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diff --git a/39231.txt b/39231.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e79f79f --- /dev/null +++ b/39231.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7054 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Joel: A Boy of Galilee, by Annie Fellows Johnston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Joel: A Boy of Galilee + +Author: Annie Fellows Johnston + +Illustrator: L. J. Bridgman + +Release Date: March 23, 2012 [EBook #39231] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover] + + + + +JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. + + + + +Works of + +ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + +The Little Colonel Series + +(_Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of._) + +Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated + + The Little Colonel Stories $1.50 + (Containing in one volume the three + stories, "The Little Colonel," "The + Giant Scissors," and "Two Little + Knights of Kentucky.") + The Little Colonel's House Party 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Hero 1.50 + The Little Colonel at Boarding-School 1.50 + The Little Colonel in Arizona 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation 1.50 + The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding 1.50 + Mary Ware: The Little Colonel's Chum 1.50 + Mary Ware in Texas 1.50 + Mary Ware's Promised Land 1.50 + The above 12 vols., _boxed_, as a set 18.00 + + * * * * * + + The Little Colonel Good Times Book 1.50 + The Little Colonel Doll Book--First Series 1.50 + The Little Colonel Doll Book--Second Series 1.50 + + +Illustrated Holiday Editions + +Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed in color + + The Little Colonel $1.25 + The Giant Scissors 1.25 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky 1.25 + Big Brother 1.25 + + +Cosy Corner Series + +Each one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated + + The Little Colonel $.50 + The Giant Scissors .50 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky .50 + Big Brother .50 + Ole Mammy's Torment .50 + The Story of Dago .50 + Cicely .50 + Aunt 'Liza's Hero .50 + The Quilt that Jack Built .50 + Flip's "Islands of Providence" .50 + Mildred's Inheritance .50 + + +Other Books + + Joel: A Boy of Galilee $1.50 + In the Desert of Waiting Net .50 + The Three Weavers Net .50 + Keeping Tryst Net .50 + The Legend of the Bleeding Heart Net .50 + The Rescue of the Princess Winsome Net .50 + The Jester's Sword Net .50 + Asa Holmes 1.00 + Travelers Five Along Life's Highway 1.25 + + THE PAGE COMPANY + 53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass. + +[Illustration: "'THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR EVER'" + + (_See page 96_)] + + + + +_NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION_ + +JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE + +By + +ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + Author of "The Little Colonel Series," "Big Brother," + "Ole Mammy's Torment," "Asa Holmes," etc. + + With Pictures by L. J. BRIDGMAN + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON + THE PAGE COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright, 1895_ + BY ROBERTS BROTHERS + + _Copyright, 1904_ + BY THE PAGE COMPANY + + _All rights reserved_ + + Eleventh Impression, October, 1910 + Twelfth Impression, March, 1915 + Thirteenth Impression, March, 1918 + + THE COLONIAL PRESS + C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + + +PUBLISHER'S PREFACE + + +IN this volume, it has been the purpose of the author to present to +children, through "Joel," as accurate a picture of the times of the +Christ as has been given to older readers through "Ben Hur." With this +in view, the customs of the private and public life of the Jews, the +temple service with its sacerdotal rites, and the minute observances of +the numerous holidays have been studied so carefully that the +descriptions have passed the test of the most critical inspection. An +eminent rabbi pronounces them correct in every detail. + +While the story is that of an ordinary boy, living among shepherds and +fishermen, it touches at every point the gospel narrative, making Joel, +in a natural and interesting way, a witness to the miracles, the death, +and the resurrection of the Nazarene. + +It was with the deepest reverence that the task was undertaken, and the +fact that the little book is accomplishing its mission is evinced not +only by the approval accorded its first editions by so many, from Bible +students to bishops, but by the boys and girls here and in distant +lands. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "'THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR + EVER'" (_See page 96_) _Frontispiece_ + + "HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED + BLISSFULLY" 34 + + "'I PEEPED OUT 'TWEEN 'E WOSE-VINES'" 82 + + "NOT A WORD WAS SAID" 104 + + "'WE TALKED LATE'" 139 + + "'YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY'" 184 + + "A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE + NIGHT" 203 + + "'THE STONE IS GONE!'" 233 + + + + +JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +IT was market day in Capernaum. Country people were coming in from the +little villages among the hills of Galilee, with fresh butter and eggs. +Fishermen held out great strings of shining perch and carp, just dipped +up from the lake beside the town. Vine-dressers piled their baskets with +tempting grapes, and boys lazily brushed the flies from the dishes of +wild honey, that they had gone into the country before day-break to +find. + +A ten-year-old girl pushed her way through the crowded market-place, +carrying her baby brother in her arms, and scolding another child, who +clung to her skirts. + +"Hurry, you little snail!" she said to him. "There's a camel caravan +just stopped by the custom-house. Make haste, if you want to see it!" + +Their bare feet picked their way quickly over the stones, down to the +hot sand of the lake shore. The children crept close to the shaggy +camels, curious to see what they carried in their huge packs. But before +they were made to kneel, so that the custom-house officials could +examine the loads, the boy gave an exclamation of surprise. + +"Look, Jerusha! Look!" he cried, tugging at her skirts. "What's that?" + +Farther down the line, came several men carrying litters. On each one +was a man badly wounded, judging by the many bandages that wrapped him. + +Jerusha pushed ahead to hear what had happened. One of the drivers was +telling a tax-gatherer. + +"In that last rocky gorge after leaving Samaria," said the man, "we were +set upon by robbers. They swarmed down the cliffs, and fought as +fiercely as eagles. These men, who were going on ahead, had much gold +with them. They lost it all, and might have been killed, if we had not +come up behind in such numbers. That poor fellow there can hardly live, +I think, he was beaten so badly." + +The children edged up closer to the motionless form on the litter. It +was badly bruised and blood-stained, and looked already lifeless. + +"Let's go, Jerusha," whispered the boy, whimpering and pulling at her +hand. "I don't like to look at him." + +With the heavy baby still in her arms, and the other child tagging +after, she started slowly back towards the market-place. + +"I'll tell you what we'll do," she exclaimed. "Let's go up and get the +other children, and play robbers. We never did do that before. It will +be lots of fun." + +There was a cry of welcome as Jerusha appeared again in the +market-place, where a crowd of children were playing tag, regardless of +the men and beasts they bumped against. They were all younger than +herself, and did not resent her important air when she called, "Come +here! I know a better game than that!" + +She told them what she had just seen and heard down at the beach, and +drew such a vivid picture of the attack, that the children were ready +for anything she might propose. + +"Now we'll choose sides," she said. "I'll be a rich merchant coming up +from Jerusalem with my family and servants, and the rest of you can be +robbers. We'll go along with our goods, and you pounce out on us as we +go by. You may take the baby as a prisoner if you like," she added, with +a mischievous grin. "I'm tired of carrying him." + +A boy sitting near by on a door-step, jumped up eagerly. "Let me play, +too, Jerusha!" he cried. "I'll be one of the robbers. I know just the +best places to hide!" + +The girl paused an instant in her choosing to say impatiently, although +not meaning to be unkind, "Oh, no, Joel! We do not want you. You're too +lame to run. You can't play with us!" + +The bright, eager look died out of the boy's face, and an angry light +shone in his eyes. He pressed his lips together hard, and sat down again +on the step. + +There was a patter of many bare feet as the children raced away. Their +voices sounded fainter and fainter, till they were lost entirely in the +noise of the busy street. + +Usually, Joel found plenty to amuse and interest him here. He liked to +watch the sleepy donkeys with their loads of fresh fruit and vegetables. +He liked to listen to the men as they cried their wares, or chatted over +the bargains with their customers. There was always something new to be +seen in the stalls and booths. There was always something new to be +heard in the scraps of conversation that came to him where he sat. + +Down this street there sometimes came long caravans; for this was "the +highway to the sea,"--the road that led from Egypt to Syria. Strange, +dusky faces sometimes passed this way; richly dressed merchant princes +with their priceless stuffs from beyond the Nile; heavy loads of +Babylonian carpets; pearls from Ceylon, and rich silks for the court of +the wicked Herodias, in the town beyond. Fisherman and sailor, rabbi and +busy workman passed in an endless procession. + +Sometimes a Roman soldier from the garrison came by with ringing step +and clanking sword. Then Joel would start up to look after the erect +figure, with a longing gaze that told more plainly than words, his +admiration of such strength and symmetry. + +But this morning the crowd gave him a strange, lonely feeling,--a hungry +longing for companionship. + +Two half-grown boys passed by on their way to the lake, with fish nets +slung over their shoulders. He knew the larger one,--a rough, +kind-hearted fellow who had once taken him in his boat across the lake. +He gave Joel a careless, good-natured nod as he passed. A moment after +he felt a timid pull at the fish net he was carrying, and turned to see +the little cripple's appealing face. + +"Oh, Dan!" he cried eagerly. "Are you going out on the lake this +morning? Could you take me with you?" + +The boy hesitated. Whatever kindly answer he may have given, was rudely +interrupted by his companion, whom Joel had never seen before. + +"Oh, no!" he said roughly. "We don't want anybody limping along after +us. You can't come, Jonah; you would bring us bad luck." + +"My name isn't Jonah!" screamed the boy, angrily clinching his fists. +"It's Joel!" + +"Well, it is all the same," his tormentor called back, with a coarse +laugh. "You're a Jonah, any way." + +There were tears in the boy's eyes this time, as he dragged himself back +again to the step. + +"I hate everybody in the world!" he said in a hissing sort of whisper. +"I hate'm! I hate'm!" + +A stranger passing by turned for a second look at the little cripple's +sensitive, refined face. A girlishly beautiful face it would have been, +were it not for the heavy scowl that darkened it. + +Joel pulled the ends of his head-dress round to hide his crooked back, +and drew the loose robe he wore over his twisted leg. + +Life seemed very bitter to him just then. He would gladly have changed +places with the heavily laden donkey going by. + +"I wish I were dead," he thought moodily. "Then I would not ache any +more, and I could not hear when people call me names!" + +Beside the door where he sat was a stand where tools and hardware were +offered for sale. A man who had been standing there for some time, +selecting nails from the boxes placed before him, and had heard all that +passed, spoke to him. + +"Joel, my lad, may I ask your help for a little while?" The friendly +question seemed to change the whole atmosphere. + +Joel drew his hands across his eyes to clear them of the blur of tears +he was too proud to let fall, and then stood up respectfully. "Yes, +Rabbi Phineas, what would you have me to do?" + +The carpenter gathered up some strips of lumber in one hand, and his +hammer and saws in the other. + +"I have my hands too full to carry these nails," he answered. "If you +could bring them for me, it would be a great service." + +If the man had offered him pity, Joel would have fiercely resented it. +His sensitive nature appreciated the unspoken sympathy, the fine tact +that soothed his pride by asking a service of him, instead of seeking to +render one. + +He could not define the feeling, but he gratefully took up the bag of +nails, and limped along beside his friend to the carpenter's house at +the edge of the town. He had never been there before, although he met +the man daily in the market-place, and long ago had learned to look +forward to his pleasant greeting; it was so different from most +people's. Somehow the morning always seemed brighter after he had met +him. + +The little whitewashed house stood in the shade of two great fig-trees +near the beach. A cool breeze from the Galilee lifted the leaves, and +swayed the vines growing around the low door. + +Joel, tired by the long walk, was glad to throw himself on the grass in +the shade. It was so still and quiet here, after the noise of the street +he had just left. + +An old hen clucked around the door-step with a brood of downy, yellow +chickens. Doves cooed softly, somewhere out of sight. The carpenter's +bench stood under one of the trees, with shavings and chips all around +it. Two children were playing near it, building houses of the scattered +blocks; one of them, a black-eyed, sturdy boy of five, kept on playing. +The other, a little girl, not yet three, jumped up and followed her +father into the house. Her curls gleamed like gold as she ran through +the sunshine. She glanced at the stranger with deep-blue eyes so like +her father's that Joel held out his hand. + +"Come and tell me your name," he said coaxingly. But she only shook the +curls all over her dimpled face, and hurried into the house. + +"It's Ruth," said the boy, deigning to look up. "And mine is Jesse, and +my mother's is Abigail, and my father's is Phineas, and my grandfather's +is--" + +How far back he would have gone in his genealogy, Joel could not guess; +for just then his father came out with a cool, juicy melon, and Jesse +hurried forward to get his share. + +"How good it is!" sighed Joel, as the first refreshing mouthful slipped +down his thirsty throat. "And how cool and pleasant it is out here. I +did not know there was such a peaceful spot in all Capernaum." + +"Didn't you always live here?" asked the inquisitive Jesse. + +"No, I was born in Jerusalem. I was to have been a priest," he said +sadly. + +"Well, why didn't you be one then," persisted the child, with his mouth +full of melon. + +Joel glanced down at his twisted leg, and said nothing. + +"Why?" repeated the boy. + +Phineas, who had gone back to his work-bench, looked up kindly. "You ask +too many questions, my son. No one can be a priest who is maimed or +blemished in any way. Some sad accident must have befallen our little +friend, and it may be painful for him to talk about it." + +Jesse asked no more questions with his tongue; but his sharp, black eyes +were fixed on Joel like two interrogation points. + +"I do not mind telling about it," said Joel, sitting up straighter. +"Once when I was not much older than you, just after my mother died, my +father brought me up to this country from Jerusalem, to visit my Aunt +Leah. + +"I used to play down here by the lake, with my cousins, in the +fishermen's boats. There was a boy that came to the beach sometimes, a +great deal larger than I,--a dog of a Samaritan,--who pulled my hair +and threw sand in my eyes. He was so much stronger than I, that I could +not do anything to him but call him names. But early one morning he was +swimming in the lake. I hid his clothes in the oleander bushes that +fringe the water. Oh, but he was angry! I wanted him to be. But I had to +keep away from the lake after that. + +"One day some older children took me to the hills back of the town to +gather almonds. This Rehum followed us. I had strayed away from the +others a little distance, and was stooping to put the nuts in my basket, +when he slipped up behind me. How he beat me! I screamed so that the +other children came running back to me. When he saw them coming, he gave +me a great push that sent me rolling over a rocky bank. It was not very +high, but there were sharp stones below. + +"They thought I was dead when they picked me up. It was months before I +could walk at all; and I can never be any better than I am now. Just as +my father was about to take me back to Jerusalem, he took a sudden +fever, and died. So I was left, a poor helpless burden for my aunt to +take care of. It has been six years since then." + +Joel threw himself full length on the grass, and scowled up at the sky. + +"Where is that boy that hurt you," asked Jesse. + +"Rehum?" questioned Joel. "I wish I knew," he muttered fiercely. "Oh, +how I hate him! I can never be a priest as my father intended. I can +never serve in the beautiful temple with the white pillars and golden +gates. I can never be like other people, but must drag along, deformed +and full of pain as long as I live. And it's all his fault!" + +A sudden gleam lit up the boy's eyes, as lightning darts through a +storm-cloud. + +"But I shall have my revenge!" he added, clinching his fists. "I cannot +die till I have made him feel at least a tithe of what I have suffered. +'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!' That is the least that can +satisfy me. Oh, you cannot know how I long for that time! Often I lie +awake late into the night, planning my revenge. Then I forget how my +back hurts and my leg pains; then I forget all the names I have been +called, and the taunts that make my life a burden. But they all come +back with the daylight; and I store them up and add them to his account. +For everything he has made me suffer, I swear he shall pay for it +four-fold in his own sufferings!" + +Ruth shrank away, frightened by the wild, impassioned boy who sat up, +angrily staring in front of him with eyes that saw nothing of the sweet, +green-clad world around him. The face of his enemy blotted out all the +sunny landscape. One murderous purpose filled him, mind and soul. + +Nothing was said for a little while. The doves as before cooed of peace, +and Phineas began a steady tap-tap with his hammer. + +A pleasant-faced woman came out of the door with a water-jar on her +head, and passed down the path to the public well. She gave Joel a +friendly greeting in passing. + +"Wait, mother!" lisped Ruth, as she ran after her. The woman turned to +smile at the little one, and held out her hand. Her dress, of some soft, +cotton material, hung in long flowing folds. It was a rich blue color, +caught at the waist with a white girdle. The turban wound around her +dark hair was white also, and so was the veil she pushed aside far +enough to show a glimpse of brown eyes and red cheeks. She wore a broad +silver bracelet on the bare arm which was raised to hold the water-jar, +and the rings in her ears and talismans on her neck were of quaintly +wrought silver. + +"I did not know it was so late," said Joel, rising to his feet. "Time +passes so fast here." + +"Nay, do not go," said Phineas. "It is a long walk back to your home, +and the sun is very hot. Stay and eat dinner with us." + +Joel hesitated; but the invitation was repeated so cordially, that he +let Jesse pull him down on the grass again. + +"Now I'll tickle your lips with this blade of grass," said the child. +"See how long you can keep from laughing." + +When Abigail came back with the water, both the boys were laughing as +heartily as if there had never been an ache or pain in the world. She +smiled at them approvingly, as she led the way into the house. + +Joel looked around with much curiosity. It was like most of the other +houses of its kind in the town. There was only one large square room, in +which the family cooked, ate, and slept; but on every side it showed +that Phineas had left traces of his skilful hands. + +There was a tiny window cut in one wall; most of the houses of this +description had none, but depended on the doorway for light and air. +Several shelves around the walls held the lamp and the earthenware +dishes. The chest made to hold the rugs and cushions which they spread +down at night to sleep on, was unusually large and ornamental. A broom, +a handmill, and a bushel stood in one corner. + +Near the door, a table which Phineas had made, stood spread for the +mid-day meal. + +There was broiled fish on one of the platters, beans and barley bread, a +dish of honey, and a pitcher of milk. The fare was just the same that +Joel was accustomed to in his uncle's house; but something made the +simple meal seem like a banquet. It may have been that the long walk had +made him hungrier than usual, or it may have been because he was treated +as the honored guest, instead of a child tolerated through charity. + +He watched his host carefully, as he poured the water over his hands +before eating, and asked a blessing on the food. + +"He does not keep the law as strictly as my Uncle Laban," was his inward +comment. "He asked only one blessing, and Uncle Laban blesses every kind +of food separately. But he must be a good man, even if he is not so +strict a Pharisee as my uncle, for he is kinder than any one I ever knew +before." + +It was wonderful how much Joel had learned, in his eleven short years, +of the Law. His aunt's husband had grown to manhood in Jerusalem, and, +unlike the simple Galileans among whom he now lived, tried to observe +its most detailed rules. + +The child heard them discussed continually, till he felt he could +neither eat, drink, nor dress, except by these set rules. He could not +play like other children, and being so much with older people had made +him thoughtful and observant. + +He had learned to read very early; and hour after hour he spent in the +house of Rabbi Amos, the most learned man of the town, poring over his +rolls of scriptures. Think of a childhood without a picture, or a +story-book! All that there was to read were these old records of Jewish +history. + +The old man had taken a fancy to him, finding him an appreciative +listener and an apt pupil. So Joel was allowed to come whenever he +pleased, and take out the yellow rolls of parchment from their velvet +covers. + +He was never perfectly happy except at these times, when he was reading +these old histories of his country's greatness. How he enjoyed chasing +the armies of the Philistines, and fighting over again the battles of +Israel's kings! Many a tale he stored away in his busy brain to be +repeated to the children gathered around the public fountain in the cool +of the evening. + +It mattered not what character he told them of,--priest or prophet, +judge or king,--the picture was painted in life-like colors by this +patriotic little hero-worshipper. + +Here and at home he heard so many discussions about what was lawful and +what was not, that he was constantly in fear of breaking one of the many +rules, even in as simple a duty as washing a cup. + +So he watched his host closely till the meal was over, finding that in +the observance of many customs, he failed to measure up to his uncle's +strict standard. + +Phineas went back to his work after dinner. He was greatly interested in +Joel, and, while he sawed and hammered, kept a watchful eye on him. He +was surprised at the boy's knowledge. More than once he caught himself +standing with an idle tool in hand, as he listened to some story that +Joel was telling to Jesse. + +After a while he laid down his work and leaned against the bench. "What +do you find to do all day, my lad?" he asked, abruptly. + +"Nothing," answered Joel, "after I have recited my lessons to Rabbi +Amos." + +"Does your aunt never give you any tasks to do at home?" + +"No. I think she does not like to have me in her sight any more than she +is obliged to. She is always kind to me, but she doesn't love me. She +only pities me. I hate to be pitied. There is not a single one in the +world who really loves me." + +His lips quivered, but he winked back the tears. Phineas seemed lost in +thought a few minutes; then he looked up. "You are a Levite," he said +slowly, "so of course you could always be supported without needing to +learn a trade. Still you would be a great deal happier, in my opinion, +if you had something to keep you busy. If you like, I will teach you to +be a carpenter. There are a great many things you might learn to make +well, and, by and by, it would be a source of profit to you. There is no +bread so bitter as the bread of dependence, as you may learn when you +are older." + +"Oh, Rabbi Phineas!" cried Joel. "Do you mean that I may come here every +day? It is too good to be true!" + +"Yes; if you will promise to stick to it until you have mastered the +trade. If you are as quick to learn with your hands as you have been +with your head, I shall have reason to be proud of such a pupil." + +Joel's face flushed with pleasure, and he sprang up quickly, saying, +"May I begin right now? Oh, I'll try _so_ hard to please you!" + +Phineas laid a soft pine board on the bench, and began to mark a line +across it with a piece of red chalk. + +"Well, you may see how straight a cut you can make through this plank." + +He picked up a saw, and ran his fingers lightly along its sharp teeth. +But he paused in the act of handing it to Joel, to ask, "You are sure, +now, that your uncle and aunt will consent to such an arrangement?" + +"Yes indeed!" was the emphatic answer. "They will be glad enough to have +me out of the way, and learning something useful." + +The saw cut slowly through the wood; for the weak little hand was a +careful one, and the boy was determined not to swerve once from the +line. He smiled with satisfaction as the pieces fell apart, showing a +clean, straight edge. + +"Well done!" said Phineas, kindly. "Now let me see you drive a nail." +Made bold by his first success, Joel pounded away vigorously, but the +hammer slipped more than once, and his unpractised fingers ached with +the blows that he had aimed at the nail's head. + +"You'll soon learn," said Phineas, with an encouraging pat on the boy's +shoulder. "Gather up those odds and ends under the bench. When you've +sawed them into equal lengths, I'll show you how to make a box." + +Joel bent over his work with almost painful intensity. He fairly held +his breath, as he made the measurements. He gripped the saw as if his +life depended on the strength of his hold. Phineas smiled at his +earnestness. + +"Be careful, my lad," he said. "You will soon wear out at that rate." + +It seemed to Joel that there never had been such a short afternoon. He +had stopped to rest several times, when Phineas had insisted upon it; +but this new work had all the fascination of an interesting game. The +trees threw giant shadows across the grass, when he finally laid his +tools aside. His back ached with so much unusual exercise, and he was +very tired. + +"Rabbi Phineas," he asked gently, after a long pause, "what makes you so +good to me? What makes you so different from other people? While I am +with you, I feel like I want to be good. Other people seem to rub me the +wrong way, and make me cross and hateful; then I feel like I'd rather +be wicked than not. Why this afternoon, I've scarcely thought of Rehum +at all. I forgot at times that I am lame. When you talk to me, I feel +like I did that day Dan took me out on the lake. It seemed a different +kind of a world,--all blue sky and smooth water. I felt if I could stay +out there all the time, where it was so quiet and comforting, that I +could not even hate Rehum as much as I do." + +A surprised, pleased look passed over the man's face. "Do I really make +you feel that way, little one? Then I am indeed glad. Once when I was a +young boy living in Nazareth, I had a playmate who had that influence +over me and all the boys he played with. I never could be selfish and +impatient when he was with me. His very presence rebuked such +thoughts,--when we were children playing together, like my own two +little ones there, and when we were older grown, working at the same +bench. It has been many a long year since I left Nazareth, but I think +of him daily. Even now, after our long separation, the thought of his +blameless life inspires me to a higher living. Yes," he went on +musingly, more to himself than the boy, "it was like music. Surely no +white-robed priest in the holy temple ever offered up more acceptable +praise than the perfect harmony of his daily life." + +Joel's lips trembled. "If I had ever had one real friend to care for +me--not just pity me, you know--maybe I would have been different. But I +have never had a single one since my father died." + +Phineas smiled, and held out his hand. "You have one now, my lad, never +forget that." + +The strong brown hand closed in a warm grasp, and Joel drew it, with a +grateful impulse, to his lips. Ruth came up with wondering eyes. She +could not understand what had passed; but Joel's eyes were full of +tears, and she vaguely felt that he needed comfort. She had a pet pigeon +in her arms, that she carried everywhere with her. + +"Here," she lisped, holding out the snowy winged bird. "Boy, take it! +Boy, keep it!" + +Joel looked up inquiringly at Phineas. "Take it," he said, in a low +tone. "Let it be the omen of a happier life commencing for you." + +"I never had a pet of any kind before," said Joel, in delight, smoothing +the white wings folded contentedly against his breast. "But she loves +it so, I dislike to take it from her. How beautiful it is!" + +"My little Ruth is a born comforter," said Phineas, tossing her up in +his arms. "Shall Joel take the pigeon home with him, little daughter?" + +"Yes," she answered, nodding her head. "Boy cried." + +"I'll name it 'Little Friend,'" said Joel, rising with it in his arms. +"I'll take it home with me, and keep it until after the Sabbath, to make +me feel sure that this day has not been just a dream; but I will bring +it back next time I come. I can see it here every day, and it will be +happier here. Oh, Rabbi Phineas, I can never thank you enough for this +day!" + +It was a pitiful little figure that limped away homeward in the fading +light, with the white pigeon in his arms. + +Looking anxiously up in the sky, Joel saw one star come twinkling out. +The Sabbath would soon begin, and then he must not be found carrying +even so much as this one poor little pigeon. The slightest burden would +be unlawful. + +As he hurried on, the loud blast of a trumpet, blown from the roof of +the synagogue, signalled the laborers in the fields to stop all work. +He knew that very soon it would sound again, to call the town people +from their tasks; and at the third blast, the Sabbath lamp would be +lighted in every home. + +Fearful of his uncle's displeasure at his tardiness, he hurried +painfully onward, to provide food and a resting-place for his "little +friend" before the second sounding of the trumpet. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +EARLY in the morning after the Sabbath, Joel was in his accustomed place +in the market, waiting for his friend Phineas. His uncle had given a +gruff assent, when he timidly asked his approval of the plan. + +The good Rabbi Amos was much pleased when he heard of the arrangement. +"Thou hast been a faithful student," he said, kindly. "Thou knowest +already more of the Law than many of thy elders. Now it will do thee +good to learn the handicraft of Phineas. Remember, my son, 'the balm was +created by God before the wound.' Work, that is as old as Eden, has been +given us that we might forget the afflictions of this life that fleeth +like a shadow. May the God of thy fathers give thee peace!" + +With the old man's benediction repeating itself like a solemn refrain in +all his thoughts, Joel stood smoothing the pigeon in his arms, until +Phineas had made his daily purchases. Then they walked on together in +the cool of the morning, to the little white house under the fig-trees. +Phineas was surprised at his pupil's progress. To be sure, the weak arms +could lift little, the slender hands could attempt no large tasks. But +the painstaking care he bestowed on everything he attempted, resulted in +beautifully finished work. If there was an extra smooth polish to be put +on some wood, or a delicate piece of joining to do, Joel's deft fingers +seemed exactly suited to the task. + +Before the winter was over, he had made many pretty little articles of +furniture for Abigail's use. + +"May I have these pieces of fine wood to use as I please?" he asked of +Phineas, one day. + +"All but that largest strip," he answered. "What are you going to make?" + +"Something for Ruth's birthday. She will be three years old in a few +weeks, Jesse says, and I want to make something for her to play with." + +"What are you going to make her?" inquired Jesse, from under the +work-bench. "Let me see too." + +"Oh, I didn't know you were anywhere near," answered Joel, with a start +of alarm. + +"Tell me!" begged Jesse. + +"Well, if you will promise to keep her out of the way while I am +finishing it, and never say a word about it--" + +"I'll promise," said the child, solemnly. He had to clap his hand over +his mouth a great many times in the next few weeks, to keep his secret +from telling itself, and he watched admiringly while Joel carved and +polished and cut. + +One of the neighbors had come in to talk with Abigail the day he +finished it, and as the children were down on the beach, playing in the +sand, he took it in the house to show to the women. It was a little +table set with toy dishes, that he had carved out of wood,--plates and +cups and platters, all complete. + +The visitor held up her hands with an exclamation of delight. After +taking up each little highly polished dish to admire it separately, she +said, "I know where you might get a great deal of money for such work. +There is a rich Roman living near the garrison, who spends money like a +lord. No price is too great for him to pay for anything that pleases his +fancy. Why don't you take some up there, and offer them for sale?" + +"I believe I will," said Joel, after considering the matter. "I'll go +just as soon as I can get them made." + +Ruth spread many a little feast under the fig-trees; but after the first +birthday banquet, Jesse was her only guest. Joel was too busy making +more dishes and another little table, to partake of them. + +The whole family were interested in his success. The day he went up to +the great house near the garrison to offer them for sale, they waited +anxiously for his return. + +"He's sold them! He's sold them!" cried Jesse, hopping from one foot to +the other, as he saw Joel coming down the street empty-handed. Joel was +hobbling along as fast as he could, his face beaming. + +"See how much money!" he cried, as he opened his hand to show a shining +coin, stamped with the head of Caesar. "And I have an order for two more. +I'll soon have a fortune! The children liked the dishes so much, +although they had the most beautiful toys I ever saw. They had images +they called dolls. Some of them had white-kid faces, and were dressed as +richly as queens. I wish Ruth had one." + +"The law forbids!" exclaimed Phineas. "Have you forgotten that it is +written, 'Thou shalt not make any likeness of anything in the heavens +above or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth'? She is happy +with what she has, and needs no strange idols of the heathen to play +with." + +Joel made no answer; but he thought of the merry group of Roman children +seated around the little table he had made, and wished again that Ruth +had one of those gorgeously dressed dolls. + +Skill and strength were not all he gained by his winter's work; for some +of the broad charity that made continual summer in the heart of Phineas +crept into his own embittered nature. He grew less suspicious of those +around him, and smiles came more easily now to his face than scowls. + +But the strong ambition of his life never left him for an instant. To +all the rest of the world he might be a friend; to Rehum he could only +be the most unforgiving of enemies. + +The thought that had given him most pleasure when the wealthy Roman had +tossed him his first earnings, was not that his work could bring him +money, but that the money could open the way for his revenge. + +That thought, like a dark undercurrent, gained depth and force as the +days went by. As he saw how much he could do in spite of his lameness, +he thought of how much more he might have accomplished, if he had been +like other boys. It was a constant spur to his desire for revenge. + +One day Phineas laid aside his tools much earlier than usual, and +without any explanation to his wondering pupil, went up into the town. + +When he returned, he nodded to his wife, who sat in the doorway +spinning, and who had looked up inquiringly as he approached. + +"Yes, it's all arranged," he said to her. Then he turned to Joel to ask, +"Did you ever ride on a camel, my boy?" + +"No, Rabbi," answered the boy, in surprise, wondering what was coming +next. + +"Well, I have a day's journey to make to the hills in Upper Galilee. A +camel caravan passes near the place where my business calls me, as it +goes to Damascus. I seek to accompany it for protection. I go on foot, +but I have made arrangements for you to ride one of the camels." + +"Oh, am I really to go, too?" gasped Joel, in delighted astonishment. +"Oh, Rabbi Phineas! How did you ever think of asking me?" + +"You have not seemed entirely well, of late," was the answer. "I thought +the change would do you good. I said nothing about it before, for I had +no opportunity to see your uncle until this afternoon; and I did not +want to disappoint you, in case he refused his permission." + +"And he really says I may go?" demanded the boy, eagerly. + +"Yes, the caravan moves in the morning, and we will go with it." + +There was little more work done that day. Joel was so full of +anticipations of his journey that he scarcely knew what he was doing. +Phineas was busy with preparations for the comfort of his little family +during his absence, and went into town again. + +On his return he seemed strangely excited. Abigail, seeing something was +amiss, watched him carefully, but asked no questions. He took a piece of +timber that had been laid away for some especial purpose, and began +sawing it into small bits. + +"Rabbi Phineas," ventured Joel, respectfully, "is that not the wood you +charged me to save so carefully?" + +Phineas gave a start as he saw what he had done, and threw down his saw. + +"Truly," he said, smiling, "I am beside myself with the news I have +heard. I just now walked ten cubits past my own house, unknowing where I +was, so deeply was I thinking upon it. Abigail," he asked, "do you +remember my friend in Nazareth whom I so often speak of,--the son of +Joseph the carpenter? Last week he was bidden to a marriage in Cana. It +happened, before the feasting was over, the supply of wine was +exhausted, and the mortified host knew not what to do. Six great jars of +stone had been placed in the room, to supply the guests with water for +washing. _He changed that water into wine!