Daniel lived far from where he was born. He had been taken away from his home as a young man, and brought to the king's country, and given a fine room in the palace. The king liked him. Daniel did his work well, and he was honest, and the king knew he could trust him.

But Daniel had not forgotten his home. Three times every day, when the sun came up, and when the sun was high, and when the sun went down, he opened a window in his room. The window faced east, because his home was east. He knelt down by the window, and he prayed. He thanked his God for the morning and the noon and the evening. He had done this every day of his life, and he was not going to stop, no matter where he lived.

Now there were other men in the king's court who did not like Daniel. They did not like that the king liked him. They were jealous, the way people sometimes are when someone else is doing well. They watched Daniel for a long time, hoping to find that he was secretly bad, or dishonest, or doing something wrong. But Daniel was not. Daniel was good, and he did his work, and he prayed by his window three times a day.

So the men thought of a trick. They went to the king and said, "Make a new law. For thirty days, no one in your kingdom may pray to anyone except you. And if they do, throw them to the lions."

The king was pleased. It made him feel important. He signed the law that very afternoon, without thinking very hard about it.

The men went away smiling, because they knew Daniel would not stop praying.

Daniel walked home from the palace that evening, the way he always did. As he walked through the streets, he heard a man reading the new law out loud, so everyone would know about it. Daniel listened to every word. He understood. And then he kept on walking home.

When he got to his room, he washed his hands, the way he always did before he prayed. He looked at the window that faced east. The sun was just going down.

Daniel did not pretend not to know about the law. He did not close the window. He did not whisper. He opened the window the way he always did, and he knelt down the way he always did, and he prayed the way he always did, in the same voice he always used.

Down in the street below, hidden in the shadows, the men of the king's court were watching.

The men ran straight to the king. "Daniel has prayed to his own God!" they said. "We saw him with our own eyes. The new law says anyone who does that must be thrown to the lions. The law is the law, even for Daniel."

The king was very surprised, and then he was very sorry. Now you should know: he was not a wicked king. He was just a careless one. He had not been thinking about Daniel when he signed the law. He had been thinking about himself, and how nice it would be to have everyone praying to him for thirty days. He had not stopped to ask who else might get hurt.

Now he could not undo what he had done. In that country, once a king signed a law, even the king who signed it could not unmake it. That was the rule. The men of the court knew this. That was why their trick had worked.

So the king's soldiers came for Daniel, and they brought him to a deep stone pit where the lions were kept. The king walked with him all the way to the door of the pit. He looked at Daniel, and he said, very quietly, "May the God you serve so faithfully save you tonight." And he meant it.

Then a great heavy stone was rolled across the door of the pit, and the king pressed his own ring into hot wax to seal it shut, so that no one could open it in the night and try to save Daniel in secret.

The king went back to his palace alone. He did not eat his supper. He did not call for music. He sat by his own window, and he watched the moon come up, and he waited for morning.

The king did not sleep at all that night. As soon as the sky was a little bit light, he got up and ran all the way to the pit of lions. He could not even wait for the soldiers to open it for him. He called out, in a voice that almost broke, "Daniel! Daniel! Has the God you love been able to save you?"

And from inside the pit, Daniel called back, calm as ever, "O king, may you live for ever. My God sent his angel, and the angel shut the lions' mouths, so that they could not hurt me. I have not been hurt at all. I was not afraid."

The king almost fell down, he was so glad. He had Daniel brought up out of the pit at once, and he looked Daniel over, and there was not a single scratch on him. Not even his clothes were torn. Daniel had trusted his God, and his God had been with him in the dark all night.

The men who had set the trick were given the trick they had set, and that was the end of them.

Then the king made a new law, and this one he wrote himself. "In every part of my kingdom," the law said, "let people honour the God of Daniel. For he is a living God, and he saves those who love him."

And Daniel went home, and he washed his hands, and he opened the window that faced east, toward his home. The sun was coming up over the rooftops. He knelt down and prayed, the way he always did.

He had not stopped. He never would.