XXV THE KING’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER

LL the great-grandmothers were once as young as we are. So, when this story begins, King David’s great-grandmother was just about at the age when girls are graduated from the grammar school. She lived in Moab, in the country of Balaam and Balak, and her name was Ruth. And at that time a new family moved into that neighborhood from the land of Judah, from the town of Bethlehem. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi, and they had two sons. And by and by one of the sons married a girl named Orpah, and the other married Ruth. Then ten years passed, and Elimelech and his two sons died, and Naomi and Ruth and Orpah were left alone.

Then Naomi took her two daughters-in-law each by the hand, and with tears in her eyes kissed them, and told them that she was going back to Bethlehem. And at first they both said that they would go with her. But she told them that they would better go home. “I have no more sons,” she said, “and no good house for you to live in.” And Orpah went home, crying as she went. But Ruth stayed with Naomi. “Intreat me not,” she said, “to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” So they gathered their things together and set out upon their journey. Over they went across the river Jordan, and climbed the hills, and came at last to Bethlehem. And there they arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Now the next morning Ruth said to her mother, “I must help to support myself and you, so that we may not starve. Let me go into the fields and gather the barley which the reapers leave behind them.” For they had a good law in that country which said that the farmers must not gather up all of the wheat or the barley or the fruit, but must leave some for the poor. So Ruth went to glean the barley. The field in which she gleaned belonged to a rich farmer whose name was Boaz. And pretty soon out came Boaz to see how the work was getting on, and he noticed Ruth and asked about her. And the head reaper told him who she was. And Boaz was very kind to her.

“My daughter,” he said, “stay with my maidens in my field. Nobody shall harm you. Gather as much as you can carry. When you are thirsty, go and drink out of the men’s bucket, and at noon when you are hungry come and eat your lunch with us.”

And Ruth said, “How is it that you are so good to me, a stranger?”

And Boaz answered, “I have heard about you, how you have left your own land and your own people to be a good daughter to my old friend Naomi.”

So Ruth gleaned all day behind the reapers in the field of Boaz, and when she was thirsty she drank from their bucket, and when it was time for lunch, she dipped her bread in the vinegar with the others, and Boaz himself passed her the parched corn. And Boaz told the reapers to drop some handfuls in her way; so that at night she had more than a bushel of barley to take home.

And Naomi said, “My daughter, where have you gleaned to-day?” And Ruth said, “In the field of Boaz, and he was very kind to me.”

“Why,” cried Naomi, “he is a near kinsman. Your husband’s father was his cousin.” So every day, through barley harvest and through wheat harvest, Ruth gleaned from morning till night in the fields of Boaz.

By and by, good Naomi said to herself, “Boaz has no wife, and Ruth has no husband. How pleasant it would be if they should marry!” And so she planned and planned

BOAZ NOTICES RUTH AND ASKS ABOUT HER

how she might bring it to pass. And one day she called Ruth and thus and so she said to her, and Ruth, who thought that everything that Naomi said was right, promised to do as she was told. And that night the wind was blowing and the moon was shining, and Boaz was working late, winnowing barley in the threshing-floor, he and his men, and after supper he lay down on the floor at the end of the heap of barley and went to sleep. And in the middle of the night he waked and turned over to sleep again, and there was Ruth.

And Boaz said, “Who is this?”

And she said, “I am Ruth. My husband’s father was your cousin.”

And he said, “You have done well, my daughter, to come to me. I will do whatever you wish. Only there is a kinsman nearer than I. We must first see him. Lie down now and sleep.” So she lay down and slept, and the next morning, before the day was light, she rose up and went home.

And that day Boaz sat by the city gate, and the kinsman passed. “Ho!” called Boaz, “turn aside and sit down here.” And Boaz called ten men to sit beside them. “Now,” said Boaz, “Naomi has some land to sell which belonged to our brother Elimelech. Will you buy it?”

“Yes,” the kinsman said, “I will.”

“But wait!” said Boaz. “Whoever buys the land must take Naomi with it, and Ruth her daughter.”

“That is too much for me,” said the kinsman, and he took off his shoe to show that he would not buy.

“Then the land is mine,” said Boaz. And the next day he married Ruth amidst the rejoicings of all the people of Bethlehem. And by and by there was a little boy named Obed, and he became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.