_" + +"I cannot believe it!" answered Abigail, simply. + +"But Ezra ben Jared told me so. He was there, and drank of the wine," +insisted Phineas. + +"He could not have done it," said Abigail, "unless he were helped by the +evil one, or unless he were a prophet. He is too good a man to ask help +of the powers of darkness; and it is beyond belief that a son of Joseph +should be a prophet." + +To this Phineas made no answer. His quiet thoughts were shaken out of +their usual routine as violently as if by an earthquake. + +Joel thought more of the journey than he did of the miracle. It seemed +to the impatient boy that the next day never would dawn. Many times in +the night he wakened to hear the distant crowing of cocks. At last, by +straining his eyes he could distinguish the green leaves of the vine on +the lattice from the blue of the half-opened blossoms. By that token he +knew it was near enough the morning for him to commence saying his first +prayers. + +Dressing noiselessly, so as not to disturb the sleeping family, he +slipped out of the house and down to the well outside the city-gate. +Here he washed, and then ate the little lunch he had wrapped up the +night before. A meagre little breakfast,--only a hard-boiled egg, a bit +of fish, and some black bread. But the early hour and his excitement +took away his appetite for even that little. + +Soon all was confusion around the well, as the noisy drivers gathered to +water their camels, and make their preparations for the start. + +Joel shrunk away timidly to the edge of the crowd, fearful that his +friend Phineas had overslept himself. + +In a few minutes he saw him coming with a staff in one hand, and a small +bundle swinging from the other. + +Joel had one breathless moment of suspense as he was helped on to the +back of the kneeling camel; one desperate clutch at the saddle as the +huge animal plunged about and rose to its feet. Then he looked down at +Phineas, and smiled blissfully. + +[Illustration: "HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED BLISSFULLY"] + +Oh, the delight of that slow easy motion! The joy of being carried along +without pain or effort! Who could realize how much it meant to the +little fellow whose halting steps had so long been taken in weariness +and suffering? + +Swinging along in the cool air, so far above the foot-passengers, it +seemed to him that he looked down upon a new earth. Blackbirds flew +along the roads, startled by their passing. High overhead, a lark had +not yet finished her morning song. Lambs bleated in the pastures, and +the lowing of herds sounded on every hill-side. + +Not a sight or sound escaped the boy; and all the morning he rode on +without speaking, not a care in his heart, not a cloud on his horizon. + +At noon they stopped in a little grove of olive-trees where a cool +spring gurgled out from the rocks. + +Phineas spread out their lunch at a little distance from the others; and +they ate it quickly, with appetites sharpened by the morning's travel. +Afterwards Joel stretched himself out on the ground to rest, and was +asleep almost as soon as his eyelids could shut out the noontide glare +of the sun from his tired eyes. + +When he awoke, nearly an hour afterward, he heard voices near him in +earnest conversation. Raising himself on his elbow, he saw Phineas at a +little distance, talking to an old man who had ridden one of the +foremost camels. + +They must have been talking of the miracle, for the old man, as he +stroked his long white beard, was saying, "But men are more wont to be +astonished at the sun's eclipse, than at his daily rising. Look, my +friend!" + +He pointed to a wild grape-vine clinging to a tree near by. "Do you see +those bunches of half-grown grapes? There is a constant miracle. Day by +day, the water of the dew and rain is being changed into the wine of the +grape. Soil and sunshine are turning into fragrant juices. Yet you feel +no astonishment." + +"No," assented Phineas; "for it is by the hand of God it is done." + +"Why may not this be also?" said the old man. "Even this miracle at the +marriage feast in Cana?" + +Phineas started violently. "What!" he cried. "Do you think it possible +that this friend of mine is the One to be sent of God?" + +"Is not this the accepted time for the coming of Israel's Messiah?" +answered the old man, solemnly. "Is it not meet that he should herald +his presence by miracles and signs and wonders?" + +Joel lay down again to think over what he had just heard. Like every +other Israelite in the whole world, he knew that a deliverer had been +promised his people. + +Time and again he had read the prophecies that foretold the coming of a +king through the royal line of David; time and again he had pictured to +himself the mighty battles to take place between his down-trodden race +and the haughty hordes of Caesar. Sometime, somewhere, a universal +dominion awaited them. He firmly believed that the day was near at hand; +but not even in his wildest dreams had he ever dared to hope that it +might come in his own lifetime. + +He raised himself on his elbow again, for the old man was speaking. + +"About thirty years ago," he said slowly, "I went up to Jerusalem to be +registered for taxation, for the emperor's decree had gone forth and no +one could escape enrolment. You are too young to remember the taking of +that census, my friend; but you have doubtless heard of it." + +"Yes," assented Phineas, respectfully. + +"I was standing just outside the Joppa gate, bargaining with a man for a +cage of gold finches he had for sale, which I wished to take to my +daughter, when we heard some one speaking to us. Looking up we saw +several strange men on camels, who were inquiring their way. They were +richly dressed. The trappings and silver bells on their camels, as well +as their own attire, spoke of wealth. Their faces showed that they were +wise and learned men from far countries. + +"We greeted them respectfully, but could not speak for astonishment when +we heard their question: + +"'Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star +in the East, and have come to worship him.' The bird-seller looked at +me, and I looked at him in open-mouthed wonder. The men rode on before +we could find words wherewith to answer them. + +"All sorts of rumors were afloat, and everywhere we went next day, +throughout Jerusalem, knots of people stood talking of the mysterious +men, and their strange question. Even the king was interested, and +sought audience with them." + +"Could any one answer them?" asked Phineas. + +"Nay! but it was then impressed on me so surely that the Christ was +born, that I have asked myself all these thirty years, 'Where is he that +is born king of the Jews?' For I too would fain follow on to find and +worship him. As soon as I return from Damascus, I shall go at once to +Cana, and search for this miracle-worker." + +The old man's earnest words made a wonderful impression on Joel. All the +afternoon, as they rose higher among the hills, the thought took +stronger possession of him. He might yet live, helpless little cripple +as he was, to see the dawn of Israel's deliverance, and a son of David +once more on its throne. + +Ride on, little pilgrim, happy in thy day-dreams! The time is coming; +but weary ways and hopeless heart-aches lie between thee and that +to-morrow. The king is on his way to his coronation, but it will be with +thorns. + +Ride on, little pilgrim, be happy whilst thou can! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +IT was nearly the close of the day when the long caravan halted, and +tents were pitched for the night near a little brook that came splashing +down from a cold mountain-spring. + +Joel, exhausted by the long day's travel, crowded so full of new +experiences, was glad to stretch his cramped limbs on a blanket that +Phineas took from the camel's back. + +Here, through half-shut eyes, he watched the building of the camp-fire, +and the preparations for the evening meal. + +"I wonder what Uncle Laban would do if he were here!" he said to +Phineas, with an amused smile. "Look at those dirty drivers with their +unwashed hands and unblessed food. How little regard they have for the +Law. Uncle Laban would fast a lifetime rather than taste anything that +had even been passed over a fire of their building. I can imagine I see +him now, gathering up his skirts and walking on the tips of his sandals +for fear of being touched by anything unclean." + +"Your Uncle Laban is a good man," answered Phineas, "one careful not to +transgress the Law." + +"Yes," said the boy. "But I like your way better. You keep the fasts, +and repeat the prayers, and love God and your neighbors. Uncle Laban is +careful to do the first two things; I am not so sure about the others. +Life is too short to be always washing one's hands." + +Phineas looked at the little fellow sharply. How shrewd and old he +seemed for one of his years! Such independence of thought was unusual in +a child trained as he had been. He scarcely knew how to answer him, so +he turned his attention to spreading out the fruits and bread he had +brought for their supper. + +Next morning, after the caravan had gone on without them, they started +up a narrow bridle-path, that led through hillside-pastures where flocks +of sheep and goats were feeding. + +The dew was still on the grass, and the air was so fresh and sweet in +this higher altitude that Joel walked on with a feeling of strength and +vigor unknown to him before. + +"Oh, look!" he cried, clasping his hands in delight, as a sudden turn +brought them to the upper course of the brook whose waters, falling far +below, had refreshed them the night before. + +The poetry of the Psalms came as naturally to the lips of this +beauty-loving little Israelite as the breath he drew. + +Now he repeated, in a low, reverent voice, "'The Lord is my shepherd; I +shall not want.' Oh, Rabbi Phineas, did you ever know before that there +could be such green pastures and still waters?" + +The man smiled at the boy's radiant, upturned face. "'Yea, the earth is +the Lord's and the fulness thereof,'" he murmured. "We have indeed a +goodly heritage." + +Hushed into silence by the voice of the hills and the beauty on every +side, they walked on till the road turned again. + +Just ahead stood a house unusually large for a country district; +everything about it bore an air of wealth and comfort. + +"Our journey is at an end now," said Phineas. "Yonder lies the house of +Nathan ben Obed. He owns all those flocks and herds we have seen in +passing this last half hour. It is with him that I have business; and we +will tarry with him until after the Sabbath." + +They were evidently expected, for a servant came running out to meet +them. He opened the gate and conducted them into a shaded court-yard. +Here another servant took off their dusty sandals, and gave them water +to wash their feet. + +They had barely finished, when an old man appeared in the doorway; his +long beard and hair were white as the abba he wore. + +Phineas would have bowed himself to the ground before him, but the old +man prevented it, by hurrying to take both hands in his, and kiss him on +each cheek. + +"Peace be to thee, thou son of my good friend Jesse!" he said. "Thou art +indeed most welcome." + +Joel lagged behind. He was always sensitive about meeting strangers; but +the man's cordial welcome soon put him at his ease. + +He was left to himself a great deal during the few days following. The +business on which the old man had summoned Phineas required long +consultations. + +One day they rode away together to some outlying pastures, and were gone +until night-fall. Joel did not miss them. He was spending long happy +hours in the country sunshine. There was something to entertain him, +every way he turned. For a while he amused himself by sitting in the +door and poring over a roll of parchment that Sarah, the wife of Nathan +ben Obed, brought him to read. + +She was an old woman, but one would have found it hard to think so, had +he seen how briskly she went about her duties of caring for such a large +household. + +After Joel had read for some little time, he became aware that some one +was singing outside, in a whining, monotonous way, and he laid down his +book to listen. The voice was not loud, but so penetrating he could not +shut it out, and fix his mind on his story again. So he rolled up the +parchment and laid it on the chest from which it had been taken; then +winding his handkerchief around his head, turban fashion, he limped out +in the direction of the voice. + +Just around the corner of the house, under a great oak-tree, a woman sat +churning. From three smooth poles joined at the top to form a tripod, a +goat-skin bag hung by long leather straps. This was filled with cream; +she was slapping it violently back and forth in time to her weird song. + +Her feet were bare, and she wore only a coarse cotton dress. But a gay +red handkerchief covered her black hair, and heavy copper rings hung +from her nose and ears. + +The song stopped suddenly as she saw Joel. Then recognizing her master's +guest, she smiled at him so broadly that he could see her pretty white +teeth. + +Joel hardly knew what to say at this unexpected encounter, but bethought +himself to ask the way to the sheep-folds and the watch-tower. "It is a +long way there," said the woman, doubtfully; Joel flushed as he felt her +black eyes scanning his misshapen form. + +Just then Sarah appeared in the door, and the maid repeated the question +to her mistress. + +"To be sure," she said. "You must go out and see our shepherds with +their flocks. We have a great many employed just now, on all the +surrounding hills. Rhoda, call your son, and bid him bring hither the +donkey that he always drives to market." + +The woman left her churning, and presently came back with a boy about +Joel's age, leading a donkey with only one ear. + +Joel knew what that meant. At some time in its life the poor beast had +strayed into some neighbor's field, and the owner of the field had been +at liberty to cut off an ear in punishment. + +The boy that led him wore a long shirt of rough hair-cloth. His feet and +legs were brown and tanned. A shock of reddish sunburned hair was the +only covering for his head. There was a squint in one eye, and his face +was freckled. + +He made an awkward obeisance to his mistress. + +"Buz," she said, "this young lad is your master's guest. Take him out +and show him the flocks and herds, and the sheep-folds. He has never +seen anything of shepherd life, so be careful to do his pleasure. Stay!" +she added to Joel. "You will not have time to visit them all before the +mid-day meal, so I will give you a lunch, and you can enjoy an entire +day in the fields." + +As the two boys started down the hill, Joel stole a glance at his +companion. "What a stupid-looking fellow!" he thought; "I doubt if he +knows anything more than this sleepy beast I am riding. I wonder if he +enjoys any of this beautiful world around him. How glad I am that I am +not in his place." + +Buz, trudging along in the dust, glanced at the little cripple on the +donkey's back with an inward shiver. + +"What a dreadful lot his must be," he thought. "How glad I am that I am +not like he is!" + +It was not very long till the shyness began to wear off, and Joel found +that the stupid shepherd lad had a very busy brain under his shock of +tangled hair. His eyes might squint, but they knew just where to look in +the bushes for the little hedge-sparrow's nest. They could take unerring +aim, too, when he sent the smooth sling-stones whizzing from the sling +he carried. + +"How far can you shoot with it?" asked Joel. + +For answer Buz looked all around for some object on which to try his +skill; then he pointed to a hawk slowly circling overhead. Joel watched +him fit a smooth pebble into his sling; he had no thought that the boy +could touch it at such a distance. The stone whizzed through the air +like a bullet, and the bird dropped several yards ahead of them. + +"See!" said Buz, as he ran to pick it up, and display it proudly. "I +struck it in the head." + +Joel looked at him with increasing respect. "That must have been the +kind of sling that King David killed the giant with," he said, handing +it back after a careful examination. + +"King David!" repeated Buz, dully, "seems to me I have heard of him, +sometime or other; but I don't know about the giant." + +"Why where have you been all your life?" cried Joel, in amazement. "I +thought everybody knew about that. Did you never go to a synagogue?" + +Buz shook his bushy head. "They don't have synagogues in these parts. +The master calls us in and reads to us on the Sabbath; but I always get +sleepy when I sit right still, and so I generally get behind somebody +and go to sleep. The shepherds talk to each other a good deal about such +things, I am never with them though. I spend all my time running +errands." + +Shocked at such ignorance, Joel began to tell the shepherd king's life +with such eloquence that Buz stopped short in the road to listen. + +Seeing this the donkey stood still also, wagged its one ear, and went to +sleep. But Buz listened, wider awake than he had ever been before in his +life. + +The story was a favorite one with Joel, and he put his whole soul into +it. + +"Who told you that?" asked Buz, taking a long breath when the +interesting tale was finished. + +"Why I read it myself!" answered Joel. + +"Oh, can you read?" asked Buz, looking at Joel in much the same way that +Joel had looked at him after he killed the hawk. "I do not see how +anybody can. It puzzles me how people can look at all those crooked +black marks and call them rivers and flocks and things. I looked one +time, just where Master had been reading about a great battle. And I +didn't see a single thing that looked like a warrior or a sword or a +battle-axe, though he called them all by name. There were several little +round marks that might have been meant for sling-stones; but it was more +than I could make out, how he could get any sense out of it." + +Joel leaned back and laughed till the hills rang, laughed till the tears +stood in his eyes, and the donkey waked up and ambled on. + +Buz did not seem to be in the least disturbed by his merriment, although +he was puzzled as to its cause. He only stooped to pick up more stones +for his sling as they went on. + +It was not long till they came to some of the men,--great brawny fellows +dressed in skins, with coarse matted hair and tanned faces. How little +they knew of what was going on in the busy world outside their fields! +As Joel talked to them he found that Caesar's conquests and Hero's +murders had only come to them as vague rumors. All the petty wars and +political turmoils were unknown to them. They could talk to him only of +their flocks and their faith, both as simple as their lives. + +Joel, in his wisdom learned of the Rabbis, felt himself infinitely their +superior, child though he was. But he enjoyed his day spent with them. +He and Buz ate the ample lunch they had brought, dipped up water from +the brook in cups they made of oak-leaves, and both finally fell asleep +to the droning music of the shepherd's pipes, played softly on the +uplands. + +A distant rumble of thunder aroused them, late in the afternoon; and +they started up to find the shepherds calling in their flocks. The gaunt +sheep dogs raced to and fro, bringing the straying goats together. The +shepherds brought the sheep into line with well-aimed sling-shots, +touching them first on one side, and then on the other, as oxen are +guided by the touch of the goad. + +Joel looked up at the darkening sky with alarm. "Who would have thought +of a storm on such a day!" he exclaimed. + +Buz cocked his eyes at the horizon. "I thought it might come to this," +he said; "for as we came along this morning there were no spider-webs +on the grass; the ants had not uncovered the doors of their hills; and +all the signs pointed to wet weather. I thought though, that the time of +the latter rains had passed a week ago. I am always glad when the stormy +season is over. This one is going to be a hard one." + +"What shall we do?" asked Joel. + +Buz scratched his head. Then he looked at Joel. "You never could get +home on that trifling donkey before it overtakes us; and they'll be +worried about you. I'd best take you up to the sheep-fold. You can stay +all night there, very comfortably. I'll run home and tell them where you +are, and come back for you in the morning." + +Joel hesitated, appalled at spending the night among such dirty men; but +the heavy boom of thunder, steadily rolling nearer, silenced his +half-spoken objection. By the time the donkey had carried him up the +hillside to the stone-walled enclosure round the watch-tower, the +shepherds were at the gates with their flocks. + +Joel watched them go through the narrow passage, one by one. Each man +kept count of his own sheep, and drove them under the rough sheds put up +for their protection. + +A good-sized hut was built against the hillside, where the shepherds +might find refuge. Buz pointed it out to Joel; then he turned the donkey +into one of the sheds, and started homeward on the run. + +Joel shuddered as a blinding flash of lightning was followed by a crash +of thunder that shook the hut. The wind bore down through the trees like +some savage spirit, shrieking and moaning as it flew. Joel heard a +shout, and looked out to the opposite hillside. Buz was flying along in +break-neck race with the storm. At that rate he would soon be home. How +he seemed to enjoy the race, as his strong limbs carried him lightly as +a bird soars! + +At the top he turned to look back and laugh and wave his arms,--a sinewy +little figure standing out in bold relief against a brazen sky. + +Joel watched till he was out of sight. Then, as the wind swooped down +from the mountains, great drops of rain began to splash through the +leaves. + +The men crowded into the hut. One of them started forward to close the +door, but stopped suddenly, with his brown hairy hand uplifted. + +"Hark ye!" he exclaimed. + +Joel heard only the shivering of the wind in the tree-tops; but the +man's trained ear caught the bleating of a stray lamb, far off and very +faint. + +"I was afraid I was mistaken in my count; they jostled through the gate +so fast I could not be sure." Going to a row of pegs along the wall, he +took down a lantern hanging there and lit it; then wrapping his coat of +skins more closely around him, and calling one of the dogs, he set out +into the gathering darkness. + +Joel watched the fitful gleam of the lantern, flickering on unsteadily +as a will-o'-the-wisp. A moment later he heard the man's deep voice +calling tenderly to the lost animal; then the storm struck with such +fury that they had to stand with their backs against the door of the hut +to keep it closed. + +Flash after flash of lightning blinded them. The wind roared down the +mountain and beat against the house till Joel held his breath in terror. +It was midnight before it stopped. Joel thought of the poor shepherd out +on the hills, and shuddered. Even the men seemed uneasy about him, as +hour after hour passed, and he did not come. + +Finally he fell asleep in the corner, on a pile of woolly skins. In the +gray dawn he was awakened by a great shout. He got up, and went to the +door. There stood the shepherd. His bare limbs were cut by stones and +torn by thorns. Blood streamed from his forehead where he had been +wounded by a falling branch. The mud on his rough garments showed how +often he had slipped and fallen on the steep paths. + +Joel noticed, with a thrill of sympathy, how painfully he limped. But +there on the bowed shoulders was the lamb he had wandered so far to +find; and as the welcoming shout arose again, Joel's weak little cheer +joined gladly in. + +"How brave and strong he is," thought the boy. "He risked his life for +just one pitiful little lamb." + +The child's heart went strangely out to this rough fellow who stood +holding the shivering animal, sublimely unconscious that he had done +anything more than a simple duty. + +Joel, who felt uncommonly hungry after his supperless night, thought he +would mount the donkey and start back alone. But just as he was about to +do so, a familiar bushy head showed itself in the door of the sheepfold. +Buz had brought him some wheat-cakes and cheese to eat on the way back. + +Joel was so busy with this welcome meal that he did not talk much. Buz +kept eying him in silence, as if he longed to ask some question. At +last, when the cheese had entirely disappeared, he found courage to ask +it. + +"Were you always like that?" he said abruptly, motioning to Joel's back +and leg. Somehow the reference did not wound him as it generally did. He +began to tell Buz about the Samaritan boy who had crippled him. He never +was able to tell the story of his wrongs without growing passionately +angry. He had worked himself into a white heat by the time he had +finished. + +"I'd get even with him," said Buz, excitedly, with a wicked squint of +his eyes. + +"How would you do it?" demanded Joel. "Cripple him as he did me?" + +"Worse than that!" exclaimed Buz, stopping to take deliberate aim at a +leaf overhead, and shooting a hole exactly through the centre with his +sling. "I'd blind him as quick as that! It's a great deal worse to be +blind than lame." + +Joel closed his eyes, and rode on a few moments in darkness. Then he +opened them and gave a quick glad look around the landscape. "My! What +if I never could have opened them again," he thought. "Yes, Buz, you're +right," he said aloud. "It _is_ worse to be blind; so I shall take +Rehum's eyesight also, some time. Oh, if that time were only here!" + +Although the subject of the miracle at Cana had been constantly in the +mind of Phineas, and often near his lips, he did not speak of it to his +host until the evening before his departure. + +It was just at the close of the evening meal. Nathan ben Obed rose +half-way from his seat in astonishment, then sank back. + +"How old a man is this friend of yours?" he asked. + +"About thirty, I think," answered Phineas. "He is a little younger than +I." + +"Where was he born?" + +"In Bethlehem, I have heard it said, though his home has always been in +Nazareth." + +"Strange, strange!" muttered the man, stroking his long white beard +thoughtfully. + +Joel reached over and touched Phineas on the arm. "Will you not tell +Rabbi Nathan about the wonderful star that was seen at that time?" he +asked, in a low tone. + +"What was that?" asked the old man, arousing from his reverie. + +When Phineas had repeated his conversation with the stranger on the day +of his journey, Nathan ben Obed exchanged meaning glances with his +wife. + +"Send for the old shepherd Heber," he said. "I would have speech with +him." + +Rhoda came in to light the lamps. He bade her roll a cushioned couch +that was in one corner to the centre of the room. + +"This old shepherd Heber was born in Bethlehem," he said; "but since his +sons and grandsons have been in my employ, he has come north to live. He +used to help keep the flocks that belonged to the Temple, and that were +used for sacrifices. His has always been one of the purest of lives; and +I have never known such faith as he has. He is over a hundred years old, +so must have been quite aged at the time of the event of which he will +tell us." + +Presently an old, old man tottered into the room, leaning on the +shoulders of his two stalwart grandsons. They placed him gently on the +cushions of the couch, and then went into the court-yard to await his +readiness to return. Like the men Joel had seen the day before, they +were dressed in skins, and were wild-looking and rough. But this aged +father, with dim eyes and trembling wrinkled hands, sat before them like +some hoary patriarch, in a fine linen mantle. + +Pleased as a child, he saluted his new audience, and began to tell them +his only story. + +As the years had gone by, one by one the lights of memory had gone out +in darkness. Well-known scenes had grown dim; old faces were forgotten; +names he knew as well as his own, could not be recalled: but this one +story was as fresh and real to him, as on the night he learned it. + +The words he chose were simple, the voice was tremulous with weakness; +but he spoke with a dramatic fervor that made Joel creep nearer and +nearer, until he knelt, unknowing, at the old man's knee, spell-bound by +the wonderful tale. + +"We were keeping watch in the fields by night," began the old shepherd, +"I and my sons and my brethren. It was still and cold, and we spoke but +little to each other. Suddenly over all the hills and plains shone a +great light,--brighter than light of moon or stars or sunshine. It was +so heavenly white we knew it must be the glory of the Lord we looked +upon and we were sore afraid, and hid our faces, falling to the ground. +And, lo! an angel overhead spake to us from out of the midst of the +glory, saying, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great +joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the +city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a +sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, +lying in a manger.' + +"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host +praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, +good-will toward men!' + +"Oh, the sound of the rejoicing that filled that upper air! Ever since +in my heart have I carried that foretaste of heaven!" + +The old shepherd paused, with such a light on his upturned face that he +seemed to his awestruck listeners to be hearing again that same angelic +chorus,--the chorus that rang down from the watch-towers of heaven, +across earth's lowly sheep-fold, on that first Christmas night. + +There was a solemn hush. Then he said, "And when they were gone away, +and the light and the song were no more with us, we spake one to +another, and rose in haste and went to Bethlehem. And we found the Babe +lying in a manger with Mary its mother; and we fell down and worshipped +Him. + +"Thirty years has it been since the birth of Israel's Messiah; and I sit +and wonder all the day,--wonder when He will appear once more to His +people. Surely the time must be well nigh here when He may claim His +kingdom. O Lord, let not Thy servant depart until these eyes that +beheld the Child shall have seen the King in His beauty!" + +Joel remained kneeling beside old Heber, perfectly motionless. He was +fitting together the links that he had lately found. A child, heralded +by angels, proclaimed by a star worshipped by the Magi! A man changing +water into wine at only a word! + +"I shall yet see Him!" exclaimed the voice of old Heber, with such +sublime assurance of faith that it found a response in every heart. + +There was another solemn stillness, so deep that the soft fluttering of +a night-moth around the lamp startled them. + +Then the child's voice rang out, eager and shrill, but triumphant as if +inspired: "Rabbi Phineas, _He_ it was who changed the water into +wine!--This friend of Nazareth and the babe of Bethlehem are the same!" + +The heart of the carpenter was strangely stirred, but it was full of +doubt. Not that the Christ had been born,--the teachings of all his +lifetime led him to expect that; but that the chosen One could be a +friend of his,--the thought was too wonderful for him. + +The old shepherd sat on the couch, feebly twisting his fingers, and +talking to himself. He was repeating bits of the story he had just told +them: "And, lo, an angel overhead!" he muttered. Then he looked up, +whispering softly, "Glory to God in the highest--and peace, yes, on +earth peace!" + +"He seems to have forgotten everything else," said Nathan, signalling to +the men outside to lead him home. "His mind is wiped away entirely, that +it may keep unspotted the record of that night's revelation. He tells it +over and over, whether he has a listener or not." + +They led him gently out, the white-haired, white-souled old shepherd +Heber. It seemed to Joel that the wrinkled face was illuminated by some +inner light, not of this world, and that he lingered among men only to +repeat to them, over and over, his one story. That strange sweet story +of Bethlehem's first Christmas-tide. