Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Yahweh before Eli the priest.
"Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod.  And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.  Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, "The Lord give you children by this woman for the loan which she lent to the Lord"; so then they would return to their home."