UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 239 



* Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, 

 that ye sold me hither $ for God did send me 

 before you to preserve life : to preserve you a 

 posterity in the earth. So now it was not you 

 that sent me hither, but God.' 



" Can any thing be more touching," added 

 my uncle, " than his generous anxiety to make 

 his brethren forgive themselves, by shewing the 

 advantages that were ultimately produced by 

 their conduct to him ?" 



" There is one thing," said Wentworth, " that 

 I do not understand why does Joseph say there 

 shall be neither earing nor harvest, as if he meant 

 two separate things ?" 



** The word earing," replied my uncle, " sounds 

 as if it meant gathering ripe ears of corn : but it 

 is an old English term for ploughing, and is used 

 in that sense in two other parts of scripture." 



" I had imagined," said Caroline, " that ear- 

 ing was mentioned in that particular manner, in 

 allusion to some blight, through which the corn 

 should no longer give such an astonishing pro- 

 duce as seven ears to one stalk/' 



" No :" said my uncle, " nor was that an un- 

 usual produce. A species of wheat still grows 

 in Pgypt, which generally bears this number of 

 ears, and the stem is solid, that is, full of pith, 

 in order to support so great a weight. The stem 

 of our own wheat is, you know, a mere hollow 

 straw* You see how necessary it is, my dear 