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Next morning a goodly train set out from the gates of Nathan ben Obed. +It was near the time of the feast of the Passover, and he, with many of +his household, was going down to Jerusalem. + +The family and guests went first on mules and asses. Behind them +followed a train of servants, driving the lambs, goats, and oxen to be +offered as sacrifices in the temple, or sold in Jerusalem to other +pilgrims. + +All along the highway, workmen were busy repairing the bridges, and +cleaning the springs and wells, soon to be used by the throngs of +travellers. + +All the tombs near the great thoroughfares were being freshly +white-washed; they gleamed with a dazzling purity through the green +trees, only to warn passers-by of the defilement within. For had those +on their way to the feast approached too near these homes of the dead, +even unconsciously, they would have been accounted unclean, and unfit +to partake of the Passover. Nothing escaped Joel's quick sight, from the +tulips and marigolds flaming in the fields, to the bright-eyed little +viper crawling along the stone-wall. + +But while he looked, he never lost a word that passed between his friend +Phineas and their host. The pride of an ancient nation took possession +of him as he listened to the prophecies they quoted. + +Every one they met along the way coming from Capernaum had something to +say about this new prophet who had arisen in Galilee. When they reached +the gate of the city, a great disappointment awaited them. _He had been +there, and gone again._ + +Nathan ben Obed and his train tarried only one night in the place, and +then pressed on again towards Jerusalem. Phineas went with them. + +"You shall go with us next year," he said to Joel; "then you will be +over twelve. I shall take my own little ones too, and their mother." + +"Only one more year," exclaimed Joel, joyfully. "If that passes as +quickly as the one just gone, it will soon be here." + +"Look after my little family," said the carpenter, at parting. "Come +every day to the work, if you wish, just as when I am here; and +remember, my lad, you are almost a man." + +Almost a man! The words rang in the boy's thoughts all day as he pounded +and cut, keeping time to the swinging motion of hammer and saw. Almost a +man! But what kind of one? Crippled and maimed, shorn of the strength +that should have been his pride, beggared of his priestly birthright. + +Almost, it might be, but never in its fulness, could he hope to attain +the proud stature of a perfect man. + +A fiercer hate sprang up for the enemy who had made him what he was; and +the wild burning for revenge filled him so he could not work. He put +away his tools, and went up the narrow outside stairway that led to the +flat roof of the carpenter's house. It was called the "upper chamber." +Here a latticed pavilion, thickly overgrown with vines, made a cool +green retreat where he might rest and think undisturbed. + +Sitting there, he could see the flash of white sails on the blue lake, +and slow-moving masses of fleecy clouds in the blue of the sky above. +They brought before him the picture of the flocks feeding on the +pastures of Nathan ben Obed. + +Then, naturally enough, there flashed through his mind a thought of Buz. +He seemed to see him squinting his little eyes to take aim at a leaf +overhead. He heard the stone whirr through it, as Buz said: "I'd blind +him!" + +Some very impossible plans crept into Joel's day-dreams just then. He +imagined himself sitting in a high seat, wrapped in robes of state; +soldiers stood around him to carry out his slightest wish. The door +would open and Rehum would be brought forth in fetters. + +"What is your will concerning the prisoner, O most gracious sovereign," +the jailer would ask. + +Joel closed his eyes, and waved his hand before an imaginary audience. +"Away with him,--to the torture! Wrench his limbs on the rack! Brand his +eyelids with hot irons! Let him suffer all that man can suffer and live! +Thus shall it be done unto the man on whom the king delighteth to take +vengeance!" + +Joel was childish enough to take a real satisfaction in this scene he +conjured up. But as it faded away, he was man enough to realize it could +never come to pass, save in his imagination; he could never be in such a +position for revenge, unless,-- + +That moment a possible way seemed to open for him. Phineas would +probably see his friend of Nazareth at the Passover. What could be more +natural than that the old friendship should be renewed. He whose hand +had changed the water into wine should finally cast out the alien king +who usurped the throne of Israel, for one in whose veins the blood of +David ran royal red,--what was more to be expected than that? + +The Messiah would come to His kingdom, and then--and then--the thought +leaped to its last daring limit. + +Phineas, who had been His earliest friend and playfellow, would he not +be lifted to the right hand of power? Through him, then, lay the royal +road to revenge. + +The thought lifted him unconsciously to his feet. He stood with his arms +out-stretched in the direction of the far-away Temple, like some young +prophet. David's cry of triumph rose to his lips: "Thou hast girded me +with strength unto the battle," he murmured. "Thou hast also given me +the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me!" + +A sweet baby voice at the foot of the steps brought him suddenly down +from the height of his intense feeling. + +"Joel! Joel!" called little Ruth, "where is you?" + +Then Jesse's voice added, "We're all a-coming up for you to tell us a +story." + +Up the stairs they swarmed to the roof, the carpenter's children and +half-a-dozen of their little playmates. + +Joel, with his head still in the clouds, told them of a mighty king who +was coming to slay all other kings, and change all tears--the waters of +affliction--into the red wine of joy. + +"H'm! I don't think much of that story," said Jesse, with out-spoken +candor. "I'd rather hear about Goliath, or the bears that ate up the +forty children." + +But Joel was in no mood for such stories, just then. On some slight +pretext he escaped from his exacting audience, and went down to the +sea-shore. Here, skipping stones across the water, or writing idly in +the sand, he was free to go on with his fascinating day-dreams. + +For the next two weeks the boy gave up work entirely. He haunted the +toll-gates and public streets, hoping to hear some startling news from +Jerusalem. He was so full of the thought that some great revolution was +about to take place, that he could not understand how people could be +so indifferent. All on fire with the belief that this man of Nazareth +was the one in whom lay the nation's hope, he looked and longed for the +return of Phineas, that he might learn more of Him. + +But Phineas had little to tell when he came back. He had met his friend +twice in Jerusalem,--the same gentle quiet man he had always known, +making no claims, working no wonders. Phineas had heard of His driving +the moneychangers out of the Temple one day, and those who sold doves in +its sacred courts, although he had not witnessed the scene. + +The carpenter was rather surprised that He should have made such a +public disturbance. + +"Rabbi Phineas," said Joel, with a trembling voice, "don't you think +your friend is the prophet we are expecting?" + +Phineas shook his head. "No, my lad, I am sure of it now." + +"But the herald angels and the star," insisted the boy. + +"They must have proclaimed some one else. He is the best man I ever +knew; but there is no more of the king in His nature, than there is in +mine." + +The man's positive answer seemed to shatter Joel's last hope. Downcast +and disappointed, he went back to his work. Only with money could he +accomplish his life's object, and only by incessant work could he earn +the shining shekels that he needed. + +Phineas wondered sometimes at the dogged persistence with which the +child stuck to his task, in spite of his tired, aching body. + +He had learned to make sandal-wood jewel-boxes, and fancifully wrought +cups to hold the various dyes and cosmetics used by the ladies of the +court. + +Several times, during the following months, he begged a sail in some of +the fishing-boats that landed at the town of Tiberias. Having gained the +favor of the keeper of the gates, by various little gifts of his own +manufacture, he always found a ready admittance to the palace. + +To the ladies of the court, the sums they paid for his pretty wares +seemed trifling; but to Joel the small bag of coins hidden in the folds +of his clothes was a little fortune, daily growing larger. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +IT was Sabbath morning in the house of Laban the Pharisee. Joel, sitting +alone in the court-yard, could hear his aunt talking to the smaller +children, as she made them ready to take with her to the synagogue. + +From the upper chamber on the roof, came also a sound of voices, for two +guests had arrived the day before, and were talking earnestly with their +host. Joel already knew the object of their visit. + +They had been there before, when the preaching of John Baptist had drawn +such great crowds from all the cities to the banks of the Jordan. They +had been sent out then by the authorities in Jerusalem to see what +manner of man was this who, clothed in skins and living in the +wilderness, could draw the people so wonderfully, and arouse such +intense excitement. Now they had come on a like errand, although on +their own authority. + +Another prophet had arisen whom this John Baptist had declared to be +greater than himself. They had seen Him drive the moneychangers from the +Temple; they had heard many wild rumors concerning Him. So they followed +Him to His home in the little village of Nazareth, where they heard Him +talk in the synagogue. + +They had seen the listening crowd grow amazed at the eloquence of His +teaching, and then indignant that one so humble as a carpenter's son +should claim that Isaiah's prophecies had been fulfilled in Himself. + +They had seen Him driven from the home of His boyhood, and now had come +to Capernaum that they might be witnesses in case this impostor tried to +lead these people astray by repeating His claims. + +All this Joel heard, and more, as the earnest voices came distinctly +down to him through the deep hush of the Sabbath stillness. It shook his +faith somewhat, even in the goodness of this friend of his friend +Phineas, that these two learned doctors of the Law should consider Him +an impostor. + +He stood aside respectfully for them to pass, as they came down the +outside stairway, and crossed the court-yard on their way to the +morning service. + +Their long, flowing, white robes, their broad phylacteries, their +dignified bearing, impressed him greatly. He knew they were wise, good +men whose only aim in life was to keep the letter of the Law, down to +its smallest details. He followed them through the streets until they +came to the synagogue. They gave no greeting to any one they passed, but +walked with reverently bowed heads that their pious meditation might not +be disturbed by the outside world. His aunt had already gone by the way +of the back streets, as it was customary for women to go, her face +closely veiled. + +The synagogue, of finely chiselled limestone, with its double rows of +great marble pillars, stood in its white splendor, the pride of the +town. It had been built by the commander of the garrison who, though a +Roman centurion, was a believer in the God of the Hebrews, and greatly +loved by the whole people. + +Joel glanced up at the lintel over the door, where Aaron's rod and a pot +of manna carved in the stone were constant reminders to the daily +worshippers of the Hand that fed and guided them from generation to +generation. + +Joel limped slowly to his place in the congregation. In the seats of +honor, facing it, sat his uncle and his guests, among the rulers of the +synagogue. + +For a moment his eyes wandered curiously around, hoping for a glimpse of +the man whose fame was beginning to spread all over Galilee. It had been +rumored that He would be there. But Joel saw only familiar faces. The +elders took their seats. + +During the reading of the usual psalm, the reciting of a benediction, +and even the confession of the creed, Joel's thoughts wandered. When the +reader took up his scroll to read the passages from Deuteronomy, the boy +stole one more quick glance all around. But as the whole congregation +arose, and turned facing the east, he resolutely fixed his mind on the +duties of the hour. + +The eighteen benedictions, or prayers, were recited in silence by each +devout worshipper. Then the leader repeated them aloud, all the +congregation responding with their deep Amen! and Amen! Joel always +liked that part of the service and the chanting that followed. + +Another roll of parchment was brought out. The boy looked up with +interest. Probably one of his uncle's guests would be invited to read +from it, and speak to the people. + +No, it was a stranger whom he had not noticed before, sitting behind one +of the tall elders, who was thus honored. + +Joel's heart beat so fast that the blood throbbed against his ear-drums, +as he heard the name called. It was the friend of his friend Phineas, +_the Rabbi Jesus_. + +Joel bent forward, all his soul in his eyes, as the stranger unrolled +the book, and began to read from the Prophets. The words were old +familiar ones; he even knew them by heart. But never before had they +carried with them such music, such meaning. When He laid aside the roll, +and began to speak, every fibre in the boy's being thrilled in response +to the wonderful eloquence of that voice and teaching. + +The whole congregation sat spell-bound, forgetful of everything except +the earnestness of the speaker who moved and swayed them as the wind +does the waving wheat. + +Suddenly there arose a wild shriek, a sort of demon-like howl that +transfixed them with its piercing horror. Every one turned to see the +cause of the startling sound. There, near the door, stood a man whom +they all knew,--an unhappy creature said to be possessed of an unclean +spirit. + +"Ha!" he cried, in a blood-curdling tone. "What have we to do with Thee, +Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know Thee, who thou +art, the holy One of God!" + +There was a great stir, especially in the woman's gallery; and those +standing nearest him backed away as far as possible. + +Every face was curious and excited, at this sudden interruption,--every +face but one; the Rabbi Jesus alone was calm. + +"Hold thy peace and come out of him!" He commanded. There was one more +shriek, worse than before, as the man fell at His feet in a convulsion; +but in a moment he stood up again, quiet and perfectly sane. The wild +look was gone from his eyes. Whatever had been the strange spell that +had bound him before, he was now absolutely free. + +There was another stir in the woman's gallery. Contrary to all rule or +custom, an aged woman pushed her way out. Down the stairs she went, +unveiled through the ranks of the men, to reach her son whom she had +just seen restored to reason. With a glad cry she fell forward, +fainting, in his arms, and was borne away to the little home, now no +longer darkened by the shadow of a sore affliction. + +Little else was talked about that day, until the rumor of another +miracle began to spread through the town. Phineas, stopping at Laban's +house on his way home from an afternoon service, confirmed the truth of +it. + +One of his neighbors had been dangerously ill with a fever that was +common in that part of the country; she was the mother-in-law of Simon +bar Jonah. It was at his home that the Rabbi Jesus had been invited to +dine. + +As soon as He entered the house, they besought Him to heal her. Standing +beside her, He rebuked the fever; and immediately she arose, and began +to help her daughter prepare for the entertainment of their guest. + +"Abigail was there yesterday," said Phineas, "to carry some broth she +had made. She thought then it would be impossible for the poor creature +to live through the night. I saw the woman a few hours ago, and she is +perfectly well and strong." + +That night when the sun was setting, and the Sabbath was at an end, a +motley crowd streamed along the streets to the door of Simon bar Jonah. +Men carried on couches; children in their mother's arms; those wasted by +burning fevers; those shaken by unceasing palsy; the lame; the blind; +the death-stricken,--all pressing hopefully on. + +What a scene in that little court-yard as the sunset touched the wan +faces and smiled into dying eyes. Hope for the hopeless! Balm for the +broken in body and spirit! There was rejoicing in nearly every home in +Capernaum that night, for none were turned away. Not one was refused. It +is written, "He laid His hand on every one of them, and healed them." + +That he might not seem behind his guests in zeal and devotion to the +Law, the dignified Laban would not follow the crowds. + +"Let others be carried away by strange doctrines and false prophets, if +they will," he declared; "as for me and my household, we will cling to +the true faith of our fathers." + +So the three sat in the upper chamber on the roof, and discussed the new +teacher with many shakes of their wise heads. + +"It is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath day," they declared. "Twice +during the past day He has openly transgressed the Law. He will lead all +Galilee astray!" + +But Galilee cared little how far the path turned from the narrow faith +of the Pharisees, so long as it led to life and healing. + +Down in the garden below, the children climbed up on the grape-arbor, +and peered through the vines at the surging crowds which they would have +joined, had it not been for Laban's strict commands. + +One by one they watched people whom they knew go by, some carried on +litters, some leaning on the shoulders of friends. One man crawled +painfully along on his hands and knees. + +After awhile the same people began to come back. + +"Look, quick, Joel!" one of the children cried; "there goes Simon ben +Levi. Why, his palsy is all gone! He doesn't shake a bit now! And +there's little Martha that lives out near Aunt Rebecca's! Don't you know +how white and thin she looked when they carried her by a little while +ago? See! she is running along by herself now as well as we are!" + +The children could hardly credit their own sense of sight, when +neighbors they had known all their lives to be bed-ridden invalids came +back cured, singing and praising God. + +It was a sight they never could forget. So they watched wonderingly till +darkness fell, and the last happy-hearted healed one had gone home to a +rejoicing household. + +While the fathers on the roof were deciding they would have naught of +this man, the children in the grape-arbor were storing up in their +simple little hearts these proofs of his power and kindness. + +Then they gathered around Joel on the doorstep, while he repeated the +story that the old shepherd Heber had told him, of the angels and the +star, and the baby they had worshipped that night in Bethlehem. + +"Come, children," called his Aunt Leah, as she lit the lamp that was to +burn all night. "Come! It is bed-time!" + +His cousin Hannah lingered a moment after the others had gone in, to +say, "That was a pretty story, Joel. Why don't you go and ask the good +man to straighten your back?" + +Strange as it may seem, this was the first time the thought had occurred +to him that he might be benefited himself. He had been so long +accustomed to thinking of himself as hopelessly lame, that the wonderful +cures he had witnessed had awakened no hope for himself. A new life +seemed to open up before him at the little girl's question. He sat on +the doorstep thinking about it until his Uncle Laban came down and +crossly ordered him to go to bed. + +He went in, saying softly to himself, "I will go to him to-morrow; yes, +early in the morning!" + +Strange that an old proverb should cross his mind just then. "Boast not +thyself of to-morrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +WHEN Joel went out on the streets next morning, although it was quite +early, he saw a disappointed crowd coming up from the direction of +Simon's house on the lake shore. + +"Where have all these people been?" he asked of the baker's boy, whom he +ran against at the first corner. + +The boy stopped whistling, and rested his basket of freshly baked bread +against his knee, as he answered:-- + +"They were looking for the Rabbi who healed so many people last night. +Say! do you know," he added quickly, as if the news were too good to +keep, "he healed my mother last night. You cannot think how different it +seems at home, to have her going about strong and well like she used to +be." + +Joel's eyes brightened. "Do you think he'll do anything for me, if I go +to him now?" he asked wistfully. "Do you suppose he could straighten out +such a crooked back as mine? Look how much shorter this leg is than the +other. Oh, _do_ you think he could make them all right?" + +The boy gave him a critical survey, and then answered, emphatically, +"Yes! It really does not look like it would be as hard to straighten you +as old Jeremy, the tailor's father. He was twisted all out of shape, you +know. Well, I'll declare! There he goes now!" + +Joel looked across the street. The wrinkled face of the old +basket-weaver was a familiar sight in the market; but Joel could hardly +recognize the once crippled form, now restored to its original +shapeliness. + +"I am going right now," he declared, starting to run in his excitement. +"I can't wait another minute." + +"But he's gone!" the boy called after him. "That's why the people are +all coming back." + +Joel sat down suddenly on a ledge projecting from the stone-wall. +"Gone!" he echoed drearily. It was as if he had been starving, and the +life-giving food held to his famished lips had been suddenly snatched +away. Both his heart and his feet felt like lead when he got up after +awhile, and dragged himself slowly along to the carpenter's house. + +[Illustration: "'I PEEPED OUT 'TWEEN 'E WOSE--VINES'"] + +It was such a bitter disappointment to be so near the touch of healing, +and then to miss it altogether. + +No cheerful tap of the hammer greeted him. The idle tools lay on the +deserted workbench. "Disappointed again!" he thought. Then the doves +cooed, and he caught a glimpse of Ruth's fair hair down among the garden +lilies. + +"Where is your father, little one?" he called. + +"Gone away wiv 'e good man 'at makes everybody well," she answered. Then +she came skipping down the path to stand close beside him, and say +confidentially: "I saw Him--'e good man--going by to Simon's house. I +peeped out 'tween 'e wose-vines, and He looked wite into my eyes wiv His +eyes, and I couldn't help loving Him!" + +Joel looked into the beautiful baby face, thinking what a picture it +must have made, as framed in roses it smiled out on the Tender-hearted +One, going on His mission of help and healing. + +With her little hand in his, she led him back to hope, for she took him +to her mother, who comforted him with the assurance that Phineas +expected to be home soon, and doubtless his friend would be with him. + +So there came another time to work by himself and dream of the hour +surely dawning. And the dreams were doubly sweet now; for side by side +with his hope of revenge, was the belief in his possible cure. + +They heard only once from the absent ones. Word came back that a leper +had been healed. Joel heard it first, down at the custom-house. He had +gotten into the way of strolling down in that direction after his work +was done; for here the many trading-vessels from across the lake, or +those that shipped from Capernaum, had to stop and pay duty. Here, too, +the great road of Eastern commerce passed which led from Damascus to the +harbors of the West. So here he would find a constant stream of +travellers, bringing the latest news from the outside world. + +The boy did not know, as he limped up and down the water's edge, longing +for some word from his absent friends, that near by was one who watched +almost as eagerly as himself. + +It was Levi-Matthew, one of the officials, sitting in the seat of +custom. Sprung from the same priestly tribe as Joel, he had sunk so low, +in accepting the office of tax-gatherer, that the righteous Laban would +not have touched him so much as with the tip of his sandal. + +"Bears and lions," said a proverb, "might be the fiercest wild beasts in +the forests; but publicans and informers were the worst in cities." + +One could not bear witness in the courts, and the disgrace extended to +the whole family. They were even classed with robbers and murderers. No +doubt there was deep cause for such a feeling; as a class they were +unscrupulous and unjust. There might have been good ones among their +number, but the company they kept condemned them to the scorn of high +and low. + +When a Jew hates, or a Jew scorns, be sure it is thoroughly done; there +is no half-way course for his intense nature to take. + +So this son of Levi, sitting in the seat of custom, and this son of Levi +strolling past him, were, socially, as far apart as the east is from the +west,--as unlike as thorn and blossom on the same tribal stem. + +Matthew knew all the fishermen and ship-owners that thronged the busy +beach in front of him. The sons of Jonah and of Zebedee passed him +daily; and he must have wondered when he saw them throw down their nets +and leave everything to follow a stranger. + +He must have wondered also at the reports on every tongue, and the +sights he had seen himself of miraculous healing. But while strangely +drawn towards this new teacher from Nazareth, it could have been with no +thought that the hand and the voice were for him. He was a publican, and +how could they reach to such depths? + +A caravan had just stopped. The pack-animals were being unloaded, bales +and packages opened, private letters pried into. The insolent officials +were tossing things right and left, as they made a list of the taxable +goods. + +Joel was watching them with as much interest as if he had not witnessed +such scenes dozens of times before, till he noticed a group gathering +around one of the drivers. He was telling what he had seen on his way to +Capernaum. Several noisy companions kept interrupting him to bear +witness to the truth of his statements. + +"And he who but a moment before had been the most miserable of lepers +stood up before us all, cleansed of his leprosy. His skin was soft and +fair as a child's, and his features were restored to him," said the +driver. + +Joel and Levi-Matthew stood side by side. At another time the boy might +have drawn his clothes away to keep from brushing against the despised +tax-gatherer. But he never noticed now that their elbows touched. + +When he had heard all there was to be told, he limped away to carry the +news to Abigail. To know that others were being cured daily made him all +the more impatient for the return of this friend of Phineas. + +The publican turned again to his pen and his account-book. He, too, +looked forward with a burning heart to the return of the Nazarene, +unknowing why he did so. + +At last Joel heard of the return, in a very unexpected way. There were +guests in the house of Laban again. One of the rabbis who had been there +before, and a scribe from Jerusalem. Now there were longer conferences +in the upper chamber, and graver shakings of the head, over this false +prophet whose fame was spreading wider. + +The miracle of healing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, when he +had gone down to Jerusalem to one of the many feasts, had stirred Judea +to its farthest borders. So these two men had been sent to investigate. + +On the very afternoon of their arrival, a report flew through the +streets that the Rabbi Jesus was once more in the town. Their host led +them with all the haste their dignity would allow, to the house where He +was said to be preaching. The common people fell back when they saw +them, and allowed them to pass into the centre of the throng. + +The Rabbi stood in the doorway, so that both those in the house and +without could distinctly hear Him. The scribe had never seen Him before, +and in spite of his deep-seated prejudice could not help admiring the +man whom he had come prepared to despise. It was no wild fanatic who +stood before him, no noisy debater whose fiery eloquence would be likely +to excite and inflame His hearers. + +He saw a man of gentlest dignity; truth looked out from the depths of +His calm eyes. Every word, every gesture, carried with it the conviction +that He who spoke taught with God-given authority. + +The scribe began to grow uneasy as he listened, carried along by the +earnest tones of the speaker. + +There was a great commotion on the edge of the crowd, as some one tried +to push through to the centre. + +"Stand back! Go away!" demanded angry voices. + +The scribe was a tall man, and by stretching a little, managed to see +over the heads of the others. Four men, bearing a helpless paralytic, +were trying to carry him through the throngs; but they would not make +room for this interruption. + +After vainly hunting for some opening through which they might press, +the men mounted the steep, narrow staircase on the outside of the +building, and drew the man up, hammock and all, to the flat roof on +which they stood. + +There was a sound of scraping and scratching as they broke away the +brush and mortar that formed the frail covering of the roof. Then the +people in the room below saw slowly coming down upon them between the +rafters, this man whom no obstacle could keep back from the Great +Physician. + +But the paralyzed hands could not lift themselves in supplication; the +helpless tongue could frame no word of pleading,--only the eyes of the +sick man could look up into the pitying face bent over him, and implore +a blessing. + +The scribe leaned forward, confidently expecting to hear the man bidden +to arise. To his surprise and horror, the words he heard were: "Son, thy +_sins_ be forgiven thee!" + +He looked at Laban and his companion, and the three exchanged meaning +glances. When they looked again at the speaker, His eyes seemed to read +their inmost thoughts. + +"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" He asked, with startling +distinctness. "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy +sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? +But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive +sins," here He turned to the helpless form lying at His feet, "I say +unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way unto thine house." + +The man bounded to his feet, and picking up the heavy rug on which he +had been lying, went running and leaping out of their midst. + +Without a word, Laban and his two guests drew their clothes carefully +around them, and picked their way through the crowd. Phineas, who stood +at the gate, gave them a respectful greeting. Laban only turned his eyes +away with a scowl, and passed coldly on. + +"The man is a liar and a blasphemer!" exclaimed the scribe, as they sat +once more in the privacy of Laban's garden. + +"Only God can forgive sins!" added his companion. "This paralytic should +have taken a sin-offering to the priest. For only by the blood of +sacrifice can one hope to obtain pardon." + +"Still He healed him," spoke up the scribe, musingly. + +"Only through the power of Satan!" interrupted Laban. "When He says He +can forgive sins, He blasphemes." + +The other Pharisee leaned forward to say, in an impressive whisper: +"Then you know the Law on that point. He should be stoned to death, His +body hung on a tree, and then buried with shame!" + +It was not long after that Joel, just back from a trip to Tiberias in a +little sailing-boat, came into the garden. He had been away since early +morning, so had heard nothing of what had just occurred; he had had good +luck in disposing of his wares, and was feeling unusually cheerful. +Hearing voices in the corner of the garden, he was about to pass out +again, when his uncle called him sternly to come to him at once. + +Surprised at the command, he obeyed, and was questioned and +cross-questioned by all three. It was very little he could tell them +about his friend's plans; but he acknowledged proudly that Phineas had +always known this famous man from Nazareth, even in childhood, and was +one of his most devoted followers. + +"This man Phineas is a traitor to the faith!" roared Laban. "He is a +dangerous man, and in league with these fellows to do great evil to our +nation." + +The scribe and the rabbi nodded approvingly. + +"Hear me, now!" he cried, sternly. "Never again are you to set foot over +his threshold, or have any communication whatsoever with him or his +associates. I make no idle threat; if you disobey me in this, you will +have cause to wish you had never been born. You may leave us now!" + +Too surprised and frightened to say a word, the child slipped away. To +give up his daily visit to the carpenter's house, was to give up all +that made his life tolerable; while to be denied even speaking to his +associates, meant to abandon all hope of cure. + +But he dared not rebel; obedience to those in authority was too +thoroughly taught in those days to be lightly disregarded. But his uncle +seemed to fear that his harsh command would be eluded in some way, and +kept such a strict watch over him, that he rarely got beyond the borders +of the garden by himself. + +One day he was all alone in the grape-arbor, looking out into the +streets that he longed to be in, since their freedom had been denied +him. + +A little girl passed, carrying one child in her arms, and talking to +another who clung to her skirts. It was Jerusha. + +Joel threw a green grape at her to attract her attention, and then +beckoned her mysteriously to come nearer. She set the baby on the +ground, and gave him her bracelet to play with, while she listened to a +whispered account of his wrongs through the latticed arbor. + +"It's a shame!" she declared indignantly. "I'll go right down to the +carpenter's house and tell them why you cannot go there any more. And +I'll keep watch on all that happens, and let you know. I go past here +every day, and if I have any news, I'll toss a pebble over the wall and +cluck like a hen. Then if nobody is watching, you can come to this hole +in the arbor again." + +The next day, as Joel was going in great haste to the baker's, whither +his aunt had sent him, he heard some one behind him calling him to wait. +In another moment Jerusha was in speaking distance, nearly bent double +with the weight of her little brother, whom she was carrying as usual. + +"There!" she said, with a puff of relief, as she put him on his own +feet. "Wait till I get my breath! It's no easy thing to carry such a +load and run at the same time! How did you get out?" + +"There was an errand to be done, and no one else to do it," answered +Joel, "so Aunt sent me." + +"Oh, I've got such news for you!" she exclaimed. "Guess what has +happened! Your Rabbi Jesus has asked Levi-Matthew to be one of His +followers, and go around with Him wherever He goes. Think of it! One of +those horrid tax-gatherers! He settled his accounts and gave up his +position in the custom-house yesterday. And he is getting ready for a +great feast. I heard the butcher and the wine-dealer both telling about +the big orders he had given them. + +"All the publicans and low common people that are his friends are +invited. Yes, and so is your friend the carpenter. Think of that, now! +He is going to sit down and eat with such people! Of course respectable +folks will never have anything more to do with him after that! I guess +your uncle was right about him, after all!" + +Both the little girl's face and manner expressed intense disgust. + +Joel was shocked. "Oh, are you sure?" he cried. "You certainly must be +mistaken! It cannot be so!" + +"I guess I know what I see with my own eyes, and hear with my own ears!" +she retorted, angrily. "My father says they are a bad lot. People that +go with publicans are just as unclean themselves. If you know so much +more than everybody else, I'll not trouble myself to run after you with +any more news. Mistaken, indeed!" + +With her head held high, and her nose scornfully turned up, she jerked +her little brother past him, and went quickly around the corner of the +street. + +The indignation of some of the rabbis knew no bounds. "It has turned out +just as I predicted," said the scribe to Laban, at supper. "They are +nothing but a set of gluttons and wine-bibbers!" + +There was nothing else talked of during the entire meal. How Joel's +blood boiled as he listened to their conversation! The food seemed to +choke him. As they applied one coarse epithet after another to his +friend Phineas, all the kindness and care this man had ever given him +seemed to rise up before him. But when they turned on the Nazarene, all +the stories Joel had heard in the carpenter's house of His gentle +sinless childhood, all the tokens he had seen himself of His pure +unselfish manhood, seemed to cry out against such gross injustice. + +It was no light thing for a child to contradict the doctors of the Law, +and, in a case of this kind, little less than a crime to take the stand +Joel did. + +But the memory of two faces gave him courage: that of Phineas as it had +looked on him through all those busy happy hours in the carpenter's +home; the other face he had seen but once, that day of healing in the +synagogue,--who, having once looked into the purity of those eyes, the +infinite tenderness of that face, could sit calmly by and raise no voice +against the calumny of his enemies? + +The little cripple was white to the lips, and he trembled from head to +foot as he stood up to speak. + +The scribe lifted up both hands, and turned to Laban with a meaning +shrug of the shoulders. "To think of finding such heresy in your own +household!" he exclaimed. "Among your own children!" + +"He is no child of mine!" retorted Laban. "Nor shall he stay among +them!" Then he turned to Joel. + +"Boy, take back every word you have just uttered! Swear you will +renounce this man,--this son of perdition,--and never have aught to say +well of Him again!" + +Joel looked around the table, at each face that shone out pale and +excited in the yellow lamplight. His eyes were dilated with fear; his +heart thumped so in the awful pause that followed, that he thought +everybody else must hear it. + +"I cannot!" he said hoarsely. "Oh, I cannot!" + +"Then take yourself out of my sight forever. The doors of this house +shall never open for you again!" + +There was a storm of abuse from the angry man at this open defiance of +his authority. With these two cold, stern men to nod approval at his +zealousness, he went to greater lengths than he might otherwise have +done. + +With one more frightened glance around the table, the child hurried out +of the room. The door into the street creaked after him, and Joel limped +out into the night, with his uncle's curse ringing in his ears. