” So when Joseph came near, they laid hold of him, and pulled off his colored coat, and put him down in a deep pit till they should make up their minds what to do with him, whether to kill him or to sell him.

There, then, was Joseph, in the pit, calling and crying; and his brothers sat down to eat their supper. And as they ate, they saw in the distance a caravan of merchants on their camels, riding down from Gilead with bags of spices and balm and myrrh, to Egypt. And as they passed, the brothers hailed them and said, “We have a boy to sell. What will you give for him?” And they pulled up Joseph out of the pit, and the merchants looked at him, and said, “We will give twenty pieces of silver.” So Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty pieces of silver. And the merchants put him on the back of a camel, and away they went.

Then said the brothers one to another, “What shall we say to father?”

And some said, “Let us kill a goat, and take the coat of many colors and dip it in the blood, and tell father that we found it in a field.” And that they did. They carried the bloody coat to Jacob, and said, “See what we found. Is it not Joseph’s coat?”

And Jacob cried out at the sight of it. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s coat. Some wild beast has devoured him. Joseph is no doubt torn to pieces.” And he mourned for him, day after day, and nobody could comfort him.

But the men of the caravan carried Joseph down to Egypt, and there sold him to a man named Potiphar, who

THERE IS THE DREAMER

was the captain of the guard and the keeper of the king’s prison, and he put Joseph into the prison to wait upon the prisoners.

The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh. And in Pharaoh’s prison at that time were the king’s chief butler and chief baker. One morning, when Joseph took them their breakfast, he saw that they both looked very sad.

So he said, “What is the matter? Why do you look so sad?”

They said, “We have each had a strange dream, and nobody can tell us what it means.”

Joseph said, “Tell me what it was.”

Then the butler answered, “In my dream I saw a vine with three branches, and ripe grapes grew upon them, and I pressed the juice into Pharaoh’s cup.”

And Joseph said, “I will tell you the meaning of that: in three days, Pharaoh will take you out of prison, and you will again be his chief butler. When that comes true, remember me and bring me out of this prison.”

Then the baker said, “In my dream, I had on my head three baskets full of bread for Pharaoh, and the birds came and ate the bread of the top basket.”

And Joseph said, “In three days, Pharaoh will take you out of prison and cut off your head.”

And all this came to pass, for the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he pardoned the chief butler, and beheaded the chief baker. The butler, however, did not remember Joseph.