The Tupelo journal., 1906-03-09

hia father. AS he searched here and
there he felt the eyes of his breth.
rem upon him, and 1t seemed to him
there was reproachs and anger in their
looks. in fact one fellow suffering from
the great welts raised upon his back
Kissed after him as he passed:
"Come you here to gloat over the
suffering you have brought upon us?
Over there is your father? See what
they are doing to hint"
Moses turned and looked in the d.
rection indicatedI not needing the
cruel implication contained in the
speakers first wbrds, so eager was he
to find his father. There, on the OPP
posite side of the pit where four or
five men were engaged in digging out
the clayey soil ne saw an old man over
whom the overseer was standing, and
as the latter, with loud-mouthed abuse,
and threatening, waved his whip in
the air, the bent form of the aged man
sought frantically to hasten his eff
forts. Moses checked the mad i'm
pulse " oClLC lIC uuuh, II
before him, he cried, with choking
voice:
Let him go. / will take his place.
See, | can do more than he"
Back, you migrate! You traitor to
Egypt's favor and bounty" the over
seer shouted. Your only way back
to the kings favor is to take my
place. Here, take this"-holding out
the whip he held in his hand-"and
this is the way to use it," he contin-
ued, swinging the lash through the
air and bringing it down with such
force upon the bare back of Amram
that the thongs cut out strips OF
flesh wherever they fell.
The old man sank to the ground
with a moan. For n instant the
eyes of Moses rested upon the with
ing form, and then all the pent-up
passion of the years over the suffer
ings and wrongs of his people burst
forth. Like a maddened beast of the
forest brought to bay and fighting for
its young, he sprang at the throat OF
the Egyptian and bore him to the
ground. The latter was a big,
brawny man. and his great frame
struggled and twisted for the mas
terry. His muscles knit in mighty
%convulsive effort to tear Moses hands
from their deadly grip. His fingers,
like the talons of a hawk, sank deep
into the flesh of Moses arms and tore
therefrom strips of bloody skin, but
underneath the muscles were like
bands of steel, against which even
those powerful hands were but as
bending reeds. Ever tighter and
tighter, like the unyielding grip of
a wise, Moses fingers pressed into
the throat of the Egyptian until the
latter's face grew purple with me
venous blood that the stifed lungs
tried in vain to purify, and his wild
ly staring eyes bulged out and hung
over the livid cheeks. Of what avail
that giant strength; that fierce, des-
perate, agonized struggle for life.
before that greater strength born of
a righteous indignation, and that
more intense passion which flames
forth at last from wrongs long en-
dured. Feebler and feebler grew the
struggles of the Egyptian. The
face grew black. The protruding eyes
grew CLASSY and sightless, and as the
mans hands fell lifeless and limp
from Moses arms. the latter arose
and looked about him apprehensively.
The man who had first spoken to him
as he entered the pit vas standing
looking on with an expression OF
mingled terror and exultation, but the
other laborers had left the place with
their loads of clay before the strug-
gle had begun and had not yet re-
turned, for the struggle was brief.
Motioning to the man to come to
his help, they were soon busy digging
a deep recess in the yielding sands
in the side of the pit, where they
placed the body of the dead Egyptian
and again filed in the soil to the face
of the side of the pit. Then without
speaking a word Moses lifted the
limp form of his father upon his back
and returned home. He laid the old
man tenderly upon the rude bunk
and wEile Miriam m her mother
sought to restore him to conscious
ness he quickly and briefly told them
his story. So absorbed was he in
the telling of it and so excited were
the women in listening that they did
not realize the possibility that Amram
might be dead until they had worked
over the inert form for some time.
But the over-exertion of the morning,
the excitement and the shock of the
cruel blow had proved too much for
the feeble strength of the old man, and
he had not rallied from the uncon-
seriousness into which he sank after
the blow fell.
That night under the silent stars
the sorrowing family laid the poor
battered form of their loved n be-
meath the soil of Goshen, and Moses
returned home with a new purpose
rising within him. Out of the expert
ence of the day there came a call to
service, and over his dead he pledged
himself to be faithful. He had trained
and led the armies of Egypt to vic
tory. Why could he not organize and
drill his brethren for the time when
God should call them out?
Filled with this new thought he
went forth the next day. He would
oo+ hottor acuuainfpd with hic naO-
pile; he would quietly study the sit