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +PHINEAS, going along the beach that night, in the early moonlight, +towards his home, saw a little figure crouched in the shadow of a low +building beside the wharf. It was shaking with violent sobs. He went up +to the child, and took its hands down from its wet face, with a +comforting expression of pity. Then he started back in surprise. It was +Joel! + +"Why, my child! My poor child!" he exclaimed, putting his arm around the +trembling, misshapen form. "What is the meaning of all this?" + +"Uncle Laban has driven me away from home!" sobbed the boy. "He was +angry because you and Rabbi Jesus were invited to Levi-Matthew's feast. +He says I have denied the faith, and am worse than an infidel. He says I +am fit only to be cast out with the dogs and publicans!--and--and--" he +ended with a wail. "Oh, he sent me away with his curse!" + +Phineas drew him closer, and stroked the head on his shoulder in pitying +silence. + +"Fatherless and motherless and lame!" the boy sobbed bitterly. "And now, +a homeless outcast, blighted by a curse, I have been sitting here with +my feet in the dark water, thinking how easy it would be to slip down +into it and forget; but, Rabbi Phineas, that face will not let me,--that +face of your friend,--I keep seeing it all the time!" + +Phineas gathered the boy so close in his arms that Joel could feel his +strong, even heart-beats. + +"My child," he said solemnly, "call me no more, Rabbi! Henceforth, it is +to be _father_ Phineas. You shall be to me as my own son!" + +"But the curse!" sobbed Joel. "The curse that is set upon me! It will +blight you too!" + +"Nay," was the quiet answer; "for it is written, 'As the bird by +wandering, as the swallow by flying, _so the curse, causeless, shall not +come_.'" + +But the boy still shook as with a chill. His face and hands were burning +hot. + +"Come!" said Phineas. He picked him up in his strong arms, and carried +him down the beach to Abigail's motherly care and comforting. + +"He will be a long time getting over the shock of this," she said to +her husband, when he was at last soothed to sleep. + +"Ah, loyal little heart!" he answered, "he has suffered much for the +sake of his friendship with us!" + +Poor little storm-tossed bark! In the days that followed he had reason +to bless the boisterous winds, that blew him to such a safe and happy +harbor! + + * * * * * + +Over on the horns of Mount Hattin, the spring morning began to shine. +The light crept slowly down the side of the old mountain, till it fell +on a little group of men talking earnestly together. It was the Preacher +of Galilee, who had just chosen twelve men from among those who followed +Him to help Him in His ministry. + +They gathered around Him in the fresh mountain dawn, as He pictured the +life in store for them. Strange they did not quail before it, and turn +back disheartened. Nay, not strange! For in the weeks they had been with +Him, they had learned to love Him so, that His "follow me," that drew +them from the toll-gate and fishing-boat, was stronger than ties of home +and kindred. + +Just about this time, Phineas and Joel were starting out from Capernaum +to the mountain. Hundreds of people were already on the way; people who +had come from all parts of Judea, and beyond the Jordan. Clouds of dust +rose above the highway as the travellers trudged along. + +Joel was obliged to walk slowly, so that by the time they reached the +plain below, a great multitude had gathered. + +"Let's get close," he whispered. He had heard that those who barely +touched the garments of the strange Rabbi were made whole, and it was +with the hope that he might steal up and touch Him unobserved that he +had begged Phineas to take him on such a long, painful walk. + +"There is too great a crowd, now," answered Phineas. "Let us rest here +awhile, and listen. Let me lift you up on this big rock, so that you can +see. 'Sh! He is speaking!" + +Joel looked up, and, for the second time in his life, listened to words +that thrilled him like a trumpet call,--words that through eighteen +hundred years have not ceased to vibrate; with what mighty power they +must have fallen when, for the first time, they broke the morning +stillness of those mountain wilds! + +Joel forgot the press of people about him, forgot even where he was, as +sentence after sentence seemed to lift him out of himself, till he +could catch glimpses of lofty living such as he had never even dreamed +of before. + +Round by round, he seemed to be carried up some high ladder of thought +by that voice, away from all that was common and low and earthly, to a +summit of infinite love and light. + +Still the voice led on, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'An eye +for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" + +Joel started so violently at hearing his own familiar motto, that he +nearly lost his balance on the rock. + +"But I say unto you that you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite +thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Ye have heard +that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine +enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, +do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use +you, and persecute you." + +Poor little Joel, it was a hard doctrine for him to accept! How could he +give up his hope of revenge, when it had grown with his growth till it +had come to be as dear as life itself? + +He heard little of the rest of the sermon, for through it all the words +kept echoing, "Bless them that curse you! Do good to them that hate +you! Pray for them which despitefully use you!" + +"Oh, I can't! I can't!" he groaned inwardly. + +"I have found a chance for you to ride home," said Phineas, when the +sermon was over, and the people began to file down the narrow mountain +paths. "But there will be time for you to go to Him first, for healing. +You have only to ask, you know." + +Joel took an eager step forward, and then shrank back guiltily. "Not +now," he murmured, "some other time." He could not look into those clear +eyes and ask a blessing, when he knew his heart was black with hate. + +After all his weeks of waiting the opportunity had come; but he dared +not let the Sinless One look into his soul. + +Phineas began an exclamation of surprise, but was interrupted by some +one asking him a question. Joel took advantage of this to climb up +behind the man who had offered him a ride. All the way home he weighed +the two desires in his mind,--the hope of healing, and the hope of +revenge. + +By the time the two guardian fig-trees were in sight, he had decided. He +would rather go helpless and halting through life than give up his +cherished purpose. + +But there was no sleep for him that night, after he had gone up to his +little chamber on the roof. He seemed to see that pleading face on the +mountain-side; it came to him again and again, with the words, "Bless +them that curse you! Pray for them that despitefully use you!" + +All night he fought against yielding to it. Time and again he turned +over on his bed, and closed his eyes; but it would not let him alone. + +He thought of Jacob wrestling with the angel till day-break, and knew in +his heart that the sweet spirit of forgiveness striving with his selfish +nature was some heavenly impulse from another world. + +At last when the cock-crowing commenced at dawn, and the stars were +beginning to fade, he drew up his crooked little body, and knelt with +his face to the kindling east. + +"Father in heaven," he prayed softly, "bless mine enemy Rehum, and +forgive all my sins,--fully and freely as I now forgive the wrong he has +done to me." + +A feeling of light-heartedness and peace, such as he had never known +before, stole over him. He could not settle himself to sleep, though +worn out with his night's long vigil. + +[Illustration: "NOT A WORD WAS SAID"] + +Hastily slipping on his clothes, he tiptoed down the stairs, and limped, +bare-headed, down to the beach. The lake shimmered and glowed under the +faint rose and gray of the sky like a deep opal. The early breeze blew +the hair back from his pale face with a refreshing coolness. + +It seemed to him the world had never looked one half so beautiful +before, as he stood there. + +A firm tread on the gravel made him turn partly around. A man was coming +up the beach; it was the friend of Phineas. As if drawn by some +uncontrollable impulse, Joel started to meet Him, an unspoken prayer in +his pleading little face. + +Not a word was said. For one little instant Joel stood there by the +shining sea, his hand held close in the loving hand of the world's +Redeemer. For one little instant he looked up into His face; then the +man passed on. + +Joel covered his face with his hands, seeming to hear the still small +voice that spoke to the prophet out of the whirlwind. + +"He is the Christ!" he whispered reverently,--"He is the Christ!" + +In his exalted feeling all thought of a cure had left him; but as he +walked on down the beach, he noticed that he no longer limped. He was +moving along with strong, quick strides. He shook himself and threw +back his shoulders; there was no pain in the movement. He passed his +hands over his back and down his limbs. + +Oh, he was straight and strong and sinewy! He seemed a stranger to +himself, as running and leaping, then stopping to look down and feel his +limbs again, he ran madly on. + +Suddenly he cast his garments aside and dived into the lake. Before his +injury, he had been able to swim like a fish, now he reached out with +long powerful strokes that sent him darting through the cold water with +a wonderful sense of exhilaration. + +Then he dressed again, and went on running and leaping and climbing till +he was exhausted, and his first wild delirious joy began to subside into +a deep quiet thankfulness. Then he went home, radiant in the happiness +of his new-found cure. + +But more than the mystery of the miracle, more than the joy of the +healing, was the remembrance of that moment, that one little moment, +when he felt the clasp of the Master's hand, and seemed wrapped about +with the boundless love of God. + +From that moment, he lived but to serve and to follow Him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +HIGH up among the black lava crags of Perea stood the dismal fortress of +Macherus. Behind its close prison bars a restless captive groped his way +back and forth in a dungeon cell. Sometimes, at long intervals, he was +given such liberty as a chained eagle might have, when he was led up +into one of the towers of the gloomy keep, and allowed to look down, +down into the bottomless gorges surrounding it. For months he had chafed +in the darkness of his underground dungeon; escape was impossible. + +It was John Baptist, brought from the wild, free life of the desert to +the tortures of the "Black Castle." Here he lay at the mercy of Herod +Antipas, and death might strike at any moment. More than once, the +whimsical monarch had sent for him, as he sat at his banquets, to be the +sport of the passing hour. + +The lights, the color, the flash of gems may have dazzled his eyes for a +brief space, accustomed as they were to the midnight darkness of his +cell; but his keen vision saw, under the paint and purple of royal +apparel, the corrupt life of king and court. + +Pointing his stern, accusing finger at the uneasy king, he cried, "It is +not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife!" With words that stung +like hurtling arrows, he laid bare the blackened, beastly life that +sought to hide its foulness under royal ermine. + +Antipas cowered before him; and while he would gladly have been freed +from a man who had such power over him, he dared not lift a finger +against the fearless, unflinching Baptist. + +But the guilty Herodias bided her time, with blood-thirsty impatience; +his life should pay the penalty of his bold speech. + +Meanwhile he waited in his cell, with nothing but memories to relieve +the tediousness of the long hours. Over and over again he lived those +scenes of his strange life in the desert,--those days of his +preparation,--the preaching to the multitudes, the baptizing at the ford +of the Jordan. + +He wondered if his words still lived; if any of his followers still +believed on him. But more than all, he wondered what had become of that +One on whom he had seen the spirit of God descending out of heaven in +the form of a dove. + +"Where art Thou now?" he cried. "If Thou art the Messiah, why dost Thou +not set up Thy kingdom, and speedily give Thy servant his liberty?" The +empty room rang often with that cry; but the hollow echo of his own +words was the only answer. + +One day the door of his cell creaked back far enough to admit two men, +and then shut again, leaving them in total darkness. In that momentary +flash of light, he recognized two old followers of his, Timeus bar Joram +and Benjamin the potter. + +With a cry of joy he groped his way toward them, and clung to their +friendly hands. + +"How did you manage to penetrate these Roman-guarded walls?" he asked, +in astonishment. + +"I knew the warden," answered Benjamin. "A piece of silver conveniently +closes his eyes to many things. But we must hasten! Our time is +limited." + +They had much to tell of the outside world. Pilate had just given +special offence, by appropriating part of the treasure of the Temple, +derived from the Temple tax, to defray the cost of great conduits he had +begun, with which to supply Jerusalem with water. + +Stirred up by the priests and rabbis, the people besieged the government +house, crying loudly that the works be given up. Armed with clubs, +numbers of soldiers in plain clothes surrounded the great mob, and +killed so many of the people that the wildest excitement prevailed +throughout all Judea and Galilee. + +There was a cry for a national uprising to avenge the murder. + +"They only need a leader!" exclaimed John. "Where is He for whom I was +but a voice crying in the wilderness? Why does He not show Himself?" + +"We have just come from the village of Nain," said Timeus bar Joram. "We +saw Him stop a funeral procession and raise a widow's son to life. He +was followed by a motley throng whom He had healed of all sorts of +diseases; and there were twelve men whom He had chosen as life-long +companions. + +"We questioned some of them closely, and they gave us marvellous reports +of the things He had done." + +"Is it not strange," asked Benjamin the potter, "that having such power +He still delays to establish His kingdom?" + +The captive prophet made no answer for awhile. Then he groped in the +thick darkness till his hand rested heavily on Benjamin's arm. + +"Go back, and say that John Baptist asks, 'Art Thou the Coming One, or +must we look for another?'" + +Days passed before the devoted friends found themselves once more inside +the prison walls. They had had a weary journey over rough hills and +rocky by-paths. + +"What did He say?" demanded the prisoner, eagerly. + +"Go and tell John what ye saw and heard: that the blind receive sight; +the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are +raised; and the poor have the gospel preached unto them." + +The man stood up, his long hair hanging to his shoulder, his hand +uplifted, and his eyes dilated like a startled deer that has caught the +sound of a coming step. + +"The fulfilment of the words of Isaiah!" he cried. "For he hath said, +'Your God will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be +opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame +man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing!' Yea, he _hath_ +bound up the broken-hearted; and he shall yet 'proclaim liberty to the +captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to +proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord!'" + +Then with both hands clasped high above his head, he made the prison +ring with the cry, "The kingdom is at hand! The kingdom is at hand! I +shall soon be free!" + +Not long after that, the castle blazed with the lights of another +banquet. The faint aroma of wines, mingled with the heavy odor of +countless flowers, could not penetrate the grim prison walls. Nor could +the gay snatches of song and the revelry of the feast. No sound of +applause reached the prisoner's ear, when the daughter of Herodias +danced before the king. + +Sitting in darkness while the birthday banqueters held high carnival, he +heard the heavy tramp of soldiers' feet coming down the stairs to his +dungeon. The great bolts shot back, the rusty hinges turned, and a +lantern flickered its light in his face, as he stood up to receive his +executioners. + +A little while later his severed head was taken on a charger to the +smiling dancing girl. She stifled a shriek when she saw it; but the +wicked Herodias looked at it with a gleam of triumph in her treacherous +black eyes. + +When the lights were out, and the feasters gone, two men came in at the +warden's bidding,--two men with heavy hearts, and voices that shook a +little when they spoke to each other. They were Timeus and Benjamin. +Silently they lifted the body of their beloved master, and carried it +away for burial; and if a tear or two found an unaccustomed path down +their bearded cheeks, no one knew it, under cover of the darkness. + +So, out of the Black Castle of Macherus, out of the prison-house of a +mortal body, the white-souled prophet of the wilderness went forth at +last into liberty. + +For him, the kingdom was indeed at hand. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile in the upper country, Phineas was following his friend from +village to village. He had dropped his old familiar form of address, so +much was he impressed by the mysterious power he saw constantly +displayed. + +Now when he spoke of the man who had been both friend and playfellow, +it was almost reverently that he gave Him the title of Master. + +It was with a heavy heart that Joel watched them go away. He, too, +longed to follow; but he knew that unless he took the place at the +bench, Phineas could not be free to go. + +Gratitude held him to his post. No, not gratitude alone; he was learning +the Master's own spirit of loving self-sacrifice. As he dropped the +plumb-line over his work, he measured himself by that perfect life, and +tried to straighten himself to its unbending standard. + +He had his reward in the look of pleasure that he saw on the carpenter's +face when Phineas came in, unexpectedly, one day, dusty and +travel-stained. + +"How much you have accomplished!" he said in surprise. "You have filled +my place like a grown man." + +Joel stretched his strong arms with a slight laugh. "It is a pleasure to +work now," he said. "It seems so queer never to have a pain, or that +worn-out feeling of weakness that used to be always with me. At first I +was often afraid it was all a happy dream, and could not last. I am +getting used to it now. Where is the Master?" Joel asked, as Phineas +turned towards the house. + +"He is the guest of Simon. He will be here some days, my son. I know you +wish to be with Him as much as possible, so I shall not expect your help +as long as He stays." + +"If I could only do something for Him!" was Joel's constant thought +during the next few days. Once he took a coin from the little money bag +that held his hoarded savings--a coin that was to have helped buy his +revenge--and bought the ripest, juiciest pear he could find in the +market. Often he brought Him water, fresh and cold from the well when He +looked tired and warm from His unceasing work. + +Wherever the Master turned, there, close beside Him, was a beaming +little face, so full of love and childish sympathy that it must have +brought more refreshment to His thirsty soul than either the choice +fruit or the cooling water. + +One evening after a busy day, when He had talked for hours to the people +on the seashore who had gathered around the boat in which He sat, He +sent away the multitude. + +"Let us pass over unto the other side," He said. + +Joel slipped up to Andrew, who was busily arranging their sails. "Let me +go, too!" he whispered pleadingly. + +"Well," assented the man, carelessly, "You can make yourself useful, I +suppose. Will you hand me that rope?" + +Joel sprang to obey. Presently the boat pushed away from the shore, and +the town, with its tumult and its twinkling lights, was soon left far +behind. + +The sea was like glass, so calm and unruffled that every star above +could look down and see its unbroken reflection in the dark water below. + +Joel, in the hinder part of the ship, lay back in his seat with a sigh +of perfect enjoyment. The smooth gliding motion of the boat rested him; +the soft splash of the water soothed his excited brain. He had seen his +Uncle Laban that afternoon among other of the scribes and Pharisees, and +heard him declare that Beelzebub alone was responsible for the wonders +they witnessed. + +Joel's indignation flared up again at the memory. He looked down at the +Master, who had fallen asleep on a pillow, and wondered how anybody +could possibly believe such evil things about Him. + +It was cooler out where they were now. He wondered if he ought not to +lay some covering over the sleeping form. He took off the outer mantle +that he wore, and bent forward to lay it over the Master's feet. But he +drew back timidly, afraid of wakening Him. "I'll wait awhile," he said +to himself, folding the garment across his knees in readiness. + +Several times he reached forward to lay it over Him, and each time drew +back. Then he fell asleep himself. + +From its situation in the basin of the hills, the Galilee is subject to +sudden and furious storms. The winds, rushing down the heights, meet and +clash above the water, till the waves run up like walls, then sink again +into seething whirlpools of danger. + +Joel, falling asleep in a dead calm, awoke to find the ship rolling and +tossing and half-full of water. The lightning's track was followed so +closely by the crash of thunder, there was not even pause enough between +to take one terrified gasp. + +Still the Master slept. Joel, drenched to the skin, clung to the boat's +side, expecting that every minute would be his last. It was so dark and +wild and awful! How helpless they were, buffetted about in the fury of +the storm! + +As wave after wave beat in, some of the men could no longer control +their fear. + +"Master!" they called to the sleeping man, as they bent over Him in +terror. "Carest Thou not that we perish?" + +He heard the cry for help. The storm could not waken Him from His deep +sleep of exhaustion, but at the first despairing human voice, He was up, +ready to help. + +Looking up at the midnight blackness of the sky, and down at the wild +waste of waters, He stretched out His hand. + +"_Peace!_" he commanded in a deep voice. "_Be still!_" The storm sank to +earth as suddenly as a death-stricken raven; a great calm spread over +the face of the waters. The silent stars shone out in their places; the +silent sea mirrored back their glory at His feet. + +The men huddled fearfully together. "What manner of man is this?" they +asked, one of another. "Even the wind and the sea obey Him!" + +Joel, looking up at the majestic form, standing so quietly by the +railing, thought of the voice that once rang out over the night of +Creation with the command, "Let there be light!" At its mere bidding +light had flowed in across the darkness of primeval night. + +Just so had this voice thrilled the storm with its "Peace! Be still!" +into utter calm. + +The child crouched at His feet, burying his face in his mantle, and +whispering, in awe and adoration, "He _is_ the Christ! He is the son of +God!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +AFTER that night of the voyage to the Gadarenes, Joel ceased to be +surprised at the miracles he daily witnessed. Even when the little +daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was called back to life, +it did not seem so wonderful to him as the stilling of the tempest. + +Many a night after Phineas had gone away again with the Master to other +cities, Joel used to go down to the beach, and stand looking across the +water as he recalled that scene. + +The lake had always been an interesting place to him at night. He liked +to watch the fishermen as they flashed their blazing torches this way +and that. A sympathetic thrill ran through him as they sighted their +prey, and raised their bare sinewy arms to fling the net or fly the +spear. + +But after that morning of healing, and that night of tempest, it seemed +to be a sacred place, to be visited only on still nights, when the town +slept, and heaven bent nearer in the starlight to the quiet earth. + +The time of the Passover was drawing near,--the time that Joel had been +looking forward to since Phineas had promised him a year ago that he +should go to Jerusalem. + +The twelve disciples who had been sent out to all the little towns +through Galilee, to teach the things they had themselves been taught, +and work miracles in the name of Him who had sent them, began to come +slowly back. They had an encouraging report to bring of their work; but +it was shadowed by the news they had heard of the murder of John +Baptist. + +Joel joined them as soon as they came into Capernaum, and walked beside +Phineas as the footsore travellers pressed on a little farther towards +Simon's house. + +"When are we going to start for Jerusalem?" was his first eager +question. + +Phineas looked searchingly into his face as he replied, "Would you be +greatly disappointed, my son, not to go this year?" + +Joel looked perplexed; it was such an unheard of thing for Phineas to +miss going up to the Feast of the Passover. + +"These are evil times, my Joel," he explained. "John Baptist has just +been beheaded. The Master has many enemies among those in high places. +It would be like walking into a lion's den for Him to go up to +Jerusalem. + +"Even here He is not safe from the hatred of Antipas, and after a little +rest will pass over into the borders of the tetrarch Philip. We have no +wish to leave Him!" + +"Oh, why should He be persecuted so?" asked Joel, looking with +tear-dimmed eyes at the man walking in advance of them, and talking in +low earnest tones to John, who walked beside Him. + +"You have been with Him so much, father Phineas. Have _you_ ever known +Him to do anything to make these men His enemies?" + +"Yes," said Phineas. "He has drawn the people after Him until they are +jealous of His popularity. He upsets their old traditions, and teaches a +religion that ignores some of the Laws of Moses. I can easily see why +they hate Him so. They see Him at such a long distance from themselves, +they can not understand Him. Healing on the Sabbath, eating with +publicans and sinners, disregarding the little customs and ceremonies +that in all ages have set apart our people as a chosen race, are crimes +in their eyes. + +"If they only could get close enough to understand Him; to see that His +pure life needs no ceremonies of multiplied hand-washings; that it is +His broad love for His fellow-men that makes Him stoop to the lowest +classes,--I am sure they could not do otherwise than love Him. + +"Blind fanatics! They would put to death the best man that ever lived, +because He is so much broader and higher than they that the little +measuring line of their narrow creed cannot compass Him!" + +"Is He never going to set up His kingdom?" asked Joel. "Does He never +talk about it?" + +"Yes," said Phineas; "though we are often puzzled by what He says, and +ask ourselves His meaning." + +They had reached the house by this time, and as Simon led the way to its +hospitable door, Phineas said, "Enter with them, my lad, if you wish. I +must go on to my little family, but will join you soon." + +To Joel's great pleasure, he found they were to cross the lake at once, +to the little fishing port of Bethsaida. It was only six miles across. + +"We have hardly had time to eat," said Andrew to Joel, as they walked +along towards the boat "I will be glad to get away to some desert +place, where we may have rest from the people that are always pushing +and clamoring about us." + +"How long before you start?" asked Joel. + +"In a very few minutes," answered Andrew; "for the boat is in +readiness." + +Joel glanced from the street above the beach to the water's edge, as if +calculating the distance. + +"Don't go without me," he said as, breaking into a run, he dashed up the +beach at his utmost speed. He was back again in a surprisingly quick +time, with a cheap little basket in his hand; he was out of breath with +his rapid run. + +"Didn't I go fast?" he panted. "I could not have done that a few weeks +ago. Oh, it feels so good to be able to run when I please! It is like +flying." + +He lifted the cover of the basket. "See!" he said. "I thought the Master +might be hungry; but I had no time to get anything better. I had to stop +at the first stall I came to." + +At the same time the boat went gliding out into the water with its +restful motion, thousands of people were pouring out of the villages on +foot, and hurrying on around the lake, ahead of them. + +The boat passed up a narrow winding creek, away from the sail-dotted +lake; its green banks seemed to promise the longed-for quiet and rest. +But there in front of them waited the crowds they had come so far to +avoid. + +They had brought their sick for healing. They needed to be helped and +taught; they were "as sheep without a shepherd!" He could not refuse +them. + +Joel found no chance to offer the food he had bought so hastily with +another of his hoarded coins,--the coins that were to have purchased his +revenge. + +As the day wore on, he heard the disciples ask that the multitudes might +be sent away. + +"It would take two hundred pennyworth of bread to feed them," said +Philip, "and even that would not be enough." + +Andrew glanced over the great crowds and stroked his beard thoughtfully. +"There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, +but what are they among so many?" + +Joel hurried forward and held out his basket with its little +store,--five flat round loaves of bread, not much more than one hungry +man could eat, and two dried fishes. + +He hardly knew what to expect as the people were made to sit down on the +grass in orderly ranks of fifties. + +His eyes grew round with astonishment as the Master took the bread, gave +thanks, and then passed it to the disciples, who, in turn, distributed +it among the people. Then the two little fishes were handed around in +the same way. + +Joel turned to Phineas, who had joined them some time ago. "Do you see +that?" he asked excitedly. "They have been multiplied a thousand fold!" + +Phineas smiled. "We drop one tiny grain of wheat into the earth," he +said, "and when it grows and spreads and bears dozens of other grains on +its single stalk, we are not astonished. When the Master but does in an +instant, what Nature takes months to do, we cry, 'a miracle!' 