Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/244

222 interrogated, related all that had been said, and Zuleika herself confessed the truth.

Then Pharaoh sent and fetched Joseph out of prison, and gave him his liberty.

"I dreamed," said the king, when Joseph stood before his throne, "that seven lean cows ate seven fat cows, and that seven empty husks ate seven full ears of corn. What is the interpretation of this dream?"

"God will give thee seven fruitful years, and then seven years of famine," answered Joseph. "Therefore must thou gather together all the superfluity in the first seven years to sustain the starving people in the seven years of dearth."

The king was so well pleased with this interpretation, that he made Joseph his chief treasurer in Potiphar's room. Joseph went through all the land, and purchased corn, which, on account of the good harvests, was at a very low price.

One day as he rode out of the town to view his magazines, he observed a beggar-woman whose whole appearance was most woe-begone, but bespoke her having seen better days. Joseph approached her with compassion, and held out to her a handful of gold. She hesitated about taking it, and said, sobbing, "Great prophet of God! I am not worthy to receive this at thy hand, though it was my love for thee which was the first step on the ladder on which thou mountedst to thy present exaltation." And Joseph saw that the poor beggar-woman was Zuleika, wife of Potiphar.

He asked about her husband, and learned that shortly after he had been deposed from office, he had died of distress of mind and body. "Thou hast thought evil of me," she said, "but I have great excuses, thou wast so beautiful; and moreover I was young, and only a wife in name, for I am as I left my mother's womb, a maiden, with the seal of God upon me."

Then Joseph was filled with joy. He extended his hands to her, and he brought her to the king's palace, and she was treated there with care, as a sister, till she recovered her bloom and joy, and then Joseph took her to be his wife. And by her he had two sons before the seven years of dearth began, during