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<pre>
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: ISO-8859-1
*** 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)
</pre>
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;">
<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="398" height="600" alt="Cover of book" />
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<h1>JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE.</h1>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class='bbox2'>
<div class='adtitle1'>Works of<br />
ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON</div>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Johnston books">
<tr><td align="center"><b>The Little Colonel Series</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">(<span class='small'><i>Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.</i></span>)</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel Stories</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Containing in one volume the three stories, "The Little Colonel,"</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"The Giant Scissors," and "Two Little Knights of Kentucky.")</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel's House Party</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel's Holidays</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel's Hero</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel at Boarding-School</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel in Arizona</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Mary Ware: The Little Colonel's Chum</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Mary Ware in Texas</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Mary Ware's Promised Land</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The above 12 vols., <i>boxed</i>, as a set</td><td align="right">18.00</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">——————</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel Good Times Book</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel Doll Book—First Series</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel Doll Book—Second Series</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center"><br /><b>Illustrated Holiday Editions</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed in color</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel</td><td align="right">$1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Giant Scissors</td><td align="right">1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Two Little Knights of Kentucky</td><td align="right">1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Big Brother</td><td align="right">1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center"><br /><b>Cosy Corner Series</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">Each one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Little Colonel</td><td align="right">$.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Giant Scissors</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Two Little Knights of Kentucky</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Big Brother</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Ole Mammy's Torment</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Story of Dago</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Cicely</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Aunt 'Liza's Hero</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Quilt that Jack Built</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Flip's "Islands of Providence"</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Mildred's Inheritance</td><td align="right">.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center"><br /><b>Other Books</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Joel: A Boy of Galilee</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">In the Desert of Waiting</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Three Weavers</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Keeping Tryst</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Legend of the Bleeding Heart</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Rescue of the Princess Winsome</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">The Jester's Sword</td><td align="right">Net .50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Asa Holmes</td><td align="right">1.00</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Travelers Five Along Life's Highway</td><td align="right">1.25</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='center'>—————<br />
<b>THE PAGE COMPANY</b><br />
<b>53 Beacon Street</b> <b>Boston, Mass.</b><br />
</div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;"><a id="frontis"></a>
<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="397" height="600" alt="being cast out" />
<span class="caption">"'THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR EVER'"
<span style="margin-left: 12em;">(<i>See <a href="#Page_96">page 96</a></i>)</span><br />
</span>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class='bbox2'>
<div class='center'><i>NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION</i></div>
</div><div class='bbox2'>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Title">
<tr><td align="left"><h1>JOEL:</h1></td><td align="left">A BOY OF<br />
GALILEE</td></tr>
</table></div>
</div><div class='bbox2'>
<div class='center'>By</div>
<div class='author'>ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON</div>
<div class='center'>
<span class='small'>Author of "The Little Colonel Series," "Big Brother,"</span><br />
<span class='small'>"Ole Mammy's Torment," "Asa Holmes," etc.</span><br /></div>
</div><div class='bbox2'>
<div class='center'>With Pictures by L. J. BRIDGMAN</div><br />
</div><div class='bbox2'><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;">
<img src="images/titlepage.png" width="125" height="125" alt="Emblem" />
</div><br /><br /><br /><br />
</div><div class='bbox2'><div class='center'>
BOSTON<br />
THE PAGE COMPANY<br />
PUBLISHERS<br />
</div></div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class='copyright'>
<i>Copyright, 1895</i><br />
<span class="smcap">By Roberts Brothers</span><br />
<br />
<i>Copyright, 1904</i><br />
<span class="smcap">By The Page Company</span><br />
<br />
<i>All rights reserved</i><br />
<br />
Eleventh Impression, October, 1910<br />
Twelfth Impression, March, 1915<br />
Thirteenth Impression, March, 1918<br />
<br />
THE COLONIAL PRESS<br />
C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.<br />
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<h2>PUBLISHER'S PREFACE</h2>
<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="smcap">In</span> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"'<span class="smcap">Then take yourself out of my sight for ever</span>'" (<i>See <a href="#Page_96">page 96</a></i>)</td><td align="right"><i><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"<span class="smcap">He looked down at Phineas, and smiled blissfully</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"'<span class="smcap">I peeped out 'tween 'e wose-vines</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"<span class="smcap">Not a word was said</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"'<span class="smcap">We talked late</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"'<span class="smcap">You but mock me, boy</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"<span class="smcap">A dark figure went skulking out into the night</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">"'<span class="smcap">The stone is gone!</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
</table></div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
<h2>JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE.</h2>
<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_i.png" width="101" height="103" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />T 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Look, Jerusha! Look!" he cried, tugging
at her skirts. "What's that?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Jerusha pushed ahead to hear what had happened.