'Men are +more wont to be astonished at the sun's eclipse, than at its daily +rising,'" he quoted, remembering his conversation with the old +traveller, on his way to Nathan ben Obed's. + +A feeling of exaltation seized the people as they ate the mysterious +bread; it seemed that the days of miraculous manna had come again. By +the time they had all satisfied their hunger, and twelve basketfuls of +the fragments had been gathered up, they were ready to make Him their +king. The restlessness of the times had taken possession of them; the +burning excitement must find vent in some way, and with one accord they +demanded Him as their leader. + +Joel wondered why He should refuse. Surely no other man he had ever +known could have resisted such an appeal. + +The perplexed fisherman, at Jesus's command, turned their boat homeward +without Him. To their simple minds it seemed that He had made a mistake +in resisting the homage forced upon Him by the people; they longed for +the time to come when they should be recognized as the honored officials +in the new kingdom. Many a dream of future power and magnificence must +have come to them in the still watches of the night, as they drifted +home in the white light of the Passover moon. + +Many a time in the weeks that followed, Joel slipped away to his +favorite spot on the beech, a flat rock half hidden by a clump of +oleander bushes. Here, with his feet idly dangling in the ripples, he +looked out over the water, and recalled the scenes he had witnessed +there. + +It seemed so marvellous to him that the Master could have ever walked +on those shining waves; and yet he had seen Him that night after the +feeding of the multitudes. He had seen, with his own frightened eyes, +the Master walk calmly towards the boat across the unsteady water, and +catch up the sinking Peter, who had jumped overboard to meet Him. It +grieved and fretted the boy that this man, of God-given power and such +sweet unselfish spirit, could be so persistently misunderstood by the +people. He could think of nothing else. + +He had not been with the crowds that pressed into the synagogue the +Sabbath after the thousands had been fed; but Phineas came home with +grim lips and knitted brows, and told him about it. + +"The Master knew they followed Him because of the loaves and fishes," he +said. "He told them so. + +"When we came out of the door, I could not help looking up at the lintel +on which is carved the pot of manna; for when they asked Him for a sign +that they might believe Him, saying, 'Our fathers ate manna in the +wilderness!' He answered: 'I am the bread of life! Ye have seen me, and +yet believe not!' + +"While He talked there was a murmuring all over the house against Him, +because He said that He had come down from heaven. Your uncle Laban was +there. I heard him say scornfully: 'Is not this the son of Joseph, whose +father and mother we know? How doth He now say, "I am come down out of +heaven"?' Then he laughed a mocking little laugh, and nudged the man who +stood next to him. There are many like him; I could feel a spirit of +prejudice and persecution in the very air. Many who have professed to be +His friends have turned against Him." + +While Phineas was pouring out his anxious forebodings to his wife and +Joel, the Master was going homeward with His chosen twelve. + +"Would ye also go away?" He asked wistfully of His companions, as He +noted the cold, disapproving looks of many who had only the day before +been fed by Him, and who now openly turned their backs on Him. + +Simon Peter gave a questioning glance into the faces of his companions; +then he pressed a step nearer. "Lord, to whom shall we go?" he answered +impulsively. "Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed, +and know that Thou art the Holy One of God." + +The others nodded their assent, all but one. Judas Iscariot clutched the +money bags he held, and looked off across the lake, to avoid the +searching eyes that were fixed upon him. + +These honest Galileans were too simple to suspect others of dark +designs, yet they had never felt altogether free with this stranger from +Judea. He had never seemed entirely one of them. They did not see in his +crafty quiet manners, the sheep's clothing that hid his wolfish nature; +but they could feel his lack of sympathetic enthusiasm. + +He had been one of those who followed only for the loaves and fishes of +a temporal kingdom, and now, in his secret soul, he was sorry he had +joined a cause in whose final success he was beginning to lose faith. + +The sun went down suddenly that night behind a heavy cloud, as a +gathering storm began to lash the Galilee and rock the little boats +anchored at the landings. + +The year of popularity was at an end. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +ABIGAIL sat just inside the door, turning the noisy hand-mill that +ground out the next day's supply of flour. The rough mill-stones grated +so harshly on each other that she did not hear the steps coming up the +path. A shadow falling across the door-way made her look up. + +"You are home early, my Phineas," she said, with a smile. "Well, I shall +soon have your supper ready. Joel has gone to the market for some honey +and--" + +"Nay! I have little wish to eat," he interrupted, "but I have much to +say to you. Come! the work can wait." + +Abigail put the mill aside, and brushing the flour from her hands, sat +down on the step beside him, wondering much at his troubled face. + +He plunged into his subject abruptly. "The Master is soon going away," +he said, "that those in the uttermost parts of Galilee may be taught of +Him. And He would fain have others beside the twelve He has chosen to go +with Him on His journey." + +"And you wish to go too?" she questioned, as he paused. + +"Yes! How can I do otherwise? And yet how can I leave you and the little +ones alone in these troubled times? You cannot think how great the +danger is. Remember how many horrors we have lately heard. The whole +country is a smouldering volcano, ready to burst into an eruption at any +moment. A leader has only to arise, and all Israel will take up arms +against the powers that trample us under foot." + +"Is not this prophet, Jesus, He who is to save Israel?" asked Abigail. +"Is He not even now making ready to establish His kingdom?" + +"I do not understand Him at all!" said Phineas, sadly. "He does talk of +a kingdom in which we are all to have a part; but He never seems to be +working to establish it. He spends all His time in healing diseases and +forgiving penitent sinners, and telling us to love our neighbors. + +"Then, again, why should He go down to the beach, and choose for His +confidential friends just simple fishermen. They have neither influence +nor money. As for the choice of that publican Levi-Matthew, it has +brought disgrace on the whole movement. He does not seem to know how to +sway the popular feeling. I believe He might have had the support of the +foremost men of the nation, if He had approached them differently. + +"He shocks them by setting aside laws they would lay down their lives +rather than violate. He associates with those they consider unclean; and +all His miracles cannot make them forget how boldly He has rebuked them +for hypocrisy and unrighteousness. They never will come to His support +now; and I do not see how a new government can be formed without their +help." + +Abigail laid her hand on his, her dark eyes glowing with intense +earnestness, as she answered: "What need is there of armies and human +hands to help? + +"Where were the hosts of Pharaoh when our fathers passed through the Red +Sea? Was there bloodshed and fighting there? + +"Who battled for us when the walls of Jericho fell down? Whose hand +smote the Assyrians at Sennacherib? Is the Lord's arm shortened that He +cannot save? + +"Why may not His prophet speak peace to Jerusalem as easily as He did +the other night to the stormy sea? Why may not His power be multiplied +even as the loaves and fishes? + +"Why may not the sins and backslidings of the people be healed as well +as Joel's lameness; or the glory of the nation be quickened into a new +life, as speedily as He raised the daughter of Jairus? + +"Isaiah called Him the Prince of Peace. What are all these lessons, if +not to teach us that the purposes of God do not depend on human hands to +work out their fulfilment?" + +Her low voice thrilled him with its inspiring questions, and he looked +down into her rapt face with a feeling of awe. + +"Abigail," he said softly, "'my source of joy,'--you are rightly named. +You have led me out of the doubts that have been my daily torment. I see +now, why He never incites us to rebel against the yoke of Caesar. In the +fulness of time He will free us with a breath. + +"How strange it should have fallen to my lot to have been His playmate +and companion. My wonder is not that He is the Messiah; but that I +should have called Him friend, all these years, unknowing." + +"How long do you expect to be away?" she asked, after a pause, suddenly +returning to the first subject. + +"Several months, perhaps. There is no telling what insurrections and +riots may arise, all through this part of the country. Since the murder +of John Baptist, Herod has come back to his court in Tiberias. I dislike +to leave you here alone." + +Abigail, too, looked grave, and neither spoke for a little while. "I +have it!" she exclaimed at length, with a pleased light in her eyes. "I +have often wished I could make a long visit in the home of my girlhood. +The few days I have spent in my father's house, those few times I have +gone with you to the feasts, have been so short and unsatisfactory. Can +I not take Joel and the children to Bethany? Neither father nor mother +has ever seen little Ruth, and we could be so safe and happy there till +your return." + +"Why did I not come to you before with my worries?" asked Phineas. "How +easily you make the crooked places straight!" + +Just then the children came running back from the market. Abigail went +into the house with the provisions they had brought, leaving their +father to tell them of the coming separation and the long journey they +had planned. + +A week later, Phineas stood at the city gate, watching a little company +file southward down the highway. He had hired two strong, +gayly-caparisoned mules from the owner of the caravan. Abigail rode on +one, holding little Ruth in her arms; Joel mounted the other, with Jesse +clinging close behind him. + +Abigail, thinking of the joyful welcome awaiting her in her old home, +and the children happy in the novelty of the journey, set out gayly. + +But Phineas, thinking of the dangers by the way, and filled with many +forebodings, watched their departure with a heavy heart. + +At the top of a little rise in the road, they turned to look back and +wave their hands. In a moment more they were out of sight. Then Phineas, +grasping his staff more firmly, turned away, and started on foot in the +other direction, to follow to the world's end, if need be, the friend +who had gone on before. + +It was in the midst of the barley harvest. Jesse had never been in the +country before. For the first time, Nature spread for him her great +picture-book of field and forest and vineyard, while Abigail read to him +the stories. + +First on one side of the road, then the other, she pointed out some spot +and told its history. + +Here was Dothan, where Joseph went out to see his brothers, dressed in +his coat of many colors. There was Mount Gilboa, where the arrows of the +Philistines wounded Saul, and he fell on his own sword and killed +himself. Shiloh, where Hannah brought little Samuel to give him to the +Lord; where the Prophet Eli, so old that his eyes were too dim to see, +sat by the gate waiting for news from the army, and when word was +brought back that his two sons were dead, and the Ark of the Covenant +taken, here it was that he fell backward from his seat, and his neck was +broken. + +All these she told, and many more. Then she pointed to the gleaners in +the fields, and told the children to notice how carefully Israel still +kept the commandment given so many centuries before: "When ye reap the +harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy +field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou +shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of +thy vineyard, thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger." + +At Jacob's well, where they stopped to rest, Joel lifted Jesse up, and +let him look over the curb. The child almost lost his balance in +astonishment, when his own wondering little face looked up at him from +the deep well. He backed away from it quickly, and looked carefully into +the cup of water Joel handed him, for more than a minute, before he +ventured to drink. + +The home to which Abigail was going was a wealthy one. Her father, +Reuben, was a goldsmith, and for years had been known in Jerusalem not +only for the beautifully wrought ornaments and precious stones that he +sold in his shop near the Temple, but for his rich gifts to the poor. + +"Reuben the Charitable," he was called, and few better deserved the +name. His business took him every day to the city; but his home was in +the little village of Bethany, two miles away. It was one of the largest +in Bethany, and seemed like a palace to the children, when compared to +the humble little home in Capernaum. + +Joel only looked around with admiring eyes; but Jesse walked about, +laying curious little fingers on everything he passed. The bright +oriental curtains, the soft cushions and the costly hangings, he +smoothed and patted. Even the silver candlesticks and the jewelled cups +on the side table were picked up and examined, when his mother happened +to have her back turned. + +[Illustration: "'WE TALKED LATE'"] + +There were no pictures in the house; the Law forbade. But there were +several mirrors of bright polished metal, and Jesse never tired of +watching his own reflection in them. + +Ruth stayed close beside her mother. "She is a ray of God's own +sunshine," said her grandmother, as she took her in her arms for the +first time. The child, usually afraid of strangers, saw in Rebecca's +face a look so like her mother's that she patted the wrinkled cheeks +with her soft fingers. From that moment her grandmother was her devoted +slave. + +Jesse was not long in finding the place he held in his grandfather's +heart. The old man, whose sons had all died years before, seemed to +centre all his hopes on this son of his only daughter. He kept Jesse +with him as much as possible; his happiest hours were when he had the +child on his knee, teaching him the prayers and precepts and proverbs +that he knew would be a lamp to his feet in later years. + +"Nay! do not punish the child!" he said, one morning when Jesse had been +guilty of some disobedience. Abigail went on stripping the leaves +from an almond switch she just had broken off. + +"Why, father," she said, with a smile, "I have often seen you punish my +brothers for such disobedience, and have as often heard you say that one +of Solomon's wisest sayings is, 'Chasten thy son while there is hope, +and let not thy soul spare for his crying.' Jesse misses his father's +firm rule, and is getting sadly spoiled." + +"That is all true, my daughter," he acknowledged; "still I shall not +stay here to witness his punishment." + +Abigail used the switch as she had intended. The boy had overheard the +conversation, and the cries that reached his grandfather as he rode off +to the city were unusually loud and appealing. They may have had +something to do with the package the good man carried home that +night,--cakes and figs and a gay little turban more befitting a young +prince than the son of a carpenter. + +"Who lives across the street?" asked Joel, the morning after their +arrival. + +"Two old friends of mine," answered Abigail. "They came to see me last +night as soon as they heard I had arrived. You children were all asleep. +We talked late, for they wanted to hear all I could tell them of Rabbi +Jesus. He was here last year, and Martha said He and her brother Lazarus +became fast friends. Ah, there is Lazarus now!--that young man just +coming out of the house. He is a scribe, and goes up to write in one of +the rooms of the Temple nearly every day. + +"Mary says some of the copies of the Scriptures he has made are the most +beautifully written that she has ever seen." + +"See!" exclaimed Joel, "he has dropped one of the rolls of parchment he +was carrying, and does not know it. I'll run after him with it." + +He was hardly yet accustomed to the delight of being so fleet of foot; +no halting step now to hinder him. He almost felt as if he were flying, +and was by the young man's side nearly as soon as he had started. + +"Ah, you are the guest of my good neighbor, Reuben," Lazarus said, after +thanking him courteously. "Are you not the lad whose lameness has just +been healed by my best friend? My sisters were telling me of it. It must +be a strange experience to suddenly find yourself changed from a +helpless cripple to such a strong, straight lad as you are now. How did +it make you feel?" + +"Oh, I can never begin to tell you, Rabbi Lazarus," answered Joel. "I +did not even think of it that moment when He held my hand in His. I only +thought how much I loved Him. I had been starving before, but that +moment He took the place of everything,--father, mother, the home love I +had missed,--and more than that, the love of God seemed to come down and +fold me so close and safe, that I knew He was the Messiah. I did not +even notice that I was no longer lame, until I was far down the beach. +Oh, you do not know how I wanted to follow Him! If I could only have +gone with Him instead of coming here!" + +"Yes, my boy, I know!" answered the young man, gently; "for I, too, love +Him." + +This strong bond of sympathy between the two made them feel as if they +had known each other always. + +"Come walk with me a little way," said Lazarus. "I am going up to +Jerusalem to the Temple. Or rather, would you not like to come all the +way? I have only to carry these rolls to one of the priests, then I will +be at liberty to show you some of the strange sights in the city." + +Joel ran back for permission. Only stopping to wind his white linen +turban around his head, he soon regained his new-found friend. + +His recollection of Jerusalem was a very dim, confused one. Time and +time again he had heard pilgrims returning from the feasts trying to +describe their feelings when they had come in sight of the Holy City. +Now as they turned with the road, the view that rose before him made him +feel how tame their descriptions had been. + +The morning sun shone down on the white marble walls of the Temple and +the gold that glittered on the courts, as they rose one above the other; +tower and turret and pinnacle shot back a dazzling light. + +It did not seem possible to Joel that human hands could have wrought +such magnificence. He caught his breath, and uttered an exclamation of +astonishment. + +Lazarus smiled at his pleasure. "Come," he said, "it is still more +beautiful inside." + +They went very slowly through Solomon's Porch, for every one seemed to +know the young man, and many stopped to speak to him. Then they crossed +the Court of the Gentiles. It seemed like a market-place; for cages of +doves were kept there for sale, and lambs, calves, and oxen bleated and +lowed in their stalls till Joel could scarcely hear what his friend was +saying, as they pushed their way through the crowd, and stood before the +Gate Beautiful that led into the Court of the Women. + +Here Lazarus left Joel for a few moments, while he went to give the +rolls to the priest for whom he had copied them. + +Joel looked around. Then for the first time since his healing, he +wondered if it would be possible for him to ever take his place among +the Levites, or become a priest as he had been destined. + +While he wondered, Lazarus came back and led him into the next court. +Here he could look up and see the Holy Place, over which was trained a +golden vine, with clusters of grapes as large as a man's body, all of +purest gold. Beyond that he knew was a heavy veil of Babylonian +tapestry, hyacinth and scarlet and purple, that veiled in awful darkness +the Holy of Holies. + +As he stood there thinking of the tinkling bells, the silver trumpets, +the clouds of incense, and the mighty songs, a great longing came over +him to be one of those white-robed priests, serving daily in the +Temple. + +But with the wish came the recollection of a quiet hillside, where only +bird-calls and whirr of wings stirred the stillness; where a breeze from +the sparkling lake blew softly through the grass, and one Voice only was +heard, proclaiming its glad new gospel under the open sky. + +"No," he thought to himself; "I'd rather be with Him than wear the High +Priest's mitre." + +It was almost sundown when they found themselves on the road homeward. +They had visited place after place of interest. + +Lazarus found the boy an entertaining companion, and the friendship +begun that day grew deep and lasting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"WHAT are you looking for, grandfather?" called Jesse, as he pattered up +the outside stairs to the roof, where Reuben stood, scanning the sky +intently. + +"Come here, my son," he called. "Stand right here in front of me, and +look just where I point. What do you see?" + +The child peered anxiously into the blue depths just now lit up by the +sunset. + +"Oh, the new moon!" he cried. "Where did it come from?" + +"Summer hath dropped her silver sickle there, that Night may go forth to +harvest in her star-fields," answered the old man. Then seeing the look +of inquiry on the boy's face, hastened to add, "Nay, it is the censer +that God's hand set swinging in the sky, to remind us to keep the +incense of our praises ever rising heavenward. Even now a messenger may +be running towards the Temple, to tell the Sanhedrin that it has +appeared. Yea, other eyes have been sharper than mine, for see! Already +the beacon light has been kindled on the Mount of Olives!" + +Jesse watched the great bonfire a few minutes, then ran to call his +sister. By the time they were both on the roof, answering fires were +blazing on the distant hilltops throughout all Judea, till the whole +land was alight with the announcement of the Feast of the New Moon. + +"I wish it could be this way every night, don't you, Ruth?" said Jesse. +"Are you not glad we are here?" + +The old man looked down at the children with a pleased smile. "I'll show +you something prettier than this, before long," he said. "Just wait till +the Feast of Weeks, when the people all come to bring the first fruits +of the harvests. I am glad your visit is in this time of the year, for +you can see one festival after another." + +The day the celebration of the Feast of Weeks commenced, Reuben left his +shop in charge of the attendants, and gave up his entire time to Joel +and Jesse. + +"We must not miss the processions," he said. "We will go outside the +gates a little way, and watch the people come in." + +They did not have long to wait till the stream of people from the upper +countries began to pour in; each company carried a banner bearing the +name of the town from which it came. A white ox, intended for a +peace-offering, was driven first; its horns were gilded, and its body +twined with olive wreaths. + +Flocks of sheep and oxen for the sacrifice, long strings of asses and +camels bearing free-will gifts to the Temple, or old and helpless +pilgrims that could not walk, came next. + +There were wreaths of roses on the heads of the women and children; +bands of lilies were tied around the sheaves of wheat. Piled high in the +silver vessels of the rich, or peeping from the willow baskets of the +poor, were the choicest fruits of the harvest. + +Great bunches of grapes from whose purple globes the bloom had not been +brushed, velvety nectarines, tempting pomegranates, mellow pears, juicy +melons,--these offerings of fruit and flowers gleamed all down the long +line, for no one came empty-handed up this "Hill of the Lord." + +As they drew near the gates, a number of white-robed priests from the +Temple met them. Reuben lifted Jesse in his arms that he might have a +better view. "Listen," he said. Joel climbed up on a large rock. + +A joyful sound of flutes commenced, and a mighty chorus went up: "I was +glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our +feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!" + +Voice after voice took up the old psalm, and Reuben's deep tones joined +with the others, as they chanted, "Peace be within thy walls, and +prosperity within thy palaces!" + +Following the singing pilgrims to the Temple, they saw the priests take +the doves that were to be for a burnt-offering, and the first fruits +that were to be laid on the altars. + +Jesse held fast to his grandfather's hand as they passed through the +outer courts of the Temple. He was half frightened by the din of voices, +the stamping and bellowing and bleating of the animals as they were +driven into the pens. + +He had seen one sacrificial service; the great stream of blood pouring +over the marble steps of the altar, and the smoke of the burnt-offering +were still in his mind. It made him look pityingly now at the +gentle-eyed calves and the frightened lambs. He was glad to get away +from them. + +Soon after the time of this rejoicing was over, came ten solemn days +that to Joel were full of interest and mystery. They were the days of +preparation for the Fast of the Atonement. Disputes between neighbors +were settled, and sins confessed. + +The last great day, the most solemn of all, was the only time in the +whole year when the High Priest might draw aside the veil, and enter +into the Holy of Holies. + +With all his rich robes and jewels laid aside, clad only in simple +white, with bare feet and covered head, he had to go four times into the +awful Presence. Once to offer incense, once to pray, to sprinkle the +blood of a goat towards the mercy-seat, and then to bring out the +censer. + +That was the day when two goats were taken; by casting lots one was +chosen for a sacrifice. On the other the High Priest laid the sins of +the people, and it was driven out into the wilderness, to be dashed to +pieces from some high cliff. + +Tears came into Joel's eyes, as he watched the scape-goat driven away +into the dreary desert. He pitied the poor beast doomed to such a death +because of his nation's sins. + +Then came the closing ceremonies, when the great congregation bowed +themselves three times to the ground, with the High Priest shouting +solemnly, "Ye are clean! Ye are clean! Ye are clean!" + +Joel was glad when the last rite was over, and the people started to +their homes, as gay now as they had been serious before. + +"When are we going back to our other home?" asked Ruth, one day. + +"Why, are you not happy here, little daughter?" said Abigail. "I thought +you had forgotten all about the old place." + +"I want my white pigeons," she said, with a quivering lip, as if she had +suddenly remembered them. "I don't want my father not to be here!" she +sobbed; "and I want my white pigeons!" + +Abigail picked her up and comforted her. "Wait just a little while. I +think father will surely come soon. I will get my embroidery, and you +may go with me across the street." + +Ruth had been shy at first about going to see her mother's friends; but +Martha coaxed her in with honey cakes she baked for that express +purpose, and Mary told her stories and taught her little games. + +After a while she began to flit in and out of the house as fearlessly as +a bright-winged butterfly. + +One day her mother was sitting with the sisters in a shady corner of +their court-yard, where a climbing honeysuckle made a cool sweet arbor. +Ruth was going from one to the other, watching the bright embroidery +threads take the shape of flowers under their skilful fingers. Suddenly +she heard the faint tinkle of a silver bell. While she stood with one +finger on her lip to listen, Lazarus came into the court-yard. + +"See what I have brought you, little one," he said. "It is to take the +place of the pigeons you are always mourning for." + +It was a snow-white lamb, around which he had twined a garland of many +colored flowers, and from whose neck hung the little silver bell she had +heard. + +At first the child was so delighted she could only bury her dimpled +fingers in the soft fleece, and look at it in speechless wonder. Then +she caught his hand, and left a shy little kiss on it, as she lisped, +"Oh, you're so good! You're so good!" + +After that day Ruth followed Lazarus as the white lamb followed Ruth; +and the sisters hardly knew which sounded sweeter in their quiet home, +the tinkling of the silver bell, or the happy prattle of the baby +voice. + +Abigail spent many happy hours with her friends. One day as they sat in +the honeysuckle arbor, busily sewing, Ruth and Jesse came running +towards them. + +"I see my father coming, and another man," cried the boy. "I'm going to +meet them." + +They all hastened to the door, just as the tired, dusty travellers +reached it. + +"Peace be to this house, and all who dwell therein," said the stranger, +before Phineas could give his wife and friends a warmer greeting. + +"We went first to your father's house, but, finding no one at home, came +here," said Phineas. + +"Come in!" insisted Martha. "You look sorely in need of rest and +refreshment." + +But they had a message to deliver before they could be persuaded to eat +or wash. + +"The Master is coming," said Phineas. "He has sent out seventy of His +followers, to go by twos into every town, and herald His approach, and +proclaim that the day of the Lord is at hand. We have gone even into +Samaria to carry the tidings there." + +"At last, at last!" cried Mary, clasping her hands. "Oh, to think that I +have lived to see this day of Israel's glory!" + +"Tell us what the Master has been doing," urged Abigail, after the men +had been refreshed by food and water. + +First one and then the other told of miracles they had seen, and +repeated what He had taught. Even the children crept close to listen, +leaning against their father's knees. + +"There has been much discussion about the kingdom that is to be formed. +While we were in Peter's house in Capernaum, some of the disciples came +quarrelling around Him, to ask who should have the highest positions. I +suppose those who have followed Him longest think they have claim to the +best offices." + +"What did He say?" asked Abigail, eagerly. + +Phineas laid his hand on Ruth's soft curls. "He took a little child like +this, and set it in our midst, and said that he who would be greatest in +His kingdom, must become even like unto it!" + +"Faith and love and purity on the throne of the Herods," cried Martha. +"Ah, only Jehovah can bring such a thing as that to pass!" + +"Are you going to stay at home now, father?" asked Jesse, anxiously. + +"No, my son. I must go on the morrow to carry my report to the Master, +of the reception we have had in every town. But I will soon be back +again to the Feast of Tabernacles." + +"Carry with you our earnest prayer that the Master will abide with us +when He comes again to Bethany," said Martha, as her guests departed. +"No one is so welcome in our home, as the friend of our brother +Lazarus." + +The preparation for the Feast of the Tabernacles had begun. "I am going +to take the children to the city with me to-day!" said Reuben, one +morning, "to see the big booth I am having built. It will hold all our +family, and as many friends as may care to share it with us." + +Jesse was charmed with the great tent of green boughs. + +"I wish I could have been one of the children that Moses led up out of +Egypt," he said, with a sigh. + +"Why, my son?" asked Reuben. + +"So's I could have wandered around for forty years, living in a tent +like this. How good it smells, and how pretty it is! I wish you and +grandmother would live here all the time!" + +The next day Phineas joined them. It was a happy family that gathered in +the leafy booth for a week of out-door rejoicing in the cool autumn +time. + +"Where is the Master?" asked Abigail. + +"I know not," answered her husband. "He sent us on before." + +"Will He be here, I wonder?" she asked, and that question was on nearly +every lip in Jerusalem. + +"Will He be here?" asked the throngs of pilgrims who had heard of His +miracles, and longed to see the man who could do such marvellous things. + +"Will He be here?" whispered the scribes to the Pharisees. "Let Him +beware!" + +"Will He be here?" muttered Caiaphas the High Priest. "Then better one +man should die, than that the whole community perish." + +The sight that dazzled the eyes of the children that first evening of +the week, was like fairyland; a blaze of lanterns and torches lit up the +whole city. + +In the Court of the Women, in the Temple, all the golden lamps were lit, +twinkling and burning like countless stars. + +On the steps that separated this court from the next one, stood three +thousand singers, the sons and daughters of the tribe of Levi. Two +priests stood at the top of the steps, and as each gave the signal on a +great silver trumpet, the burst of song that went up from the vast choir +seemed to shake the very heavens. Harps and psalters and flutes swelled +with the rolling waves of the organ's melody. To the sound of this +music, men marched with flaming torches in their hands, and the marching +and a weird torch-dance were kept up until the gates of the Temple +closed. + +In the midst of all the feasting and the gayeties that followed, the +long-expected Voice was heard in the arcades of the Temple. + +The Child of Nazareth was once more in His Father's house about His +Father's business. + +On the last great day of the feast, Joel was up at day-break, ready to +follow the older members of the family as soon as the first +trumpet-blast should sound. + +In his right hand he carried a citron, as did all the others; in his +left was a palm-branch, the emblem of joy. An immense multitude gathered +at the spring of Siloam. Water was drawn in a golden pitcher, and +carried back to be poured on the great altar, while the choir sang with +its thousands of voices, and all the people shouted, Amen and Amen! + +When the days had gone by in which the seventy bullocks had been +sacrificed, and when the ceremonies were all over, then the leaves were +stripped from the green booths, and the people scattered to their +homes. + +Long afterward, Jesse remembered only the torch-light dances, the silver +trumpets and the crowds, and the faint ringing of the fringe of bells on +the priest's robes as he carried the fire on the golden shovel to burn +the sweet-smelling incense. + +Joel's memory rang often with two cries that had startled the people. +One when the water was poured from the golden pitcher. It was the +Master's voice: "_If any man thirst, let him come unto me_." The other +was when all eyes were turned on the blazing lamps. "_I am the Light of +the World!