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for you because you have blighted it with your brother’s blood. You shall leave this place. A fugitive and wanderer you shall be till the end of time.”
    Cain said: “My punishment is more than I can bear. You drive me from your sight and from my home. I must go among strangers, who will kill me.”
    “No,” said God. “Your death belongs to me. Whoever kills you will be punished with seven deaths.”
    Then God branded Cain’s forehead with the letter M, meaning “murderer,” also meaning “mine,” so that all men would know that Cain was reserved for God’s vengeance, and they would not kill him.
    Cain traveled eastward. It was a terrible journey. The sun beat down on him. When he sought shade against rock or tree, the shade shrank away from him and he had no shelter from the burning sun. He was too thirsty to eat, and when he tried to drink the water shrank away from his lips. He was about to die, but God was not ready to accept his death. God clouded the sun and allowed a little rain to fall so that Cain might drink, and He allowed Cain to pick some fruit to eat.
    Cain traveled to a land named Nod, which means “home of the wanderer,” and there found a wife and fathered sons—who became fathers themselves. One became the father of all those who live in tents and raise cattle. Another became the first to play the harp and fathered all who play the harp and the pipes. A third, named Tubal-cain, became the first man to work in metal. He invented the forge, the sickle, and the plow, and became the father of blacksmiths. Cain lived to be very old, but the bloody sign never faded from his forehead, and he never saw Adam and Eve again.

NOAH’S ARK
    H UNDREDS OF YEARS passed. Men multiplied upon the earth, but they had learned nothing from the curse put upon Cain. For they still killed their brothers and other men’s brothers—and sisters and mothers and children. They robbed and murdered and did all manner of wicked things.
    God grew very angry. “This race of man offends me,” He said. “Their thoughts are evil, their deeds are evil, and I am sorry I ever put such creatures upon earth. So I will wipe them from the earth. I will wash them off with a cleansing flood of waters. Not one man shall be left, nor beast nor fowl that have breathed the air that man has corrupted. Yes, even the memory of a man’s false and filthy habits will I wash away.”
    Now, in the midst of all this wickedness lived a man named Noah, who was gentle and kind and tried to raise his three sons to be good men.
    God saw how Noah was living, and spoke to him: “You will see the end of all flesh. I have decided to blot man from the earth, for he is too violent and corrupt to live. But your life I will spare, Noah, and the lives of your wife and your sons and their wives.”
    “Thank you, Lord,” said Noah.
    “You must build an ark—a boat of cypress wood,” said God, “the largest one ever built. It must be three stories high and as big as six of your houses put together—big enough to hold every kind of animal and bird, two of each. You shall take aboard, also, two of each creeping thing, such as snakes and crocodiles. You must stock enough food to feed your family and all the animals, for the beasts will not be permitted to eat one another, and your voyage through the waters of wrath will last almost a year. Work ceaselessly, you and your sons, for even now I am preparing my flood.”
    Noah did exactly what God told him. He and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, went to work building the ark. They worked night and day, stopping only for a little food and a little sleep, for they saw the black clouds rolling across the face of the sky and they knew that the terrible rain was soon to fall. Nor did they stop work to answer their neighbors, who came to jeer at them.
    “You have gone mad!” they said to Noah. “Why are you building so huge a vessel so far from the sea? How will you launch it?”
    “Perhaps the waters will come