of a play is important in that it does away with the self-conscious feeling of a child that he is acting before people, or that people are interested in him rather than in the character that he portrays. Much harm can be done by allowing a child to feel that he is "showing off" on a stage.

This mode of procedure in developing a dramatization illustrates the general method which is employed in order to secure the results herein discussed. It should be helpful as a method which may be varied or built upon according to the circumstances. Detailed descriptions of exact modes of procedure in presenting different kinds of Bible stories to the dramatic club will follow. Costumes and stage settings have always been of the simplest nature and will be discussed at length in a separate chapter.

In order that this method may be of greatest practical value to those who are unfamiliar with it, a summary may give the steps in logical sequence. This outline is not to be taken as unchangeable, but merely as a working basis for the beginner.

1. Select a story with care; then adapt it for telling.

2. Tell the story, emphasizing the essential parts. 3. Let the children divide the story into pictures

or scenes.

4. Have a discussion of what should take place in each scene.

5. Let volunteers from among the children act out one scene as they think it should be done, using their own words.

6. Develop criticism by the other children with suggestions for improvement.

7. Have a second acting of the scene for improvement.

8. Let each of the other scenes be worked out in the same manner.

9. See that every child has the chance to try out many parts.

10. Play the story through many times. Change it often according to the criticism, until the children recognize the result as a product of their best effort.

II. With the help of the children change the words into biblical form.

12. Let the group assign definite parts to be learned for the final performance.

CHAPTER III

THE DRAMATIZATION OF JOSEPH

As will be noted in the following chapter, it is well in beginning dramatic work with children to use for the first efforts very simple stories. Joseph is too long and complicated for an early experiment. We may begin our exposition of method with this story, however, as it illustrates especially well the details of the developing process.

At the first meeting the story was told in terms that followed closely the Bible version. The children were asked to select the big events, or pictures, in Joseph's life. They readily spoke of his life in Canaan as a boy; his being put into the pit and sold to the merchants; his life in Egypt with Potiphar; the prison experience and the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream; the change of fortune in becoming ruler of the land; the famine and the visits of his brothers; and, finally, his kindness to his father and brothers in giving them a home in Egypt.

The story was told to the children very much as follows:

Jacob was an old man, too old to care for his large flocks. He sat in the door of his tent day after day, and sent his twelve sons off with the sheep and goats to find grassy fields.

Now of all the twelve sons Jacob loved Joseph, a lad of seventeen years, the best. Joseph was next to the youngest and often stayed with his father while the older brothers went away. Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors and showed him often that he was the favorite. This made the older brothers very jealous of Joseph, and they began to dislike him.

Once Joseph dreamed a dream, which he told to his brothers, and it made them hate him all the more. He said to them, "Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about and bowed down to my sheaf." Then his brothers said to him, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou have power over us?"

Then Joseph dreamed yet another dream, and he told it again to his father and brothers, and said, "Behold, the sun and moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me." And his father said unto him, "What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee?" And the brothers remembered what their father had said, and they wished that harm might come to Joseph.

It happened soon after this that Jacob sent his ten older sons with the flocks to Shechem, a place some distance away where there was good grass. Now the brothers were gone for so long a time that their father became anxious and decided to send Joseph after them. He said to Joseph, "Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks; and bring me word again." So Joseph took money and food in his bag, and his staff in his hand, and went out to find his brothers.

At Shechem there were no brothers to be seen. Joseph was wondering what he should do next, when he saw a man

coming toward him over the field. "What seekest thou?" said the man. And Joseph answered, "I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks." "They have departed from here," said the man, "and have gone to Dothan." Then Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Now when the brothers saw Joseph afar off, they knew that it was he from his coat of many colors, and they plotted against him. One of them said, “Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come, now, let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say unto our father that some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." Reuben, one of the brothers, felt more kindly toward Joseph than did the others and said to them, "Let us not kill him, but let us cast him into this pit that is near." Reuben thought that he would come back later after the brothers had gone and help Joseph out of the pit and take him to his father.

When Joseph came to his brothers, they quickly took the coat of many colors from him and bound him and cast him into an old well which was dry. Then they sat down to eat bread. They had hardly become settled when one of them cried out, "Behold, I see a caravan! It is a company of Ishmaelites, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going down to Egypt." Then Judah said, "Why do we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." The brothers were content to do as Judah had said. They drew Joseph up out of the well, and when the Ishmaelites came near they sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the brothers went away to kill a goat so that they might dip Joseph's coat into the blood, that their father might think that he had been killed by some wild animal.