_" + +Reuben thought oftenest of the blind man to whom he had seen sight +restored. But Lazarus was filled with anxiety and foreboding; through +his office of scribe, he had come in close contact with the men who were +plotting against his friend. Dark rumors were afloat. The air was hot +with whisperings of hate. + +He had overheard a conversation between the Temple police, and some of +the chief priests and Pharisees. + +"Why did ye not take Him, as ye were ordered?" they demanded angrily. + +"We could not," was the response; "for never man spake like this man." + +He had seen the mob searching for stones to throw at Him. Though He had +disappeared out of their midst unhurt, still Lazarus felt that some +terrible disaster was hanging threateningly over the head of his beloved +friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +IT was with a deep feeling of relief that the two families watched the +Master go away into Perea. Phineas still kept with Him. As the little +band disappeared down the street, Ruth hid her face in her mother's +dress and began to cry. + +"I don't want my father to go away again!" she sobbed. Abigail took her +in her lap and tried to comfort her, although there were tears in her +own eyes. + +"We will go home soon, little daughter, and then father will be with us +all the time. But we must wait first, till after the cold, rainy season, +and the Feast of Dedication." + +"What! another feast?" asked Jesse, to whom the summer had seemed one +long confusion of festivals. "Don't they have lots of them down in this +country! What's this one for?" + +"Grandfather will tell you," answered his mother. "Run out and ask him +for the story. I know you will like it." + +Seated on his grandfather's knee, Jesse doubled up his little fists, as +he heard how a heathen altar had once been set up on the great altar of +burnt-offering, and a heathen general had driven a herd of swine through +the holy Temple, making it unclean. But his breath came quick, and his +eyes shone, as the proud old Israelite told him of Judas the Maccabee, +Judas the lion-hearted, who had whipped the Syrian soldiers, purified +the Temple, and dedicated it anew to the worship of Jehovah. + +"Our people never forget their heroes," ended the old man. "Every year, +in every home, no matter how humble, one candle is lighted at the +beginning of the feast; the next night, two, and the next night, three, +and so on, till eight candles shine out into the winter darkness. + +"For so the brave deeds of the Maccabees burn in the memory of every +child of Abraham!" + +The feast came and went. While the candles burned in every home, and the +golden lamps in the great Temple blazed a welcome, the Nazarene came +back to His Father's house, to be once more about His Father's business. + +Joel caught a glimpse of Him walking up and down the covered porches in +front of the Gate Beautiful. The next moment he was pushing and +elbowing his way through the jostling crowds, till he stood close beside +Him. + +After that, the services that followed were a blank. He saw only one +face,--the face that had looked into his beside the Galilee, and drawn +from his heart its intensest love. He heard only one voice,--the voice +he had longed for all these weeks and days. Just to be near Him! To be +able to reach out reverent fingers and only touch the clothes He wore; +to look up in His face, and look and look with a love that never +wearied,--that was such happiness that Joel was lost to everything else! + +But after a while he began to realize that it was for no friendly +purpose that the chief priests came pressing around with questions. + +"If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly," they demanded. Then up and +down through the long Porch of Solomon, among all its white marble +pillars, they repeated His answer:-- + +"The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. I and +my Father are one!" + +"Blasphemy!" shouted a mocking voice behind Him. "Blasphemy!" echoed +Pharisee and Sadducee for once agreed. The crowds pushed and shoved +between the pillars; some ran out for stones. In the confusion of the +uproar, as they turned to lay violent hands on Him, He slipped out of +their midst, and went quietly away. + +Joel hunted around awhile for the party he had come with, but seeing +neither Phineas nor Lazarus, started back to Bethany on the run. A cold +winter rain had begun to fall. + +None of Reuben's family had gone into Jerusalem that day on account of +the weather, but were keeping the feast at home. + +They were startled when the usually quiet boy burst excitedly into the +house, and told them what he had just seen. + +"O mother Abigail!" he cried, throwing himself on his knees beside her. +"If He goes away again may I not go with Him? I cannot go back to +Galilee and leave Him, unknowing what is to happen. If He is to be +persecuted and driven out, and maybe killed, let me at least share His +suffering, and be with Him at the last!" + +"You forget that He has all power, and that His enemies can do Him no +harm," said Abigail, gently. "Has He not twice walked out unharmed, +before their very eyes, when they would have taken Him? And besides what +good could you do, my boy? You forget you are only a child, and might +not be able to stand the hardships of such a journey." + +"I am almost fourteen," said Joel, stretching himself up proudly. "And I +am as strong now as some of the men who go with Him. _He_ gave me back +my strength, you know. Oh, you do not know how I love Him!" he cried. +"When I am away from Him, I feel as you would were you separated from +Jesse and Ruth and father Phineas. My heart is always going out after +Him!" + +"Child, have you no care for us?" she responded reproachfully. + +"Oh, do not speak so!" he cried, catching up her hand and kissing it. "I +_do_ love you; I can never be grateful enough for all you have done for +me. But, O mother Abigail, you could never understand! You were never +lame and felt the power of His healing. You were never burning with a +wicked hatred, and felt the balm of His forgiveness! You cannot +understand how He draws me to Him!" + +"Let the boy have his way," spoke up Reuben. "I, too, have felt that +wonderful power that draws all men to Him. Gladly would I part with +every shekel I possess, if I thereby might win Him the favor of the +authorities." + +When once more a little band of fugitives followed their Master across +the Jordan, Joel was with them. + +The winter wore away, and they still tarried. Day by day, they were +listening to the simple words that dropped like seeds into their +memories, to spring up in after months and bear great truths. Now they +heard them as half understood parables,--the good Samaritan, the barren +fig-tree, the prodigal son, the unjust steward. + +There was one story that thrilled Joel deeply,--the story of the lost +sheep. For he recalled that stormy night in the sheepfold of Nathan ben +Obed, and the shepherd who searched till dawn for the straying lamb. + +It was only long afterwards that he realized it was the Good Shepherd +Himself who told the story, when He was about to lay down His own life +for the lost sheep of Israel. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile in Bethany, Rabbi Reuben and his wife rejoiced that their +daughter's visit stretched out indefinitely. + +Jesse openly declared that he intended to stay there always, and learn +to be a goldsmith like his grandfather. + +Ruth, too, was happy and contented, and seemed to have forgotten that +she ever had any other home. As the early spring days came on, she lived +almost entirely out in the sunshine. She had fallen into the habit of +standing at the gate to watch for Lazarus every evening when he came +back from the Temple. As soon as she saw him turn the corner into their +street, she ran to meet him, her fair curls and white dress fluttering +in the wind. + +No matter how tired he was, or what cares rested heavily on his mind, +the pale face always lighted up, and his dark eyes smiled at her coming. + +"Lazarus does not seem well, lately," she heard Martha say to her mother +one day. "I have been trying to persuade him to rest a few days; but he +insists he cannot until he has finished the scroll he is illuminating." + +A few days after that he did not go to the city as usual. Ruth peeped +into the darkened room where he was resting on a couch; his eyes were +closed, and he was so pale it almost frightened her. + +He did not hear her when she tiptoed into the room and out again; but +the fragrance of the little stemless rose she laid on his pillow aroused +him. He opened his eyes and smiled languidly, as he caught sight of her +slipping noiselessly through the door. + +Her mother, sewing by the window, looked out and saw her running across +the street. Jesse was out in front of the house, playing with a ball. + +"Who is that boy talking to Jesse?" asked Abigail of Rebecca, who stood +in the doorway, holding out her arms as Ruth came up. + +"Why, that is little Joseph, the only son of Simon the leper. Poor +child!" + +"Simon the leper," repeated Abigail. "A stranger to me." + +"Surely not. Have you forgotten the wealthy young oil-seller who lived +next the synagogue? He has the richest olive groves in this part of the +country." + +"Not the husband of my little playmate Esther!" cried Abigail. "Surely +he has not been stricken with leprosy!" + +"Yes; it is one of the saddest cases I ever heard of. It seems so +terrible for a man honored as he has been, and accustomed to every +luxury, to be such a despised outcast." + +"Poor Esther!" sighed Abigail. "Does she ever see him?" + +"Not now. The disease is fast destroying him; and he is such a hideous +sight that he has forbidden her to ever try to see him again. Even his +voice is changed. Of course he would be stoned if he were to come back. +He never seeks the company of other lepers. She has had a room built for +him away from the sight of men. Every day a servant carries him food and +tidings. It is well that they have money, or he would be obliged to live +among the tombs with others as repulsive-looking as himself, and such +company must certainly be worse than none. Sometimes little Joseph is +taken near enough to speak to him, that he may have the poor comfort of +seeing his only child at a distance." + +"What if it were my Phineas!" exclaimed Abigail, her tears dropping fast +on the needlework she held. "Oh, it is a thousand times worse than +death!" + +Out in the street the boys were making each other's acquaintance in the +off-hand way boys of that age have. + +"My name is Jesse. What's yours?" + +"Joseph." + +"Where do you live?" + +"Around the corner, next to the synagogue." + +"My father is a carpenter. What's yours?" + +Joseph hesitated. "He used to be an oil-seller," he said finally. "He +doesn't do anything now." + +"Why?" persisted Jesse. + +"He is a leper now," was the reluctant answer. + +A look of distress came over Jesse's face. He had seen some lepers once, +and the sight was still fresh in his mind. As they were riding down from +Galilee, Joel had pointed them out to him. A group of beggars with +horrible scaly sores that had eaten away their flesh, till some were +left without lips or eyelids; one held out a deathly white hand from +which nearly all the fingers had dropped. Their hair looked like white +wire, and they called out, in shrill, cracked voices, "Unclean! Unclean! +Come not near us!" + +"How terrible to have one's father like that," thought Jesse. A lump +seemed to come up in his throat; his eyes filled with tears at the bare +idea. Then, boy-like, he tossed up his ball, and forgot all about it in +the game that followed. + +Several days after he met Joseph and a servant who was carrying a large, +covered basket and a water-bottle made of skin. + +"I'm going to see my father, now," said Joseph. "Ask your mother if you +can come with me." + +Jesse started towards his home, then turned suddenly. "No, I'm not going +to ask her, for she'll be sure to say no. I am just going anyhow." + +"You'll catch it when you get home!" exclaimed Joseph. + +"Well, it cannot last long," reasoned Jesse, whose curiosity had gotten +the better of him. "I believe I'd rather take a whipping than not to +go." + +Joseph looked at him in utter astonishment. + +"Yes, I would," he insisted; "so come on!" + +A short walk down an unfrequented road, in the direction of Jericho, +took them to a lonely place among the bare cliffs. A little cabin stood +close against the rocks, with a great sycamore-tree bending over it. +Near by was the entrance to a deep cave, always as cool as a cellar, +even in the hottest summer days. + +At the mouth of the cave sat Simon the leper. He stood up when he saw +them coming, and wrapped himself closely in a white linen mantle that +covered him from head to foot. It was a ghostly sight to Jesse; but to +Joseph, so long accustomed to it, there seemed nothing strange. + +At a safe distance the servant emptied his basket on a large flat rock, +and poured the water into a stone jar standing near. Last of all, he +laid a piece of parchment on the stone. It was Esther's daily letter to +her exiled husband. + +No matter what storms swept the valley, or what duties pressed at home, +that little missive was always sent. She had learned to write for his +sake. By all his friends he was accounted dead; but her love, stronger +than death, bridged the gulf that separated them. She lived only to +minister to his comfort as best she could. + +Simon did not send as long a message in return as this trusted messenger +usually carried. He had much to say to his boy, and the sun was already +high. + +Jesse, lagging behind in the shelter of the rock, heard the tender words +of counsel and blessing that came from the white-sheeted figure with a +feeling of awe. + +As the father urged his boy to be faithful to every little duty, careful +in learning the prayers, and above all obedient to his mother, Jesse's +conscience began to prick him sorely. + +"I believe I know somebody that could cure him," he said, as they picked +their way over the rocks, going home. "'Cause He made Joel well." + +"Who's Joel?" asked Joseph. + +"A boy that lives with us. He was just as lame, and limped way over when +he walked. Now he is as straight as I am. All the sick people where I +lived went to Him, and they got well." + +Joseph shook his head. "Lepers can't be cured. Can they, Seth?" he +asked, appealing to the servant. + +"No, lepers are just the same as dead," answered Seth. "There's no help +for them." + +Jesse was in a very uncomfortable frame of mind, as, hot and dusty, he +left his companion and dragged home at a snail's pace. + +Next morning Joseph was waiting for him out in front. "Well, did she +whip you?" he asked, with embarrassing frankness. + +"No," said Jesse, a little sheepishly. "She put me to bed just as soon +as I had eaten my dinner, and made me stay there till this morning." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +RUTH went every day to ask for her sick friend, sometimes with a bunch +of grapes, sometimes with only a flower in her warm little hand. + +But there came a time when Martha met her, with eyes all swollen and red +from crying, and told her they had sent to the city for a skilful +physician. + +In the night there came a loud knocking at the door, and a call for +Rabbi Reuben to come quickly, that Lazarus was worse. At day-break a +messenger was sent clattering away to hurry over the Jordan in hot +haste, and bring back from Perea the only One who could help them. + +The noise awakened Ruth; she sat up in surprise to see her mother +dressed so early. The outer door was ajar, and she heard the message +that the anxious Martha bade the man deliver: "Lord, he whom Thou lovest +is sick." + +"He will come right away and make him well, won't He, mother?" she asked +anxiously. + +"Surely, my child," answered Abigail. "He loves him too well to let him +suffer so." + +But the day wore on, and the next; still another, and He did not come. + +Ruth stole around like a frightened shadow, because of the anxious looks +on every face. + +"Why doesn't He come?" she wondered; and on many another lip was the +same question. + +She was so quiet, no one noticed when she stole into the room where her +friend lay dying. Mary knelt on one side of the bed, Martha on the +other, watching the breath come slower and slower, and clinging to the +unresponsive hands as if their love could draw him back to life. + +Neither shed a tear, but seemed to watch with their souls in their eyes, +for one more word, one more look of recognition. + +Abigail sat by the window, weeping softly. Ruth had never seen her +mother cry before, and it frightened her. She glanced at her +grandfather, standing by the foot of the bed; two great tears rolled +slowly down his cheeks, and dropped on his long beard. + +A sudden cry from Mary, as she fell fainting to the floor, called her +attention to the bed again. Martha was silently rocking herself to and +fro, in an agony of grief. + +Still the child did not understand. Those in the room were so busy +trying to bring Mary back to consciousness, that no one noticed Ruth. + +Drawn by some impulse she could not understand, the child drew nearer +and nearer. Then she laid her soft little hand on his, thinking the +touch would surely make him open his eyes and smile at her again; it had +often done so before. + +But what was it that made her start back terrified, and shrink away +trembling? It was not Lazarus she had touched, but the awful mystery of +death. + +"I did not know that a little child could feel so deeply," said Abigail +to her mother, when she found that Ruth neither ate nor played, but +wandered aimlessly around. + +"I shall keep her away from the funeral." + +But all her care could not keep from the little one's ears the mournful +music of the funeral dirge, or the wailing of the mourners, who gathered +to do honor to the young man whom all Bethany knew and loved. + +Many friends came out from Jerusalem to follow the long procession to +the tomb. There was a long eulogy at the grave; but the most impressive +ceremony was over at last, and the great stone had to be rolled into the +opening that formed the doorway. + +Then the two desolate sisters went back to their lonely home and empty +life, wondering how they could go on without the presence that had been +such a daily benediction. + +The fourth day after his death, as Martha sat listlessly looking out of +the green arbor with unseeing eyes, Ruth ran in with a radiant face. + +"He's come!" she cried. "He's come, and so has my father. Hurry! He is +waiting for you!" + +Martha drew her veil about her, and mechanically followed the eager +child to the gate, where Phineas met her with the same message. + +"Oh, why did He not come sooner?" she thought bitterly, as she pressed +on after her guide. + +Once outside of the village, she drew aside her veil. There stood the +Master, with such a look of untold sympathy on His worn face, that +Martha cried out, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not +died!" + +"Thy brother shall rise again," He said gently. + +"Yes, I know he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day," +she said brokenly. "That brings hope for the future; but what comfort is +there for the lonely years we must live without him?" The tears streamed +down her face again. + +Then for the first time came those words that have brought balm into +thousands of broken hearts, and hope into countless tear-blind eyes. + +"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me shall never +die. Believest thou this?" + +Martha looked up reverently. "Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the +Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world." + +A great peace came over her troubled spirit as she hurried to her home, +where the many friends still sat who had come to comfort them. A number +of them were from Jerusalem, and she knew that among them were some who +were unfriendly to her brother's friend. + +So she quietly called her sister from the room, whispering, "The Master +is come, and calleth for thee!" + +Those who sat there thought they were going to the grave to weep, as was +the custom. So they rose also, and followed at a little distance. + +Mary met Him with the same exclamation that her sister had uttered, and +fell at His feet. + +He, seeing in her white face the marks of the deep grief she had +suffered, was thrilled to the depths of His humanity by the keenest +sympathy. His tears fell too, at the sight of hers. + +"Behold how He loved Lazarus!" said a man to the one who stood beside +him. + +"Why did He not save him then?" was the mocking answer. + +"They say He has the power to open the eyes of the blind, and even to +raise the dead. Let Him show it in this case!" + +It was a curious crowd that followed Him to the door of the tomb: men +who hated Him for the scorching fire-brands of rebuke He had thrown into +their corrupt lives; men who feared Him as a dangerous teacher of false +doctrines; men who knew His good works, but hesitated either to accept +or refuse; and men who loved Him better than life,--all waiting, +wondering what He would do. + +"Roll the stone away!" He commanded; a dozen strong shoulders bent to do +His bidding. Then He looked up and spoke in a low tone, but so +distinctly that no one lost a word. + +"Father," He said,--He seemed to be speaking to some one just beside +Him,--"I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou +hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, +that they may believe that Thou hast sent me." + +A cold shiver of expectancy ran over those who heard. Then He cried, in +a loud voice, "_Lazarus, come forth!_" There was a dreadful pause. Some +of the women clutched each other with frightened shrieks; even strong +men fell back, as out of the dark grave walked a tall figure wrapped in +white grave-clothes. + +His face was hidden in a napkin. "Loose him, and let him go," said the +Master, calmly. + +Phineas stepped forward and loosened the outer bands. When the napkin +fell from his face, they saw he was deathly white; but in an instant a +warm, healthful glow took the place of the corpse-like pallor. + +Not till he spoke, however, could the frightened people believe that it +was Lazarus, and not a ghost they saw. + +Never had there been such a sight since the world began: the man who had +lain four days in the tomb, walking side by side with the man who had +called him back to life. + +The streets were full of people, laughing, shouting, crying, fairly +beside themselves with astonishment. + +Smiths left their irons to cool on the anvils; bakers left their bread +to burn in the ovens; the girl at the fountain dropped her half-filled +pitcher; and a woman making cakes ran into the street with the dough in +her hands. + +Every house in the village stood empty, save one where a sick man moaned +for water all unheeded, and another where a baby wakened in its cradle +and began to cry. + +Long after the reunited family had gone into their home with their +nearest friends, and shut the door on their overwhelming joy, the crowds +still stood outside, talking among themselves. + +Many who had taken part against the Master before, now believed on +account of what they had seen. But some still said, more openly than +before, "He is in league with the evil one, or He could not do such +things." These hurried back to Jerusalem, to spread the report that this +dangerous man had again appeared, almost at the very gates of the great +Capital. + +That night there was a secret council of the chief priests and the +Pharisees. "What shall we do," was the anxious question. "If we let Him +alone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans shall come and take +away both our place and our nation." + +Every heart beat with the same thought, but only Caiaphas put it in +words. At last he dared repeat what he had only muttered to himself +before: "It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, +and that the whole nation perish not." + +While the streets were still full of people, Jesse crept up to Joel, as +they sat together in the court-yard. "Don't you think it would be just +as easy to cure a leper as to raise Rabbi Lazarus from the dead?" + +"Yes, indeed!" answered Joel, positively, "I've seen it done." + +"Oh, have you?" cried the boy, in delight. "Then Joseph can have his +father back again." + +He told him the story of Simon the leper, and of his visit to the lonely +cave. + +Joel's sympathies were aroused at once. Ever since his own cure, he had +felt that he must bring every afflicted one in the wide world to the +great source of healing. + +Just then a man stopped at the gate to ask for Phineas. Joel had learned +to know him well in the weeks they had been travelling together; it was +Thomas. + +The boy sprang up eagerly. "Do you know when the Master is going to +leave Bethany?" he asked. + +"In the morning," answered Thomas, "and right glad I am that it is to be +so soon. For when we came down here, I thought it was but to die with +Him. He is beset on all sides by secret enemies." + +"And will He go out by the same road that we came?" + +"It is most probable." + +Joel waited for no more information from him, but went back to Jesse to +learn the way to the cave. + +Jesse was a little fellow, but a keen-eyed one, and was able to give +Joel the few simple directions that would lead him the right way. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you are going!" he exclaimed. "Shall I run and tell +Joseph what you are going to do?" + +"No, do not say a word to any one," answered Joel. "I shall be back in a +very short time." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +SIMON the leper sat at the door of his cave. He held a roll of vellum in +his unsightly fingers; it was a copy of the Psalms that Lazarus had once +made for him in happier days. + +Many a time he had found comfort in these hope-inspiring songs of David; +but to-day he was reading a wail that seemed to come from the depths of +his own soul: + +"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy +waves. Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an +abomination unto them. I am shut up and I cannot come forth. Lord, I +have called daily upon Thee. I have stretched out my hands unto Thee. +Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise again and +praise Thee? Lord, why casteth Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou Thy +face from me?" + +The roll dropped to the ground, and he hid his face in his hands, +crying, "How long must I endure this? Oh, why was I not taken instead of +Lazarus?" + +The sound of some one scrambling over the rocks made him look up +quickly. + +Seth never made his visits at this time of the day, and strangers had +never before found the path to this out-of-the-way place. + +Joel came on, and stopped by the rock where the water-jar stood. + +Simon stood up, covering himself with his mantle, and crying out, +warningly, "Beware! Unclean! Come no further!" + +"I bring you news from the village," said Joel. The man threw out his +hand with a gesture of alarm. + +"Oh, not of my wife Esther," he cried, imploringly, "or of my little +Joseph! I could not bear to hear aught of ill from them. My heart is +still sore for the death of my friend Lazarus. I went as near the +village as I dared, and heard the dirge of the flutes and the wailing of +the women, when they laid him in the tomb. I have sat here ever since in +sackcloth and ashes." + +"But Lazarus lives again!" exclaimed Joel, simply. He had seen so many +miracles lately, that he forgot the startling effect such an +announcement would have on one not accustomed to them. + +[Illustration: "'YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY'"] + +The man stood petrified with astonishment. At last he said bitterly, +"You but mock me, boy; at least leave me to my sorrow in peace." + +"No!" cried Joel. "As the Lord liveth, I swear it is the truth. Have you +not heard that Messiah has come? I have followed Him up and down the +country, and know whereof I speak. At a word from Him the dumb sing, the +blind see, and the lame walk. I was lame myself, and He made me as you +see me now." + +Joel drew himself up to his fullest height. Simon looked at him, +completely puzzled. + +"Why did you take the trouble to come and tell me that,--a poor despised +leper?" he finally asked. + +"Because I want everybody else to be as happy as I am. He cured me. He +gave me back my strength. Then why should not my feet be always swift to +bring others to Him for the same happy healing? He Himself goes about +all the time doing good. I know there is hope for you, for I have seen +Him cleanse lepers." + +Simon trembled, as the full meaning of the hope held out to him began to +make itself clear to his confused mind: health, home, Esther, +child,--all restored to him. It was joy too great to be possible. + +"Oh, if I could only believe it!" he cried. + +"Lazarus was raised when he had been four days dead. All Bethany can +bear witness to that," persisted Joel. The words poured out with such +force and earnestness, as he described the scene, that Simon felt +impelled to believe him. + +"Where can I find this man?" he asked. + +Joel pointed down the rocky slope. "Take that road that leads into +Bethany. Come early in the morning, and as we all pass that way, call to +Him. He never refuses any who have faith to believe that He can grant +what they ask." + +When Joel was half-way down the hill, he turned back. "If He should not +pass on the morrow," he said, "do not fail to be there on the second +day. We will surely leave here soon." + +Simon stood in bewilderment till the boy had passed down the hill; he +began to fear that this messenger had been only the creation of a dream. +He climbed upon the cliff and peered down into the valley. No, he had +not been deceived; the boy was no mirage of his thirsty soul, for there, +he came out into full sight again, and now, he was climbing the opposite +hillside. + +"How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who bringeth good +tidings!" he murmured. "Oh, what a heaven opens out before me, if this +lad's words are only true!" + +Next morning, after they left Bethany, Joel looked anxiously behind +every rock and tree that they passed; but Simon was not to be seen. + +Presently Joel saw him waiting farther down the road; he was kneeling in +the dust. The white mantle, that in his sensitiveness was always used to +hide himself from view, was cast aside, that the Great Healer might see +his great need. + +He scanned the approaching figures with imploring eyes. He was looking +for the Messiah,--some one in kingly garments, whose jewelled sceptre's +lightest touch would lay upon him the royal accolade of health. + +These were evidently not the ones he was waiting for. These were only +simple wayfarers; most of them looked like Galileans. + +He was about to rise up with his old warning cry of unclean, when he +caught sight of Joel. But where was the princely Redeemer of prophecy? + +Nearer and nearer they came, till he could look full in their faces. No +need now to ask on which one he should call for help; indeed, he seemed +to see but one face, it was so full of loving pity. + +"O Thou Messiah of Israel!" he prayed. "Thou didst call my friend +Lazarus from the dead, O pass me not by! Call me from this living death! +Make me clean!" + +The eyes that looked down into his seemed to search his soul. "Believest +thou that I can do this?" + +The pleading faith in Simon's eyes could not be refused. "Yea, Lord," he +cried, "Thou hast but to speak the word!" + +He waited, trembling, for the answer that meant life or death to him. + +"I will. Be thou clean!" He put out His hand to raise the kneeling man +to his feet. "Go and show thyself to the priests," He added. + +The party passed on, and Simon stood looking after them. _Was_ it the +Christ who had passed by? Where were His dyed garments from Bozrah? The +prophet foretold Him as glorious in apparel, travelling in the greatness +of His strength. No sceptre of divine power had touched him; it was only +the clasp of a warm human hand he had felt. He looked down at himself. +Still a leper! His faith wavered; but he remembered he had not obeyed +the command to show himself to the priests. Immediately he started +across the fields on a run, towards the road leading into Jerusalem. + +Far down the highway Joel heard a mighty shout; he turned and looked +back. There on the brow of a hill, sharply outlined against the sky, +stood Simon. His arms were lifted high up towards heaven; for as he ran, +in obedience to the command, the leprosy had gone from him. He was +pouring out a flood of praise and thanksgiving, in the first ecstasy of +his recovery, at the top of his voice. + +Joel thought of the tiresome ceremonies to be observed before the man +could go home, and wished that the eight days of purification were over, +that the little family might be immediately reunited. + +Meanwhile, Seth, with his basket and water-bottle, was climbing the hill +toward the cave. For the first time in seven years since he had +commenced these daily visits, no expectant voice greeted him. He went +quite close up to the little room under the cliff; he could see through +the half-open door that it was empty. Then he cautiously approached the +mouth of the cave, and called his master. A hundred echoes answered him, +but no human voice responded. Call after call was sent ringing into the +hollow darkness. The deep stillness weighed heavily upon him; he began +to be afraid that somewhere in its mysterious depths lay a dead body. + +The fear mastered him. Only stopping to put down the food and pour out +the water, he started home at the top of his speed. + +As he reached the road, a traveller going to Bethany hailed him. "What +think you that I saw just now?" asked the stranger. "A man running with +all his might towards Jerusalem. Tears of joy were streaming down his +cheeks, and he was shouting as he ran, 'Cleansed! Cleansed! Cleansed!' +He stopped me, and bade me say, if I met a man carrying a basket and +water-skin, that Simon the leper has just been healed of the leprosy. He +will be home as soon as the days of purification are over." + +Seth gazed at him stupidly, feeling that he must be in a dream. Esther, +too, heard the message unbelievingly. Yet she walked the floor in a +fever of excitement, at the bare possibility of such a thing being true. + +The next morning, she sent Seth, as usual, with the provisions. But he +brought them back, saying the place was still deserted. + +Then she began to dare to hope; although she tried to steel herself +against disappointment, by whispering over and over that she could never +see him again, she waited impatiently for the days to pass. At last they +had all dragged by. + +The new day would begin at sunset, the very earliest time that she might +expect him. The house was swept and garnished as if a king were coming. +The table was set with the choicest delicacies Seth could find in the +Jerusalem markets. + +The earliest roses, his favorite red ones, were put in every room. In +her restless excitement nothing in her wardrobe seemed rich enough to +wear. She tried on one ornament after another before she was suited. +Then, all in white, with jewels blazing in her ears, on her throat, on +her little white hands, and her eyes shining like two glad stars, she +sat down to wait for him. + +But she could not keep still. This rug was turned up at the corner; that +rose had dropped its petals on the floor. She would have another kind of +wine on the table. + +At last she stepped out of the door in her little silken-bound sandals, +and climbed the outside stairs to the roof, to watch for him. + +The sun was entirely out of sight, but the west was glorious with the +red gold of its afterglow. Looking up the Mount of Olives, she could see +the smoke of the evening sacrifice rising as the clouds of incense +filled the Temple. Surely he must be far on the way by this time. + +Her heart almost stopped beating as she saw a figure coming up the road, +between the rows of palm-trees. She strained her eyes for a nearer view, +then drew a long tremulous breath. It was Lazarus; there went the two +children and the lamb to meet him. All along the street, people were +standing in the doors to see him go past; he was still a wonder to them. + +She shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked again. But while her gaze +searched the distant road, some one was passing just below, under the +avenue of leafy trees, with quick impatient tread; some one paused at +the vine-covered door; some one was leaping up the stairs three steps at +a time; some one was coming towards her with out-stretched arms, crying, +"Esther, little Esther, O my wife! My God-given one!" + +For the first time in seven years, she turned to find herself in her +husband's arms. Strong and well, with the old light in his eyes, the old +thrill in his voice, the glow of perfect health tingling through all his +veins, he could only whisper tremulously, as he held her close, "Praise +God! Praise God!" + +No wonder he seemed like a stranger to Joseph. But the clasp of the +strong arms, and the deep voice saying "my son," so tenderly, were +inexpressibly dear to the little fellow kept so long from his birthright +of a father's love. + +He was the first to break the happy silence that fell upon them. "What a +good man Rabbi Jesus must be, to go about making people glad like this +all the time!" + +"It is He who shall redeem Israel!" exclaimed Simon. "To God be the +glory, who hath sent Him into this sin-cursed world! Henceforth all that +I have, and all that I am, shall be dedicated to His service!" + +Kneeling there in the dying daylight, with his arms around the wife and +child so unexpectedly given back to him, such a heart-felt prayer of +gratitude went upward to the good Father that even the happiest angels +must have paused to listen, more glad because of this great +earth-gladness below. