Part 8 (2/2)

Well, no doubt Ruth found out all she wanted to know about Boaz, learned his habits and characteristics, made all the inquiries she wished in a way that ”was childlike and bland,” and at last having her a.r.s.enal well armored with the big guns of wit and beauty and garrisoned by facts and observations and the experience of an ex-wife, she was ready for Love's war, where the bullets are soft glances, the sword thrusts kisses and the dungeon of the captive is the bridal chamber, and she went to her mamma-in-law and said sweetly, ”let me go now to the field and glean ears of corn after him (you see she admitted she was after him) in whose sight I shall find grace.”

”And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.”

Wonderful, wasn't it, that it was her ”hap” to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz?

And lo, in the morning ere the sun was half way up the blue sky, Boaz came into the barley field and his eyes fell upon the beauteous Ruth gleaning with the reapers, and delighted at the sight, he called the general manager and said:

”Whose damsel is this?” And he answered and said: ”It is the Moabitish maiden that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Turned her pretty head aside and blushed.)]

It seems Boaz had never seen her before, although her fame had reached his ears, and he spoke to her softly and kindly, praised her for her devotion to her mother-in-law (you see that captured his fancy and admiration, as it has every one's since), and then she smiled and thanked him very ardently, and then the wily widow turned her pretty head aside and blushed. And Boaz, who had never heard the advice to ”beware of the vidders,” was taken in and done for in that one short interview. He hung around the fields, deserted the city, cared naught for its pleasures, forgot the dames of high degree, and lingered for hours among the reapers to catch a glance from her dark eye, or a smile from her ruby lips, and I suppose they sometimes rested in the shade and talked sweet nonsense, or sat in the intoxicating silence when love speaks unutterable things to the heart alone, and the ”old sweet story was told again” in the harvest field near Bethlehem.

”Boaz commanded his young men saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, and rebuke her not.”

Having alighted upon an easy task, Ruth knew it. ”So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest: and dwelt with her mother-in-law.”

And yet it seems the gentleman did not propose. So Naomi and Ruth talked it over together, for by this time his infatuation was the talk of the city, and sentimental, romantic old Naomi, who must have been a charming woman in her day, was interested in this love affair. For no matter how old a woman or man may be, the perennial stream of love and sentiment flows on in the heart, although hid 'neath white hairs and wrinkles, and bound by the wintry shackles of age and custom; still it is there, and often breaks the icy barriers of the years and betrays itself by a late marriage, or in the matchmaking proclivities of all elderly women.

And Naomi gave Ruth some instructions which we blush to think of, but she followed them implicitly. And the middle-aged Boaz was caught. We suppose he was forty-five or fifty from the fact that he called Ruth ”my daughter,” and commended her because she didn't run after the gilded youths of society, but preferred him above them all. And Boaz and Ruth were married, and like most marriages between widows and old bachelors it proved a happy one.

But Ruth's shrewd scheming and successful venture as related in the inspired records confirms our belief that it was Boaz the ”mighty man of wealth,” and not Naomi's love or Naomi's G.o.d that induced Ruth to emigrate to the city of Bethlehem.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (And Boaz and Ruth were married.)]

We are told that Jezebel, unknown to her husband, ”wrote letters in her husband's name and sealed them with his seals,” and had a man stoned to death without his knowledge, not the man's, but her husband's.

That doesn't look as if she were ruled over much, does it?

The sacred history says, speaking of Hagar and Ishmael, ”and his mother took him a wife out of Egypt” which means that she selected the girl and told him to marry her--and he obeyed. And we find that Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba ”whatsoever she asked,” which is an example of generosity we would recommend to the men of to-day.

HE GAVE IT UP TOO.

HE GAVE IT UP TOO.

I had reached this point in my study of the Bible, when one evening, just as I had seated myself to begin work and was idly sharpening my pencil, the door bell rang.

I had not seen my lover for weeks; not since he had so sarcastically advised me to peruse the Scriptures. I had waited for his coming, but in vain; the mail brought no letter; he sent no word by friend or foe.

And I made no sign. His had been the fault and his should be the reparation, and so a profound silence fell like a pall between us.

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