One of the drivers was telling a tax-gatherer.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>The children edged up closer to the motionless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
form on the litter. It was badly bruised and
blood-stained, and looked already lifeless.</p>
<p>"Let's go, Jerusha," whispered the boy,
whimpering and pulling at her hand. "I don't
like to look at him."</p>
<p>With the heavy baby still in her arms, and
the other child tagging after, she started slowly
back towards the market-place.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But this morning the crowd gave him a
strange, lonely feeling,—a hungry longing for
companionship.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"Oh, Dan!" he cried eagerly. "Are you going
out on the lake this morning? Could you
take me with you?"</p>
<p>The boy hesitated. Whatever kindly answer
he may have given, was rudely interrupted by
his companion, whom Joel had never seen before.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"My name isn't Jonah!" screamed the boy,
angrily clinching his fists. "It's Joel!"</p>
<p>"Well, it is all the same," his tormentor called
back, with a coarse laugh. "You're a Jonah,
any way."</p>
<p>There were tears in the boy's eyes this time,
as he dragged himself back again to the step.</p>
<p>"I hate everybody in the world!" he said in
a hissing sort of whisper. "I hate'm! I
hate'm!"</p>
<p>A stranger passing by turned for a second look
at the little cripple's sensitive, refined face. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
girlishly beautiful face it would have been, were
it not for the heavy scowl that darkened it.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Life seemed very bitter to him just then. He
would gladly have changed places with the
heavily laden donkey going by.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Joel, my lad, may I ask your help for a
little while?" The friendly question seemed to
change the whole atmosphere.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>The carpenter gathered up some strips of
lumber in one hand, and his hammer and saws
in the other.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>An old hen clucked around the door-step with
a brood of downy, yellow chickens. Doves cooed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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—"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
<p>"Didn't you always live here?" asked the inquisitive
Jesse.</p>
<p>"No, I was born in Jerusalem. I was to have
been a priest," he said sadly.</p>
<p>"Well, why didn't you be one then," persisted
the child, with his mouth full of melon.</p>
<p>Joel glanced down at his twisted leg, and said
nothing.</p>
<p>"Why?" repeated the boy.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Jesse asked no more questions with his tongue;
but his sharp, black eyes were fixed on Joel like
two interrogation points.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"They thought I was dead when they picked me
up. It was months before I could walk at all;
and I can never <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'be an any'">be any</ins> 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."</p>
<p>Joel threw himself full length on the grass, and
scowled up at the sky.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
<p>"Where is that boy that hurt you," asked
Jesse.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>A sudden gleam lit up the boy's eyes, as lightning
darts through a storm-cloud.</p>
<p>"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!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Nothing was said for a little while. The doves
as before cooed of peace, and Phineas began a
steady tap-tap with his hammer.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
<p>"I did not know it was so late," said Joel, rising
to his feet. "Time passes so fast here."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joel hesitated; but the invitation was repeated
so cordially, that he let Jesse pull him down on
the grass again.</p>
<p>"Now I'll tickle your lips with this blade of
grass," said the child. "See how long you can
keep from laughing."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Near the door, a table which Phineas had made,
stood spread for the mid-day meal.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He watched his host carefully, as he poured
the water over his hands before eating, and
asked a blessing on the food.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>It was wonderful how much Joel had learned,
in his eleven short years, of the Law. His aunt's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
husband had grown to manhood in Jerusalem,
and, unlike the simple Galileans among whom he
now lived, tried to observe its most detailed rules.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
repeated to the children gathered around the
public fountain in the cool of the evening.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Nothing," answered Joel, "after I have recited
my lessons to Rabbi Amos."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
<p>"Does your aunt never give you any tasks to
do at home?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"Oh, Rabbi Phineas!" cried Joel. "Do you
mean that I may come here every day? It is
too good to be true!"</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
with your head, I shall have reason to be proud
of such a pupil."</p>
<p>Joel's face flushed with pleasure, and he sprang
up quickly, saying, "May I begin right now?
