Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/192

170 So Abraham halted on his camel before the tent door, and the sun was hot in the blue sky above, and the sand was white and glaring beneath. And he called to her, "Is thy husband within?" She answered, without rising from her seat, "He is hunting." Or, say others, she said without looking at him or rising, "He is gathering dates."

Then Abraham said, "I am faint and hungry; bring me a little bread and a drop of water."

But the woman answered, "I have none for such as thee."

So Abraham said to her, "Say to thy husband, even to Ishmael, these words: 'An old man hath come to see thee out of the land of the Philistines, and he says, The nail that fastens thy tent is bad; cast it away or thy tent will fall, and get thee a better nail.'" Then he departed, and went home. Now when Ishmael returned, his wife told him all these words, and he knew that his father had been there, and he understood the tenor of his words, so he sent away his wife, and he took another, with his mother's advice, out of Egypt, and her name was Fatima.

And after three years, Abraham's bowels yearned once more after his son, and he said to Sarah, "I must see how Ishmael fares." And she answered, "Thou shalt go, if thou wilt swear to me not to alight from off thy camel." So Abraham swore. Then he went to Paran, over the desert, seeking Ishmael's tent, and he reached it at noon; but neither Hagar nor her son was at home. Only Ishmael's wife, Fatima, was within, and she was singing to the children. So Abraham halted on his camel before the tent door, and the sun was hot in the blue sky above, and the sand was white and glaring beneath. And when Fatima saw a stranger at the door, she rose from her seat, and veiled her face, and came out and greeted him.

Then said Abraham, "Is thy husband within?" She answered, "My lord, he is pasturing the camels in the desert;" and she added, "Enter, my lord, into the cool of the tent and rest, and suffer me to bring thee a little meat."

But Abraham said, "I may not alight from off my camel, for my journey is hasty; but bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread and a drop of water, for I am hungry and faint."