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +"I THINK there will be an unusual gathering of strangers at the Passover +this year," said Rabbi Reuben to Lazarus, as they came out together from +the city, one afternoon. "The number may even reach three millions. A +travelling man from Rome was in my shop to-day. He says that in the +remotest parts of the earth, wherever the Hebrew tongue is found, one +may hear the name of the Messiah. + +"People pacing the decks of the ships, crossing the deserts, or trading +in the shops, talk only of Him and His miracles; they have aroused the +greatest interest even in Athens and the cities of the Nile. The very +air seems full of expectancy. I cannot but think great things are about +to come to pass. Surely the time is now ripe for Jesus to proclaim +Himself king. I cannot understand why He should hide Himself away in the +wilderness as if He feared for His safety." + +Lazarus smiled at the old man, with a confident expression. "Be sure, my +friend, it is only because the hour has not yet come. What a sight it +will be when He does stand before the tomb of our long dead power, to +call back the nation to its old-time life and grandeur. I can well +believe that with Him all things are possible." + +"Would that this next Passover were the time!" responded Reuben. "How I +would rejoice to see His enemies laid low in the dust!" + +Already, on the borders of Galilee, the expected king had started toward +His coronation. Many of the old friends and neighbors from Capernaum had +joined their band, to go on to the Paschal feast. + +They made slow progress, however, for at every turn in the road they +were stopped by outstretched hands and cries for help. Nearly every step +was taken to the sound of some rejoicing cry from some one who had been +blessed. + +Joel could not crowd all the scenes into his memory; but some stood with +clear-cut distinctness. There were the ten lepers who met them at the +very outset; and there was blind Bartimeus begging by the wayside. He +could never forget the expression of that man's face, when his eyes +were opened, and for the first time he looked out on the glory of the +morning sunshine. + +Joel quivered all over with a thrill of sympathy, remembering his own +healing, and realizing more than the others what had been done for the +blind beggar. + +Then there was Zaccheus, climbing up to look down through the sycamore +boughs that he might see the Master passing into Jericho, and Zaccheus +scrambling down again in haste to provide entertainment for his honored +guest. + +There was the young ruler going away sorrowful because the sacrifice +asked of him was more than he was willing to make. But there was one +scene that his memory held in unfading colors:-- + +Roses and wild honeysuckle climbing over a bank by the road-side. +Orange-trees dropping a heavy fragrance with the falling petals of their +white blossoms. In the midst of the shade and the bloom the mothers from +the village near by, gathering with their children, all freshly washed +and dressed to find favor in the eyes of the passing Prophet. + +Babies cooed in their mother's arms. Bright little faces smiled out from +behind protecting skirts, to which timid fingers clung. As they waited +for the coming procession, and little bare feet chased each other up and +down the bank, the happy laughter of the older children filled all the +sunny air. + +As the travellers came on, the women caught up their children and +crowded forward. It was a sight that would have made almost any one +pause,--those innocent-eyed little ones waiting for the touch that would +keep them always pure in heart,--that blessing their mothers coveted for +them. + +But some of the disciples, impatient at the many delays, seeing in the +rosy faces and dimpled limbs nothing that seemed to claim help or +attention, spoke to the women impatiently. "Why trouble ye the Master?" +they said. "Would ye stop the great work He has come to do for matters +of such little importance?" + +Repelled by the rebuke, they fell back. But there was a look of +displeasure on His face, such as they had never seen before, as Jesus +turned toward them. + +"Suffer the little children to come unto me," He said, sternly, "and +forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven!" + +Then holding out His hands He took them up in His arms and blessed +them, every one, even the youngest baby, that blinked up at Him +unknowingly with its big dark eyes, received its separate blessing. + +So fearlessly they came to Him, so lovingly they nestled in His arms, +and with such perfect confidence they clung to Him, that He turned again +to His disciples. "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive +the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." + +Met at all points as He had been by loathsome sights, ragged beggars, +and diseases of all kinds, this group of happy-faced children must have +remained long in His memory, as sweet as the unexpected blossoming of a +rose in a dreary desert. + +At last the slow journey drew towards a close. The Friday afternoon +before the Passover found the tired travellers once more in Bethany. +News of their coming had been brought several hours before by a man +riding down from Jericho. His swift-footed beast had overtaken and +passed the slow procession far back on the road. + +There was a joyful welcome for the Master in the home of Lazarus. The +cool, vine-covered arbor was a refreshing change from the dusty road. +Here were no curious throngs and constant demands for help. + +Away from the sights that oppressed Him, away from the clamor and the +criticism, here was a place where heart and body might find rest. The +peace of the place, and the atmosphere of sympathy surrounding Him, must +have fallen like dew on His thirsty soul. Here, for a few short days, He +who had been so long a houseless wanderer was to know the blessedness of +a home. + +Several hours before the first trumpet blast from the roof of the +synagogue proclaimed the approaching Sabbath, Simon hurried to his home. + +"Esther," he called in great excitement, "I have seen Him! The Christ! I +have knelt at His feet. I have looked in His face. And, oh, only +think!--He has promised to sit at our table! To-morrow night, such a +feast as has never been known in the place shall be spread before Him. +Help me to think of something we may do to show him especial honor." + +Esther sprang up at the news. "We have very little time to prepare," she +said. "Seth must go at once into the city to make purchases. To-morrow +night, no hireling hand shall serve him. I myself shall take that lowly +place, with Martha and Mary to aid me. Abigail, too, shall help us, for +it is a labor of love that she will delight to take part in. I shall go +at once to ask them." + +The long, still Sabbath went by. The worshippers in the synagogue looked +in vain for other miracles, listened in vain for the Voice that wrought +such wonders. + +Through the unbroken rest of that day He was gathering up His strength +for a coming trial. Something of the approaching shadow may have been +seen in His tender eyes; some word of the awaiting doom may have been +spoken to the brother and sisters sitting reverently at his feet,--for +they seemed to feel that a parting was at hand, and that they must crowd +the flying hours with all the loving service they could render Him. + +That night at the feast, as Esther's little white hands brought the +water for the reclining guests to wash, and Martha and Abigail placed +sumptuously filled dishes before them, Mary paused in her busy passing +to and fro; she longed to do some especial thing to show her love for +the honored guest. + +Never had His face worn such a look of royalty; never had He seemed so +much the Christ. The soft light of many candles falling on His worn +face seemed to reveal as never before the divine soul soon to leave the +worn body where it now tarried. + +An old Jewish custom suddenly occurred to her. She seemed to see two +pictures: one was Aaron, standing up in the rich garments of the +priesthood, with his head bowed to receive the sacred anointing; the +other was Israel's first king, on whom the hoary Samuel was bestowing +the anointing that proclaimed his royalty. Token of both priesthood and +kingship,--oh, if she dared but offer it! + +No one noticed when she stepped out after awhile, and hurried swiftly +homeward. Hidden away in a chest in her room, was a little alabaster +flask, carefully sealed. It held a rare sweet perfume, worth almost its +weight in gold. + +She took it out with trembling fingers, and hid it in the folds of her +long flowing white dress. Her breath came quick, and her heart beat +fast, as she slipped in behind the guests again. The color glowed and +paled in her cheeks, as she stood there in the shadow of the curtains, +hesitating, half afraid to venture. + +At last, when the banquet was almost over, she stepped noiselessly +forward. There was a hush of surprise at this unusual interruption, +although every one there was familiar with the custom, and recognized +its deep meaning and symbolism. + +First on His head, then on His feet, she poured the costly perfume. +Bending low in the deepest humility, she swept her long soft hair across +them to wipe away the crystal drops. The whole house was filled with the +sweet, delicate odor. + +Some of those who saw it, remembered a similar scene in the house of +another Simon, in far away Galilee; but only the Anointed One could feel +the deep contrast between the two. + +That Simon, the proud Pharisee, condescending and critical and scant in +hospitality; this Simon, the cleansed leper, ready to lay down his life, +in his boundless love and gratitude. That woman, a penitent sinner, +kneeling with tears before His mercy; this woman, so pure in heart that +she could see God though hidden in the human body of the Nazarene. That +anointing, to His priesthood at the beginning of His ministry; this +anointing, to His kingdom, now almost at hand. No one spoke as the +fragrance rose and spread itself like the incense of a benediction. It +seemed a fitting close to this hour of communion with the Master. + +Across this eloquent silence that the softest sound would have jarred +upon, a cold, unfeeling voice broke harshly. + +[Illustration: "A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE NIGHT"] + +It was Judas Iscariot who spoke. "Why was all this ointment wasted?" he +asked. "It would have been better to have sold it and given it to the +poor." + +Simon frowned indignantly at this low-browed guest, who was so lacking +in courtesy, and Mary looked up distressed. + +"Let her alone!" said the Master, gently. "Ye have the poor with you +always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good: but me ye have not +always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my +body to the burying." + +A dark look gleamed in the eyes of Judas,--there was that reference +again to His burial. There seemed to be no use of making any further +pretence to follow Him any longer. His kingdom was a delusion,--a vague, +shadowy, spiritual thing that the others might believe in if they chose. +But if there was no longer any hope of gaining by His service, he would +turn to the other side. + +That night there was another secret council of some of the Sanhedrin, +and Judas Iscariot was in their midst. + +When the lights were out, and the Temple police were making their final +rounds, a dark figure went skulking out into the night, and wound its +way through the narrow streets,--the dark figure that still goes +skulking through the night of history,--the man who covenanted for +thirty pieces of silver to betray his Lord. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +"WHO is that talking in the house?" asked Joel of Abigail the morning +after the feast. He had been playing in the garden with Jesse, and +paused just outside the door as he heard voices. + +"Only father and Phineas, now," answered Abigail. "Simon the oil-seller +has just been here, and I am sure you could not guess his errand. It was +about you." + +"About me?" echoed Joel, in surprise. + +"Yes, I never knew until this morning that you were the one who +persuaded him to go to the Master for healing. He says if it had not +been for you, he would still be an outcast from home. During these weeks +you have been away, he has been hoping to find some trace of you, for he +longs to express his gratitude. Last night at the feast, he learned your +name, and now he has just been here to talk to Phineas and father about +you. His olive groves yield him a large fortune every year, and he is in +a position to do a great deal for you, if you will only let him." + +"What does he want to do?" asked Joel. + +"He has offered a great deal: to send you to the best schools in the +country; to let you travel in foreign lands, and see life as it is in +Rome and Athens and the cities of Egypt. Then when you are grown, he +offers to take you in business with himself, and give you the portion of +a son. It is a rare chance for you, my boy." + +"Yes," answered Joel, flushing with pleasure at the thought of all he +might be able to see and learn. He seemed lost for a few minutes in the +bright anticipation of such a tempting future; then his face clouded. + +"But I would have to leave everybody I love," he cried, "and the home +where I have been so happy! I cannot do it, mother Abigail; it is too +much to ask." + +"Now you talk like a child," she answered, half impatiently; but there +was a suspicion of tears in her eyes as she added, "Joel, you have grown +very dear to us. It will be hard to give you up, for you seem almost +like an own son. But consider, my boy; it would not be right to turn +away from such advantages. Jesse and Ruth will be well provided for. All +that my father has will be theirs some day. But Phineas is only a poor +carpenter, and cannot give you much beyond food and clothing. I heard +him say just now that he clearly thought it to be your duty to accept, +and he had no doubt but that you would." + +"But I cannot be with the Master!" cried Joel, as the thought suddenly +occurred to him that he could no longer follow Him as he had been doing, +if he was to be sent away to study and travel. + +"No; but think what you may be able to do for His cause, if you have +money and education and influence. It seems to me that for His sake +alone, you ought to consent to such an arrangement." + +That was the argument that Phineas used when he came out; and the boy +was sadly bewildered between the desire to be constantly with his +beloved Master, and his wish to serve Him as they suggested. + +It was in this perplexed state of mind that he started up to Jerusalem +with Jesse and his grandfather. + +The streets were rapidly filling with people, coming up to the Feast of +the Passover, and Joel recognized many old friends from Galilee. + +"There is Rabbi Amos!" he exclaimed, as he caught sight of an old man in +the door of a house across the street. "May I run and speak to him?" + +"Certainly!" answered Reuben. "You know your way so well about the +streets that it makes no difference if we do get separated. Jesse and I +will walk on down to the shop. You can meet us there." + +Rabbi Amos gave Joel a cordial greeting. "I am about to go back to the +Damascus gate," he said. "I have just been told that the Nazarene will +soon make His entrance into the city, and a procession of pilgrims are +going out to meet Him. I have heard much of the man since He left +Capernaum, and I have a desire to see Him again. Will you come?" + +The old man hobbled along so painfully, leaning on his staff, that they +were a long time in reaching the gate. The outgoing procession had +already met the coming pilgrims, and were starting to return. The way +was strewn with palm branches and the clothes they had taken off to lay +along the road in front of the man they wished to honor. Every hand +carried a palm branch, and every voice cried a Hosannah. + +At first Joel saw only a confused waving of the green branches, and +heard an indistinct murmur of voices; but as they came nearer, he caught +the words, "Hosannah to the Son of David!" + +"Look!" cried Rabbi Amos, laying his wrinkled, shaking hand heavily on +Joel's shoulder. "Look ye, boy, the voice of prophecy! No Roman +war-horse bears the coming victor! It is as Zechariah foretold! That the +king should come riding upon the colt of an ass,--the symbol of peace. +So David rode, and so the Judges of Israel came and went!" + +Joel's eyes followed the gesture of the tremulous, pointing finger. +There came the Master, right in the face of His enemies, boldly riding +in to take possession of His kingdom. + +At last! No wandering now in lonely wildernesses! No fear of the jealous +scribe or Pharisee! The time had fully come. With garments strewn in the +way, with palms of victory waving before Him, with psalm and song and +the shouting of the multitude, He rode triumphantly into the city. + +Joel was roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, to see His best +beloved friend so honored. People understood Him now; they appreciated +Him. The demonstrations of the multitude proved it. He was so happy and +excited, he scarcely knew what he was doing. He had no palm branch to +wave, but as the head of the procession came abreast with him, and he +saw the face of the rider, he was almost beside himself. + +He waved his empty hands wildly up and down, cheering at the top of his +voice; but his shrillest Hosannahs were heard only by himself. They were +only a drop in that mighty surf-beat of sound. + +Scarcely knowing what to expect, yet prepared for almost anything, they +followed the procession into the city. When they reached the porch of +the Temple, the Master had disappeared. + +"I wonder where He has gone," said Joel, in a disappointed tone. "I +thought they would surely crown Him." + +"He evidently did not wish it to be," answered Rabbi Amos. "It would be +more fitting that the coronation take place at the great feast. Wait +until the day of the Passover." + +As they sat in the Court of the Gentiles, resting, Joel told Rabbi Amos +of the offer made him by the wealthy oil-dealer Simon. + +"Accept it, by all means!" was the old man's advice. "We have seen +enough just now to know that a new day is about to dawn for Israel. In +Bethany, you will be much nearer the Master than in Capernaum; for +surely, after to-day's demonstration, He will take up His residence in +the capital. In time you may rise to great influence in the new +government soon to be established." + +The old rabbi's opinion weighed heavily with Joel, and he determined to +accept Simon's offer. Then for awhile he was so full of his new plans +and ambitions, he could think of nothing else. + +All that busy week he was separated from the Master and His disciples; +for it was the first Passover he had ever taken part in. After it was +over, he was to break the ties that bound him to the carpenter's family +and the simple life in Galilee, and go to live in Simon's luxurious home +in Bethany. + +So he stayed closely with Phineas and Abigail, taking a great interest +in all the great preparations for the feast. + + * * * * * + +Reuben chose, from the countless pens, a male lamb a year old, without +blemish. About two o'clock the blast of two horns announced that the +priests and Levites in the Temple were ready, and the gates of the inner +courts were opened, that all might bring the lambs for examination. + +The priests, in two long rows, caught the blood in great gold and silver +vessels, as the animals were killed, and passed it to others behind, +till it reached the altar, at the foot of which it was poured out. + +Then the lamb was taken up and roasted in an earthen oven, and the feast +commenced at sunset on Thursday. The skin of the lamb, and the earthen +dishes used, were generally given to the host, when different families +lodged together. + +As many as twenty were allowed to gather at one table. Reuben had +invited Nathan ben Obed, and those who came with him, to partake of his +hospitality. Much to Joel's delight, a familiar shock of sunburned hair +was poked in at the door, and he recognized Buz's freckled face, +round-eyed and open mouthed at this first glimpse of the great city. + +During the first hour they were together, Buz kept his squinting eyes +continually on Joel. He found it hard to believe that this straight, +sinewy boy could be the same pitiful little cripple who had gone with +him to the sheepfolds of Nathan ben Obed. + +"Say," he drawled, after awhile, "I know where that fellow is who made +you lame. I was so upset at seeing you this way that I forgot to tell +you. He had a dreadful accident, and you have already had your wish, for +he is as blind as that stone." + +"Oh, how? Who told you?" cried Joel, eagerly. + +"I saw him myself, as we came through Jericho. He had been nearly beaten +to death by robbers a few weeks before. It gave him a fever, and both +eyes were so inflamed and bruised that he lost his sight." + +"Poor Rehum!" exclaimed Joel. + +"Poor Rehum!" echoed Buz, in astonishment. "What do you mean by poor +Rehum? Aren't you glad? Isn't that just exactly what you planned; or did +you want the pleasure of punching them out yourself?" + +"No," answered Joel, simply; "I forgave him a year ago, the night before +I was healed." + +"You forgave him!" gasped Buz,--"you forgave him! A dog of a Samaritan! +Why, how could you?" + +Buz looked at him with such a wondering, puzzled gaze that Joel did not +attempt to explain. Buz might be ignorant of a great many things, but he +knew enough to hate the Samaritans, and look down on them with the +utmost contempt. + +"I don't really believe you could understand it," said Joel, "so it is +of no use to try to tell you how or why. But I did forgive him, fully +and freely. And if you will tell me just where to find him, I will go +after him early in the morning and bring him back with me. The Hand +that straightened my back can open his eyes; for I have seen it done +many times." + +All during the feast, Buz kept stealing searching glances at Joel. He +could hardly tell which surprised him most, the straightened body or the +forgiving spirit. It was so wonderful to him that he sat speechless. + +At the same time, in an upper chamber in another street, the Master and +His disciples were keeping the feast together. It was their last supper +with Him, although they knew it not. Afterwards they recalled every word +and every incident, with loving memory that lingered over each detail; +but at the time they could not understand its full import. + +The gates were left open on Passover night. While the Master and His +followers walked out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where they had often +gone together, Joel was questioning Buz as to the exact place where he +was to find his old enemy. + +"I'll go out very early in the morning," said Joel, as his head touched +the pillow. "Very early in the morning, for I want Rehum's eyes to be +open just as soon as possible, so that he can see the Master's face. +Lord help me to find him to-morrow," he whispered, and with a blessing +on his lips for the one he had so long ago forgiven, his eyes closed +softly. + +Sleep came quickly to him after the fatigue and excitement of the day. +In his dreams he saw again the Master's face as He made His triumphal +entrance into the city; he heard again the acclamations of the crowd. +Then he saw Rabbi Amos and Simon and little Ruth. There was a confused +blending of kindly faces; there was a shadow-like shifting of indistinct +but pleasant scenes. In the fair dreamland where he wandered, fortune +smiled on him, and all his paths were peace. + +Sleep on, little disciple, happy in thy dreaming; out in Gethsemane's +dark garden steals one to betray thy Lord! By the light of glimmering +lanterns and fitful torches they take Him now. Armed with swords and +staves, they lead Him out from the leafy darkness into the moon-flooded +highroad. + +Now He stands before the High Priest,--alone, unfriended. Sleep, and +wake not at the cock's shrill crowing, for there is none to make answer +for Him, and one who loved Him hath thrice denied! + +Dream on! In the hall of Pilate now, thorn-crowned and purple-clad, Him +whom thou lovest; scourged now, and spat upon. This day, indeed, shall +He come into His kingdom, but well for thee, that thou seest not the +coronation. + +Sleep on, little disciple, be happy whilst thou can! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +IT was so much later than he had intended, when Joel awoke next morning, +that without stopping for anything to eat, he hurried out of the city, +and took the road by which the Master had made such a triumphal entry a +few days before. + +Faded branches of palms still lay scattered by the wayside, thickly +covered with dust. + +All unconscious of what had happened the night before, and what was even +at that very moment taking place, Joel trudged on to Bethany at a rapid +pace, light-hearted and happy. + +For six days he had been among enthusiastic Galileans who firmly +believed that before the end of Passover week they should see the +overthrow of Rome, and all nations lying at the feet of a Jewish king. +How long they had dreamed of this hour! + +He turned to look back at the city. The white and gold of the Temple +dazzled his eyes, as it threw back the rays of the morning sun. He +thought of himself as he had stood that day on the roof of the +carpenter's house, stretching out longing arms to this holy place, and +calling down curses on the head of his enemy, Rehum. + +Could he be the same boy? It seemed to him now that that poor, crippled +body, that bitter hatred, that burning thirst for revenge, must have +belonged to some one else, he felt so well, so strong, so full of love +to God and all mankind. + +A little broken-winged sparrow fluttered feebly under a hedgerow. He +stopped to gather a handful of ripe berries for it, and even retraced +his steps to a tiny spring he had noticed farther back, to bring it +water in the hollow of a smooth stone. + +He did not find Rehum at the place where Buz had told him to inquire. +His father had taken him to his home, somewhere in Samaria. + +Joel turned back, tired and disappointed. He was glad to lie down, when +he reached Bethany again, and rest awhile. A peculiar darkness began to +settle down over the earth. Joel was perplexed and frightened; he knew +it could not be an eclipse, for it was the time of the full moon. +Finally he started back to Jerusalem, although it was like travelling in +the night, for the darkness had deepened and deepened for nearly three +hours, and the mysterious gloom made him long to be with his friends. + +His first thought was to find the Master, and he naturally turned toward +the Temple. Just as he started across the Porch of Solomon, the darkness +was lifted, and everything seemed to dance before his eyes. He had never +experienced an earthquake shock before, but he felt sure that this was +one. + +He braced himself against one of the pillars. How the massive columns +quivered! How the hot air throbbed! The darkness had been awful, but +this was doubly terrifying. + +The earth had scarcely stopped trembling, when an old white-bearded +priest ran across the Court of the Gentiles; his wrinkled hands, raised +above his head, shook as with palsy. The scream that he uttered seemed +to transfix Joel with horror. + +"_The veil of the Temple is rent in twain!_" he cried,--"_The veil of +the Temple is rent in twain!_" + +Then with a convulsive shudder he fell forward on his face. Joel's knees +shook. The darkness, the earthquake, and now this mighty force that had +laid bare the Holy of Holies, filled him with an undefined dread. + +He ran past the prostrate priest into the inner court, and saw for +himself. There hung the heavy curtain of Babylonian tapestry, in all its +glory of hyacinth and scarlet and purple, torn asunder from top to +bottom. No earthquake shock could have made that ragged gash. The wrath +of God must have come down and laid mighty fingers upon it. + +He ran out of the Temple, and towards the house where he had slept the +night before. + +The earthquake seemed to have shaken all Jerusalem into the streets. +Strange words were afloat. A question overheard in passing one excited +group, an exclamation in another, made him run the faster. + +At Reuben's shop he found Jesse and Ruth both crying from fright. The +attendant who had them in charge told him that his friends had been gone +nearly all day. + +"Where?" demanded Joel. + +"I do not know exactly. They went out with one of the greatest +multitudes that ever passed through the gates of the city. Not only +Jews, but Greeks and Romans and Egyptians. You should have seen the +camels and the chariots, the chairs and the litters!" exclaimed the man. + +A sudden fear fell upon the boy that this was the day that the One he +loved best had been made king, and he had missed it,--had missed the +greatest opportunity of his life. + +"Was it to follow Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth?" he demanded eagerly. + +The man nodded. + +"To crown Him?" was the next breathless question. + +"No; to crucify Him." + +The unexpected answer was almost a death-thrust. Joel stood a moment, +dumb with horror. The blood seemed to stand still in his veins; there +was a roaring in his ears; then everything grew black before him. He +clutched blindly at the air, then staggered back against the wall. + +"No, _no_, _no_, NO!" he cried; each word was louder than the last. "I +will not believe it! You do not speak truth!" + +He ran madly from the shop, down the street, and through the city gate. +Out on the highway he met the returning multitude, most of them in as +great haste as he. + +Everything he saw seemed to confirm the truth of what he had just heard, +but he could not believe it. + +"No, no, no!" he gasped, in a breathless whisper, as he ran. "No, no, +no! It cannot be! He is the Christ! The Son of God! They could not be +able to do it, no matter how much they hated Him!" + +But even as he ran he saw the hill where three crosses rose. He turned +sick and cold, and so weak he could scarcely stand. Still he stumbled +resolutely on, but with his face turned away from the sight he dared not +look upon, lest seeing should be knowing what he feared. + +At last he reached the place, and, shrinking back as if from an expected +blow, he slowly raised his eyes till they rested on the face of the dead +body hanging there. + +The agonized shriek on his lips died half uttered, as he fell +unconscious at the foot of the cross. + +A long time after, one of the soldiers happening to notice him, turned +him over with his foot, and prodded him sharply with his spear. It +partially aroused him, and in a few moments he sat up. Then he looked up +again into the white face above him; but this time the bowed head awed +him into a deep calm. + +The veil of the Temple was rent indeed, and through this pierced body +there shone out from its Holy of Holies the Shekinah of God's love for a +dying world. It uplifted Joel, and drew him, and drew him, till he +seemed to catch a faint glimpse of the Father's face; to feel himself +folded in boundless pardon, in pity so deep, and a love so unfathomed, +that the lowest sinner could find a share. But while he gazed and gazed +into the white face, so glorified in its marble stillness, Joseph of +Arimathea stood between him and the cross, giving directions, in a low +tone, for the removal of the body. + +It seemed to waken Joel out of his trance; and when the bloodstained +form was stretched gently on the ground, he forgot his glimpse of +heavenly mysteries, he saw no longer the uplifted Christ. He saw +instead, the tortured body of the man he loved; the friend for whom he +would gladly have given his life. + +Almost blinded by the rush of tears, he groped his way on his knees +toward it. A mantle of fine white linen had been laid over the lifeless +body; but one hand lay stretched out beside Him with a great bloody +nail-hole through the palm,--it was the hand that had healed him; the +hand that had fed the hungry multitudes; the hand that had been laid in +blessing on the heads of little children, waiting by the roadside! With +the thought of all it had done for him, with the thought of all it had +done for all the countless ones its warm, loving touch had comforted, +came the remembrance of the torture it had just suffered. Joel lay down +beside it with a heart-broken moan. + +Men came and lifted the body in its spotless covering. Joel did not look +up to see who bore it away. + +The lifeless hand still hung down uncovered at His side. With his eyes +fixed on that, Joel followed, longing to press it to his lips with +burning kisses; but he dared not so much as touch it with trembling +fingers,--a sense of his unworthiness forbade. + +As the silent procession went onward, Joel found himself walking beside +Abigail. She had pushed her veil aside that she might better see the +still form borne before them; she had stood near by through all those +hours of suffering. Her wan face and swollen eyes showed how the force +of her sympathy and grief had worn upon her. + +Joel glanced around for Phineas. He was one of those who walked before +with the motionless burden, his strong brown hands tenderly supporting +the Master's pierced feet; his face was as rigid as stone, and seemed to +Joel to have grown years older since the night before. + +Another swift rush of tears blinded Joel, as he looked at the set, +despairing face, and then at what he carried. + +O friend of Phineas! O feet that often ran to meet him on the grassy +hillsides of Nazareth, that walked beside him at his daily toil, and led +him to a nobler living!