Oh, I'll try <i>so</i> hard to please you!"</p>
<p>Phineas laid a soft pine board on the bench,
and began to mark a line across it with a piece
of red chalk.</p>
<p>"Well, you may see how straight a cut you
can make through this plank."</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"Yes indeed!" was the emphatic answer.
"They will be glad enough to have me out of
the way, and learning something useful."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
fingers ached with the blows that he
had aimed at the nail's head.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Be careful, my lad," he said. "You will
soon wear out at that rate."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Phineas smiled, and held out his hand. "You
have one now, my lad, never forget that."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Here," she lisped, holding out the snowy
winged bird. "Boy, take it! Boy, keep it!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"I never had a pet of any kind before," said
Joel, in delight, smoothing the white wings
folded contentedly against his breast. "But she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
loves it so, I dislike to take it from her. How
beautiful it is!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Yes," she answered, nodding her head.
"Boy cried."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>It was a pitiful little figure that limped away
homeward in the fading light, with the white
pigeon in his arms.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_e.png" width="101" height="100" alt="E" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />ARLY 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.</div>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Before the winter was over, he had made
many pretty little articles of furniture for Abigail's
use.</p>
<p>"May I have these pieces of fine wood to use
as I please?" he asked of Phineas, one day.</p>
<p>"All but that largest strip," he answered.
"What are you going to make?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"What are you going to make her?" inquired
Jesse, from under the work-bench. "Let me see
too."</p>
<p>"Oh, I didn't know you were anywhere near,"
answered Joel, with a start of alarm.</p>
<p>"Tell me!" begged Jesse.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
<p>"Well, if you will promise to keep her out of
the way while I am finishing it, and never say a
word about it—"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"I believe I will," said Joel, after considering
the matter. "I'll go just as soon as I can get
them made."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"See how much money!" he cried, as he
opened his hand to show a shining coin,
stamped with the head of Cæsar. "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."</p>
<p>"The law forbids!" exclaimed Phineas. "Have
you forgotten that it is written, 'Thou shalt not
make any likeness of anything in the heavens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
accomplished, if he had been like other boys. It
was a constant spur to his desire for revenge.</p>
<p>One day Phineas laid aside his tools much
earlier than usual, and without any explanation to
his wondering pupil, went up into the town.</p>
<p>When he returned, he nodded to his wife, who
sat in the doorway spinning, and who had looked
up inquiringly as he approached.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"No, Rabbi," answered the boy, in surprise,
wondering what was coming next.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Oh, am I really to go, too?" gasped Joel, in
delighted astonishment. "Oh, Rabbi Phineas!
How did you ever think of asking me?"</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
afternoon; and I did not want to disappoint you,
in case he refused his permission."</p>
<p>"And he really says I may go?" demanded
the boy, eagerly.</p>
<p>"Yes, the caravan moves in the morning, and
we will go with it."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Rabbi Phineas," ventured Joel, respectfully,
"is that not the wood you charged me to save
so carefully?"</p>
<p>Phineas gave a start as he saw what he had
done, and threw down his saw.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
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. <i>He changed that
water into wine!</i>"</p>
<p>"I cannot believe it!" answered Abigail,
simply.</p>
<p>"But Ezra ben Jared told me so. He was
there, and drank of the wine," insisted Phineas.</p>
<p>"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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'a good'">good a</ins> man to ask
help of the powers of darkness; and it is beyond
belief that a son of Joseph should be a prophet."</p>
<p>To this Phineas made no answer. His quiet
thoughts were shaken out of their usual routine
as violently as if by an earthquake.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Soon all was confusion around the well, as the
noisy drivers gathered to water their camels, and
make their preparations for the start.</p>
<p>Joel shrunk away timidly to the edge of the
crowd, fearful that his friend Phineas had overslept
himself.</p>
<p>In a few minutes he saw him coming with a
staff in one hand, and a small bundle swinging
from the other.</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
Then he looked down at Phineas, and smiled
blissfully.</p>
<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;">
<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="On a camel" />
<span class="caption">"HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED BLISSFULLY"</span>
</div>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>At noon they stopped in a little grove of olive-trees
where a cool spring gurgled out from the
rocks.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"No," assented Phineas; "for it is by the
hand of God it is done."</p>
<p>"Why may not this be also?" said the old
man. "Even this miracle at the marriage feast
in Cana?"</p>
<p>Phineas started violently. "What!" he cried.
