Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/350

328 But Solomon stood up, and said, "Not so; let the husbandman have the wool, and the milk of the flock, till the wheat is grown up again as it was before the sheep destroyed it."

And all wondered at his wisdom.

But the king's elders and councillors were filled with envy, because this child's opinion was preferred before theirs; and they complained to King David.

Then David said, "Call an assembly of the people, and prove Solomon before them, whether he be learned in the Law, and whether he have understanding and wit."

So the people were assembled, and the elders took council together how they might perplex him with hard questions. But or ever they asked him, he answered what they had devised, and they were greatly confounded, so that the people supposed this was a preconcerted scene arranged by the king. Then, when the elders were silenced, Solomon turned to their chief, and said, "I too will prove you with questions. What you have asked me have been trials of my learning, but what I will ask you shall put to proof the readiness of your wits. What is all, and what is nothing? What is something, and what is naught?"

The elder was silent; he thought, but he knew not what was the answer. And all the people perplexed themselves to discover the riddle, but they could not. Then said Solomon, "God is all, and the world He made is as nothing before Him. The faithful is something, but the hypocrite is naught."

Thereupon he turned to a second, and he said: "What are most, and what are fewest? What is the sweetest, and what is the bitterest?" But when the second could find no solution to these questions, Solomon answered, "Most men are unbelievers, the fewest have true faith. The sweetest thing is the possession of a virtuous wife, good children, and a competence; the bitterest thing is to have a disreputable wife, disorderly children, and penury."

Then Solomon turned to a third elder and asked: "What is the most odious sight, and what is the most beautiful sight? What is the surest thing, and what is that which is most insecure?"

And when this elder also was unable to give an answer, Solomon interpreted his riddle once more, "The most odious sight is to see a righteous man fall away; the most beautiful sight is