--Thou hast climbed the mountain of Beatitudes! +Thou hast walked the wind-swept waters of the Galilee! But not of this +is he thinking now. It is of Thy life's unselfish pilgrimage; of the +dust and travel stains of the feet he bears; of the many steps, taken +never for self, always for others; of the cure and the comfort they have +daily carried; of the great love that hath made their very passing by to +be a benediction. + +It seemed strange to Joel that, in the midst of such overpowering +sorrow, trivial little things could claim his attention. Years afterward +he remembered just how the long streaks of yellow sunshine stole under +the trees of the garden; he could hear the whirr of grasshoppers, +jumping up in the path ahead of them; he could smell the heavy odor of +lilies growing beside an old tomb. + +The sorrowful little group wound its way to a part of the garden where a +new tomb had been hewn out of the rock; here Joseph of Arimathea +motioned them to stop. They laid the open bier gently on the ground, and +Joel watched them with dry eyes but trembling lips, as they noiselessly +prepared the body for its hurried burial. + +From time to time as they wound the bands of white linen, powdered with +myrrh and aloes, they glanced up nervously at the sinking sun. The +Sabbath eve was almost upon them, and the old slavish fear of the Law +made them hasten. A low stifled moaning rose from the lips of the women, +as the One they had followed so long was lifted up, and borne forever +out of their sight, through the low doorway of the tomb. + +Strong hands rolled the massive stone in place that barred the narrow +opening. Then all was over; there was nothing more that could be done. + +The desolate mourners sat down on the grass outside the tomb, to watch +and weep and wait over a dead hope and a lost cause. + +A deep stillness settled over the garden as they lingered there in the +gathering twilight. They grew calm after awhile, and began to talk in +low tones of the awful events of the day just dying. + +Gradually, Joel learned all that had taken place. As he heard the story +of the shame and abuse and torture that had been heaped upon the One he +loved better than all the world, his face grew white with horror and +indignation. + +"Oh, wasn't there _one_ to stand up for Him?" he cried, with clasped +hands and streaming eyes. "Wasn't there _one_ to speak a word in His +defence? O my Beloved!" he moaned. "Out of all the thousands Thou didst +heal, out of all the multitudes Thou didst bless, not one to bear +witness!" + +He rocked himself to and fro on his knees, wringing his hands as if the +thought brought him unspeakable anguish. + +"Oh, if I had only been there!" he moaned. "If I could only have stood +up beside Him and told what He had done for me! O my God! My God! How +can I bear it? To think He went to His death without a friend and +without a follower, when I loved Him so! All alone! Not one to speak for +Him, not one!" + +Groping with tear-blinded eyes towards the tomb, the boy stretched his +arms lovingly around the great stone that stopped its entrance; then +suddenly realizing that he could never go any closer to the One inside, +never see Him again, he leaned his head hopelessly against the rock, and +gave way to his feeling of utter loneliness and despair. + +How long he stood there, he did not know. When he looked up again, the +women had gone, and it was nearly dark. Phineas and several other men +lingered in the black shadows of the trees, and Joel joined them. + +Roman guards came presently. A stout cord was stretched across the +stone, its ends firmly fastened, and sealed with the seal of Caesar. A +watch-fire was kindled near by; then the Roman sentinels began their +steady tramp! tramp! as they paced back and forth. + +High overhead the stars began to set their countless watch-fires in the +heavens; then the white full moon of the Passover looked down, and all +night long kept its silent vigil over the forsaken tomb of the sleeping +Christ. + + * * * * * + +Abigail had found shelter for the night with friends, in a tent just +outside the city; but Joel and Phineas took their way back to Bethany. + +Little was said as they trudged along in the moonlight. Joel thought +only of one thing,--his great loss, the love of which he had been +bereft. But to Phineas this death meant much more than the separation +from the best of friends; it meant the death of a cause on which he had +staked his all. He must go back to Galilee to be the laughing-stock of +his old neighbors. He who they trusted would have saved Israel had been +put to death as a felon,--crucified between two thieves! The cause was +lost; he was left to face an utter failure. + +When the moon went down that morning over the hills of Judea, there were +many hearts that mourned the Man of Nazareth, but not a soul in all the +universe believed on Him as the Son of God. + +Hope lay dead in the tomb of Joseph, with a great stone forever walling +it in. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +"WAKE up, Joel! Wake up! I bring you good tidings, my lad!" It was +Abigail's voice ringing cheerily through the court-yard, as she bent +over the boy, fast asleep on the hard stones. + +All the long Sabbath day after the burial, he had sat listlessly in the +shady court-yard, his blank gaze fixed on the opposite wall. No one +seemed able to arouse him from his apathy. He turned away from the food +they brought him, and refused to enter the house when night came. + +Towards morning he had gone over to the fountain for a long draught of +its cool water; then overcome by weakness from his continued fast, and +exhausted by grief, he fell asleep on the pavement. + +Abigail came in and found him there, with the red morning sun beating +full in his face. She had to shake him several times before she could +make him open his eyes. + +He sat up dizzily, and tried to collect his thoughts. Then he +remembered, and laid his head wearily down again, with a groan. + +"Wake up! Wake up!" she insisted, with such eager gladness in her voice +that Joel opened his eyes again, now fully aroused. + +"What is it?" he asked indifferently. + +"_He is risen!_" she exclaimed joyfully, clasping her hands as she +always did when much excited. "I went to His tomb very early in the +morning, while it was yet dark, with Mary and Salome and some other +women. The stone had been rolled aside; and while we wondered and wept, +fearing His enemies had stolen Him away, He stood before us, with His +old greeting on His lips,--'All hail!'" + +Joel rubbed his eyes and looked at her. "No, no!" he said wearily, "I am +dreaming again!" + +He would have thrown himself on the ground as before, his head pillowed +on his arm, but she would not let him. She shook his hands with a +persistence that could not be refused, talking to him all the while in +such a glad eager voice that he slowly began to realize that something +had made her very happy. + +"What is it, Mother Abigail?" he asked, much puzzled. + +"I do not wonder you are bewildered," she cried. "It is such blessed, +such wonderful news. Why He is _alive_, Joel, He whom Thou lovest! Try +to understand it, my boy! I have just now come from the empty tomb. I +saw Him! I spoke with Him! I knelt at His feet and worshipped!" + +By this time all the family had come out. Reuben looked at his daughter +pityingly, as she repeated her news; then he turned to Phineas. + +"Poor thing!" he said, in a low tone. "She has witnessed such terrible +scenes lately, and received such a severe shock, that her mind is +affected by it. She does not know what she is saying. Did not you +yourself help prepare the body for burial, and put it in the tomb?" + +"Yes," answered Phineas, "and helped close it with a great stone, which +no one man could possibly move by himself. And I saw it sealed with the +seal of Caesar; and when I left it was guarded by Roman sentinels in +armor. No man could have opened it." + +"But Abigail talks of angels who sat in the empty tomb, and who told +them He had risen," replied her father. + +Joel, who had overheard this low-toned conversation, got up and stood +close beside them. He had begun to tremble from weakness and +excitement. + +[Illustration: "'THE STONE IS GONE!'"] + +"Father Phineas," he asked, "do you remember the story we heard from the +old shepherd, Heber? The angels told of His birth; maybe she _did_ see +them in His tomb." + +"How can such things be?" queried Reuben, stroking his beard in +perplexity. + +"That's just what you said when Rabbi Lazarus was brought back to life," +piped Jesse's shrill voice, quite unexpectedly, at his grandfather's +elbow. He had not lost a word of the conversation. "Why don't you go and +see for yourself if the tomb is empty?" + +Abigail had gone into the house with her mother, and now the summons to +breakfast greeted them. She saw she could not convince them of the truth +of her story, so she said no more about it; but her happy face was more +eloquent than words. + +All day snatches of song kept rising to her lips,--old psalms of +thanksgiving, and half whispered hallelujahs. At last Joel and Phineas +were both so much affected by her continued cheerfulness, that they +began to believe there must be some great cause for it. + +Finally, in the waning afternoon, they took the road that led from +Bethany to the garden where they firmly believed that the Master still +lay buried. + +As they came in sight of the tomb, Joel clutched Phineas by the arm, and +pointed, with a shaking finger, to the dark opening ahead of of them. + +"See!" he said, pointing into its yawning darkness. "She was right! The +stone is gone!" + +It was some time before they could muster up courage to go nearer and +look into the sepulchre. When at last they did so, neither spoke a word, +but, after one startled look into each other's eyes, turned and left the +garden. + +It was growing dark as they hurried along the highway homeward. Two men +came half running towards the city, in great haste to reach the gates +before they should be closed for the night. They were two disciples well +known to Phineas. + +He stopped them with the question that was uppermost in his mind. + +"Yes, He is risen," answered one of the men, breathlessly. "We have seen +Him. Hosanna to the Highest! He walked along this road with us as we +went to Emmaus." + +"Ah, how our hearts burned as He talked with us by the way!" +interrupted the other man. + +"Only this hour He sat at meat with us," cried the first speaker. "He +broke bread with us, and blessed it as He always used to do. We are +running back to the city now to tell the other disciples." + +Phineas would have laid a detaining hand on them, but they hurried on, +and left him standing in the road, looking wistfully after them. + +"It must be true," said Joel, "or they could not have been so nearly +wild with joy." + +Phineas sadly shook his head. "I wish I could think so," he sighed. + +"Let us go home," urged Abigail, the next day, "the Master has bidden +His brethren meet Him in Galilee. Let us go. There is hope of seeing Him +again in our old home!" + +Joel, now nearly convinced of the truth of her belief, was also anxious +to go. But Phineas lingered; his plodding mind was slower to grasp such +thoughts than the sensitive woman's or the imaginative boy's. One after +another he sought out Peter and James and John, and the other disciples +who had seen the risen Master, and questioned them closely. Still he +tarried for another week. + +One morning he met Thomas, whose doubts all along had strengthened his +own. He ran against him in the crowded street in Jerusalem. Thomas +seized his arm, and, turning, walked beside him a few paces. + +"_It is true!_" he said, in a low intense tone, with his lips close to +his ear. "I saw Him myself last night; I held His hands in mine! I +touched the side the spear had pierced! He called me by name; and I know +now beyond all doubt that the Master has risen from the dead, and that +He is the Son of God!" + +After that, Phineas no longer objected when it was proposed that they +should go back to Galilee. The story of the resurrection was too great +for him to grasp entirely, still he could not put aside such a weight of +evidence that came to him from friends whose word he had always +implicitly trusted. + +The roads were still full of pilgrims returning from the Passover. As +Phineas journeyed on with his little family, he fell in with the sons of +Jonah and Zebedee, going back to their nets and their fishing-boats. + +The order of procession was constantly shifting, and one morning Joel +found himself walking beside John, one of the chosen twelve, who seemed +to have understood his Master better than any of the others. + +The man seemed wrapped in deep thought, and took no notice of his +companion, till Joel timidly touched his sleeve. + +"Do _you_ believe it is true?" the boy asked. + +There was no surprise in the man's face at the abrupt question, he felt, +without asking, what Joel meant. A reassuring smile lighted up his face +as he laid his hand kindly on Joel's shoulder. + +"I know it, my lad; I have been with Him." The quiet positiveness with +which he spoke seemed to destroy Joel's last doubt. + +"Many things that He said to us come back to me very clearly; and I see +now He was trying to prepare us for this." + +"Tell me about them," begged Joel, "and about those last hours He was +with you. Oh, if I could only have been with Him, too!" + +John saw the tears gathering in the boy's eyes, heard the tremble in his +voice, and felt a thrill of sympathy as he recognized a kindred love in +the little fellow's heart. + +So he told Joel of the last supper they had taken together, of the hymn +they had sung, and of the watch they had failed to keep, when He took +them with Him into the garden of Gethsemane. All the little incidents +connected with those last solemn hours, he repeated carefully to the +listening boy. + +From time to time Joel brushed his hand across his eyes; but a deep calm +fell over him as John's voice went on, slowly repeating the words the +Master had comforted them with. + +"Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. +In my Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for +you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, +there ye may be also.... If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I +said, I go unto the Father.... These things I have spoken unto you, that +in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but +be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." + +Joel made an exclamation as if about to speak, and then stopped. "What +is it?" asked John. + +"How could He mean that He has overcome the world? Caesar still rules, +and Jerusalem is full of His enemies. I can't forget that they killed +Him, even if He has risen." + +John stooped to tie his sandal before he answered. + +"I have been fitting together different things He told us; and I begin +to see how blind we were. Once He called Himself the Good Shepherd who +would give his life for his sheep, and said, 'Therefore doth my Father +love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man +taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it +down, and I have power to take it again.'" + +They walked on in silence a few paces, then John asked abruptly, "Do you +remember about the children of Israel being so badly bitten by serpents +in the wilderness, and how Moses was commanded to set up a brazen +serpent in their midst?" + +"Yes, indeed!" answered Joel. "All who looked up at it were saved; but +those who would not died from the poisonous bites." + +"One night," continued John, "a learned man by the name of Nicodemus, +one of the rulers, came to the Master with many questions. And I +remember one of the answers He gave him. 'As Moses lifted up the serpent +in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that +whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting +life.' We did not understand Him then at all. Not till I saw Him lifted +up on the cruel cross, did I begin to dimly see what He meant." + +A light broke over Joel's face as he remembered the vision he had had +that day, kneeling at the foot of the cross; then he stopped still in +the road, with his hands clasped in dismay. There suddenly seemed to +rise before him the scenes of daily sacrifice in the Temple, when the +blood of innocent lambs flowed over the altar; then he thought of the +great Day of Atonement, when the poor scape-goat was driven away to its +death, laden with the sins of the people. + +"Oh, that must be what Isaiah meant!" he cried in distress. "'He was +brought as a lamb to the slaughter!' Oh, can it be possible that 'the +Lord hath laid on _Him_ the iniquity of us all'? What an awful +sacrifice!" + +The tears streamed down his face as the thought came over him with +overwhelming conviction, that it was for _him_ that the man he loved so +had endured all the horrible suffering of death by crucifixion. + +"Why did such a thing have to be?" he asked, looking up appealingly at +his companion. + +John looked out and up, as if he saw far beyond the narrow, hill-bound +horizon, and quoted softly: "_For God so loved the world, that He gave +His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but have everlasting life._" + +Just as the feeling had come to him that morning by the Galilee, and +again as he gazed and gazed into the white face on the cross, Joel +seemed to feel again the love of the Father, as it took him close into +its infinite keeping. + +"'Greater love hath no man than this,'" quoted John again, "'that a man +lay down his life for his friends.' He is the propitiation for our sins; +and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." + +It was hard for the child to understand this at first; but this gentle +disciple who walked beside him had walked long beside the Master, and in +the Master's own way and words taught Joel life's greatest lesson. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +THEY went back to their simple lives again,--those hardy fishermen, the +busy carpenter, and the boy. Phineas was silent and grave. For him, hope +still lay dead in that garden tomb near Golgotha; but Joel sang as he +worked. + +The appointed time was nearing when the Master was to meet them on the +mountain. As often as he could, Joel stole away from the moody man at +the work-bench, and went down to the beach for more cheerful +companionship. + +One morning, seeing a fishing-boat that he recognized pulling in quickly +to shore, he ran down to see what luck his friends had had during the +night. + +He held up his hands in astonishment at the great haul of fish the boat +held. + +"We have been with the Master," explained one of the men. "We toiled all +night, and took nothing till we met Him." + +Joel listened eagerly while they told him of that meeting in the early +dawn, and of the meal they ate together, while the sun came up over the +Galilee, and the blue waves whispered their gladness to the beach, as +they heard the Master's voice once more. + +"Oh, to think that He is in Galilee again!" exclaimed Joel. That thought +added purpose and meaning to each new day. Every morning he woke with +the feeling, "Maybe I shall see Him before the sun goes down." Every +night he went to sleep saying, "He is somewhere near! No telling how +soon I may be with Him!" + +When the day came on which they were to go to the mountain, Joel was up +very early in the morning. He bathed and dressed himself with the care +of a priest about to enter the inner courts on some holy errand. + +When he started to the mountain, Abigail noticed that he wore his finest +headdress of white linen. His tunic was spotless, and, from the corners +of his brown and white striped mantle, the blue fringes that the Law +prescribed hung smooth as silk. + +He did not wait for Phineas or any of his friends. Long before the time, +he had climbed the rocky path, and was sitting all alone in the deep +shadowed stillness. + +The snapping of a twig startled him; the falling of a leaf made him +look up hopefully. Any minute the Master might come. + +His heart beat so loud it seemed to him that the wood-birds overhead +must surely hear it, and be frightened away. + +Imagine that scene, you who can,--you who have just seen the earth close +over your best-beloved; who have awakened in the lonely night, with that +sudden sickening remembrance of loss; who have longed, with a longing +like a constant ache, for the voice and the smile and the footstep that +have slipped hopelessly beyond recall. + +Think of what it would mean, if you knew now, beyond doubt, that all +that you had loved and lost would be given back to you before the +passing of another hour! + +So Joel waited, restless, burning, all in a quiver of expectancy. + +Steps began to wind around the base of the mountain. One familiar face +after another came in sight, then strange ones, until, by and by, five +hundred people had gathered there, and were sitting in reverent, +unbroken silence. The soft summer wind barely stirred the leaves; even +the twitter of nestlings overhead was hushed. + +After awhile, thrilled by some unseen influence, as a field of grain is +swayed by the passing wind, they bowed their heads. The Master stood +before them, His hands outspread in blessing. + +Joel started forward with a wild desire to throw himself at His feet, +and put his arms around them; but a majesty he had never seen before in +that gentle face restrained him. + +He listened to the voice as it rose and fell with all its old winning +tenderness. As you would listen could the dead lips you love move again; +as you would greedily snatch up every word, and hide it in your heart of +hearts, so Joel listened. + +"I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto +myself, that where I am there ye may be also.... Peace I leave with +you.... Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be +troubled, neither let it be afraid." + +As the beloved voice went on, promising the Comforter that should come +when He was gone, all the dread and pain of the coming separation seemed +to be lost. + +Boy though he was, Joel looked down the years of his life feeling it was +only a fleeting shadow, compared with the eternal companionship just +promised him. + +He would make no moan; he would utter no complaint: but he would take up +his life's little day, and bear it after the Master,--a cup of loving +service,--into that upper kingdom where there was a place prepared for +him. + +It was all over so soon. They were left alone on the mountain-side +again, with only the sunshine flickering through the leaves, and the +wood-birds just beginning to trill to each other once more. But the warm +air seemed to still throb with the last words He had spoken: "Lo, I am +with you alway, even unto the end of the world." + +Phineas came down the mountain with his face all ashine; at last his +eyes had been opened. + +"He and the Father are one!" he exclaimed to the man walking beside him. +"That voice is the same that spake from the midst of the burning bush, +and from the summit of Sinai. All these years I have followed the +Master, I believed Him to be a perfect man and a great prophet; I +believed Him to be 'the rod out of the stem of Jesse' who through +Jehovah's hand was to redeem Israel, even as the rod in Aaron's hand +smote the floods and made a pathway for our people. + +"When I saw Him put to death as a felon, all hope died within me; even +to-day I came out here unbelieving. I could not think that I should see +Him. How blind we have been all these years! God with us in the flesh, +and we did not know Him!" + +Joel walked on behind the two, sharing their feeling of exaltation. As +they came down into the valley and entered Capernaum, the work-a-day +sights and noises seemed to jar on their senses, in this uplifted mood. + +A man standing in an open doorway accosted Phineas, and asked when he +could commence work on the house he had talked to him about building. + +Phineas hesitated, and looked down at the ground, as if studying some +difficult problem. In a few minutes he raised his eyes with a look of +decision. + +"I cannot build it for you at all," he answered. + +"Not build it!" echoed the man. "I thought you were anxious for the +job." + +"So I was," answered the carpenter; "but when I asked for it, I had no +belief that the Master could rise from the dead. Just now, on the +mountain yonder, I have been with Him. His command is still ringing in +my ears: 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every +creature!' + +"Henceforth I give my life to Him, even as He gave His to me. My days +are now half spent, but every remaining one shall be used to proclaim, +as far and wide as possible, that the risen Christ is the Son of God!" + +The man was startled as he looked at Phineas; such a fire of love and +purpose seemed to illuminate his earnest face that it was completely +transformed. + +"Even now," exclaimed Phineas, "will I commence my mission. You are the +first one I have met, and I must tell to you this glad new gospel. He +died for you! 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten +Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have +everlasting life!' O my friend, if you could only believe that as I +believe it!" + +The man shrank back into the doorway, strangely moved by the passionate +force of his earnestness. + +"I must go up to Jerusalem," continued Phineas, "and wait till power is +given us from on high; then I can more clearly see my way. I do not know +whether I shall be directed to go into other lands, or to come back here +to carry the news to my old neighbors. But it matters not which path is +pointed out, the mission has been already given,--to tell the message +to every creature my voice can reach." + +"And you?" asked the man, pointing to the companion of Phineas. + +"I, too, received the command," was the answer, "and I, too, am ready to +go to the world's end, if need be!" + +"Surely there must be truth in what you say," muttered the man. Then his +glance fell on Joel. "You, too?" he questioned. + +"Nay, he is but a lad," answered Phineas, before Joel could find words +to answer him. "Come! we must hasten home." + +Joel talked little during the next few days, and stole away often to +think by himself, in the quiet little upper chamber on the roof. + +Phineas was making his preparations to go back to Jerusalem; and he +urged the boy to go back with him, and accept Simon's offer. Abigail, +too, added her persuasions to his; and even old Rabbi Amos came down one +day, and sat for an hour under the fig-trees, painting in glowing colors +the life that might be his for the choosing. + +It was a very alluring prospect; it had been the dream of his life to +travel in far countries. He pictured himself surrounded by wealth and +culture; he would be able to do so much for his old friends. He could +give back to Jesse and Ruth a hundred fold, what had been bestowed on +him; and the poor--how much he could help them, when he received a son's +portion from the wealthy Simon! O the hearts he could make glad, all up +and down the land! + +The old day-dreams he used to delight in danced temptingly before him. +As he stood idly beside the work-bench one afternoon, thinking of such a +future, a soft step behind him made him turn. The hammer fell from his +hand to the grass, as he saw the woman who came timidly to meet him. + +"Why, Aunt Leah!" he cried. "What brought _you_ here?" + +He had not seen her since the night his Uncle Laban had driven him from +home. + +She drew aside her veil, and looked at him. "I heard you had been +healed," she said, "and I have always wanted to come and see you, and +tell you how glad I am; but my husband forbade it. Child!" she cried +abruptly, "how much you look like your father! The likeness is +startling!" + +The discovery seemed to make her forget what she had come to say, and +she stood and stared at him; then she remembered. "Rabbi Amos told me of +the offer you have had from a rich merchant in Bethany, and I came down +here, secretly, to beg you to accept it. In your father's name I beg +you!" + +Joel looked perplexed. "I hardly know what to do," he said. "Every one +advises me just as you do; but I feel that they are all wrong. Surely +the Master meant me as well as father Phineas and the others, when He +charged us to go and preach the gospel to every creature." + +A sudden interest came into the woman's face; she took a step forward. +"Joel, did _you_ see Him after He was risen?" + +"Yes," he answered. + +"Oh, I believe then that He is the Christ!" she cried. "I have thought +all the time that it might be so, and the children are so sure of it." + +"And Uncle Laban?" questioned Joel. + +She shook her head sadly. "He grows more bitterly opposed every day." + +"Aunt Leah," he asked, coming back to the first question, "don't you +think He must have meant me as well as those men?" + +"Oh, hardly," she said, hesitatingly, "you are so young, and there are +so many others to do it; it would surely be better for you to go to +Bethany." + +After she had gone home, he put away his tools, and, like one in a +dream, started slowly towards the mountain. + +The same summer stillness reigned on its shady slopes as when the five +hundred had gathered there. He climbed up near the summit, and sat down +on a high stone. + +To the eastward the Galilee glittered like a sapphire in the sun; +Capernaum seemed like a great ant-hill in commotion. No wonder he could +not think among all those conflicting voices; he was glad he had come up +where it was so still. + +Phineas was going away in the morning. If Joel went also, maybe he would +never look down on that scene again. + +Then almost as if some living voice broke the stillness, he heard the +words: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every +creature!" It was the echo of the words that had fallen from the +Master's lips. Nothing once uttered by that voice can ever die; it lives +on and on in the ever-widening circles of the centuries, as a ripple, +once started, rings shoreward through the seas. + +In that instant all the things he had been considering seemed so small +and worthless. He had been planning to give Simon's gold and silver to +the poor; but the Master had given them His life, Himself! Could he do +less? + +"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it +unto me," something seemed to say to him. Yes; he could do it for the +Master's sake, for the One who had healed him, for the One who had died +for him. + +Then and there, high up in the mountain's solitudes, he found the path +he was to follow; and then he wondered how he could have thought for an +instant of making any other choice. It was the path the Master's own +feet had trod, and the boy who had followed, knew well what a weary way +it led. + +For his great love's sake, he gave up the old ambitions, the +self-centred hopes, saying, in a low tone, as if he felt the beloved +Presence very near, "Oh, I want to serve Thee truly! If I am too young +now to go out into all the world, let me be Thy little cup-bearer here +at home, to carry the story of Thy life and love to those around me!" + +The west was all alight with the glory of the sunset; somewhere beyond +its burnished portals lay the City of the King. Joel turned from its +dazzling depths to look downward into the valley. He had chosen +persecution and sacrifice and suffering, he knew, but the light on his +face was more than the halo of the summer sunset. + +As he went down the mountain to his life of lowly service, a deep peace +fell warm across his heart; for the promise went with him, a staff to +bear him up through all his after life's long pilgrimage: "LO, I AM WITH +YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD!" + + +THE END + + + + +Selections from The Page Company's Books for Young People + +THE BLUE BONNET SERIES + + _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, + per volume_ $1.50 + + +A TEXAS BLUE BONNET + +By CAROLINE E. JACOBS. + +"The book's heroine, Blue Bonnet, has the very finest kind of wholesome, +honest, lively girlishness."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._ + + +BLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY + +By CAROLINE E. 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The whole range of +section railroading is covered in the story, and it contains information +as well as interest."--_Chicago Post._ + + +THE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER + +"A vivacious account of the varied and often hazardous nature of +railroad life, full of incident and adventure, in which the author has +woven admirable advice about honesty, manliness, self-culture, good +reading, and the secrets of success."--_Congregationalist._ + + +THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER + +"It is a book that can be unreservedly commended to anyone who loves a +good, wholesome, thrilling, informing yarn."--_Passaic News._ + + +THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, ALLAN WEST'S CHUM. + +"The story is intensely interesting, and one gains an intimate knowledge +of the methods and works in the great car shops not easily gained +elsewhere."--_Baltimore Sun._ + +"It appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at the same +time teaches him some valuable lessons in honor, pluck, and +perseverance."--_Cleveland Plain Dealer._ + +"The lessons that the books teach in development of uprightness, honesty +and true manly character are sure to appeal to the reader."--_The +American Boy._ + + + + +THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS + +(Trade Mark) + +By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + _Each large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume_ $1.50 + + THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES + (Trade Mark) + +Being three "Little Colonel" stories in the Cosy Corner Series, "The +Little Colonel," "Two Little Knights of Kentucky," and "The Giant +Scissors," in a single volume. + + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOUSE PARTY + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOLIDAYS + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING-SCHOOL + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR + (Trade Mark) + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING + (Trade Mark) + + MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHUM + (Trade Mark) + + MARY WARE IN TEXAS + + MARY WARE'S PROMISED LAND + + _These twelve volumes, boxed as a set_, $18.00. + + +SPECIAL HOLIDAY EDITIONS + + _Each small quarto, cloth decorative, per volume_ $1.25 + +New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page drawings in +color, and many marginal sketches. + + + THE LITTLE COLONEL + (Trade Mark) + + TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY + + THE GIANT SCISSORS + + BIG BROTHER + + +THE JOHNSTON JEWEL SERIES + + _Each small 16mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece and decorative + text borders, per volume_ _Net_ $0.50 + + + IN THE DESERT OF WAITING: THE LEGEND OF CAMELBACK + MOUNTAIN. + + THE THREE WEAVERS: A FAIRY TALE FOR FATHERS AND + MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR THEIR DAUGHTERS. + + KEEPING TRYST: A TALE OF KING ARTHUR'S TIME. + + THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART + + THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME: A FAIRY PLAY FOR OLD + AND YOUNG. + + THE JESTER'S SWORD + + * * * * * + + THE LITTLE COLONEL'S GOOD TIMES BOOK + + Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series $1.50 + Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold _Net_ 3.00 + +Cover design and decorations by Peter Verberg. + +"A mighty attractive volume in which the owner may record the good times +she has on decorated pages, and under the directions as it were of Annie +Fellows Johnston."--_Buffalo Express._ + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation as in +"head-dress" and "headdress" was retained. + +Page 11, word "an" removed from text. Original read (never be an any +better) + +Page 32, "a good" changed to "good a" (too good a man to) + +Page 68, "persistance" changed to "persistence" (persistence with which +the) + +Page 68, "coin" changed to "coins" (small bag of coins) + +Page 90, "acknowleged" changed to "acknowledged" (he acknowledged +proudly) + +Page 101, "That" changed to "that" (unto you that) + +Page 114, "Was" changed to "was" (was Joel's constant) + +Page 116, "kness" changed to "knees" (his knees in readiness) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Joel: A Boy of Galilee, by Annie Fellows Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE *** + +***** This file should be named 39231.txt or 39231.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/3/39231/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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