Appropriate seats were reserved for the king and his attendants, who were
soon expected to make their appearance. Among the number assembled there
were many of the students' parents. With but two or three exceptions, joy
and good feeling appeared to be the expression of every countenance,
while, with hearts free from envy and malice, they gazed on the comely
forms of those before them. Among these smiling countenances might have
been seen three individuals--a father, mother and daughter--who smiled,
indeed, but whose smiles would never have convinced the beholder that
they were an index to noble and generous hearts.
"'Twas a strange notion of the king, surely," said the daughter, "to
bring these Hebrew captives in competition with the refined minds of
Chaldea; I cannot account for it, unless it is purposely done to show
them their great inferiority, and thus, by to-day's exercises, teach them
a lesson of humility that they will not soon forget; for no one can be so
unwise as to think that such illiterate foreigners can appear to any
advantage in a place like this.
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