"Do you think it possible that this friend of
mine is the One to be sent of God?"</p>
<p>"Is not this the accepted time for the coming
of Israel's Messiah?" answered the old man,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a><br /><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
solemnly. "Is it not meet that he should herald
his presence by miracles and signs and wonders?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 Cæsar. 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.</p>
<p>He raised himself on his elbow again, for the
old man was speaking.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Yes," assented Phineas, respectfully.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"We greeted them respectfully, but could not
speak for astonishment when we heard their
question:</p>
<p>"'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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Could any one answer them?" asked
Phineas.</p>
<p>"Nay! but it was then impressed on me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Ride on, little pilgrim, be happy whilst thou
can!</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_i.png" width="101" height="103" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />T 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Here, through half-shut eyes, he watched the
building of the camp-fire, and the preparations
for the evening meal.</p>
<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
gathering up his skirts and walking on the tips
of his sandals for fear of being touched by anything
unclean."</p>
<p>"Your Uncle Laban is a good man," answered
Phineas, "one careful not to transgress the Law."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Oh, look!" he cried, clasping his hands in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>The poetry of the Psalms came as naturally to
the lips of this beauty-loving little Israelite as
the breath he drew.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Hushed into silence by the voice of the hills
and the beauty on every side, they walked on till
the road turned again.</p>
<p>Just ahead stood a house unusually large for
a country district; everything about it bore an
air of wealth and comfort.</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>They had barely finished, when an old man
appeared in the doorway; his long beard and
hair were white as the abba he wore.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Peace be to thee, thou son of my good friend
Jesse!" he said. "Thou art indeed most welcome."</p>
<p>Joel lagged behind. He was always sensitive
about meeting strangers; but the man's cordial
welcome soon put him at his ease.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Her feet were bare, and she wore only a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
coarse cotton dress. But a gay red handkerchief
covered her black hair, and heavy copper
rings hung from her nose and ears.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Just then Sarah appeared in the door, and the
maid repeated the question to her mistress.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>The woman left her churning, and presently
came back with a boy about Joel's age, leading
a donkey with only one ear.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
had been at liberty to cut off an ear in punishment.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He made an awkward obeisance to his mistress.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Buz, trudging along in the dust, glanced at
the little cripple on the donkey's back with an
inward shiver.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
<p>"What a dreadful lot his must be," he
thought. "How glad I am that I am not like
he is!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"How far can you shoot with it?" asked Joel.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"See!" said Buz, as he ran to pick it up, and
display it proudly. "I struck it in the head."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"King David!" repeated Buz, dully, "seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
me I have heard of him, sometime or other; but
I don't know about the giant."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The story was a favorite one with Joel, and he
put his whole soul into it.</p>
<p>"Who told you that?" asked Buz, taking a
long breath when the interesting tale was
finished.</p>
<p>"Why I read it myself!" answered Joel.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 Cæsar's conquests and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Joel looked up at the darkening sky with
alarm. "Who would have thought of a storm
on such a day!" he exclaimed.</p>
<p>Buz cocked his eyes at the horizon. "I
thought it might come to this," he said; "for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>"What shall we do?" asked Joel.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A good-sized hut was built against the hillside,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The men crowded into the hut. One of them
started forward to close the door, but stopped
suddenly, with his brown hairy hand uplifted.</p>
<p>"Hark ye!" he exclaimed.</p>
<p>Joel heard only the shivering of the wind in
the tree-tops; but the man's trained ear caught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
the bleating of a stray lamb, far off and very
faint.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"How brave and strong he is," thought the
boy. "He risked his life for just one pitiful
little lamb."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Joel was so busy with this welcome meal that
he did not talk much. Buz kept eying him in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
silence, as if he longed to ask some question.
At last, when the cheese had entirely disappeared,
he found courage to ask it.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"I'd get even with him," said Buz, excitedly,
with a wicked squint of his eyes.</p>
<p>"How would you do it?" demanded Joel.
"Cripple him as he did me?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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 <i>is</i> worse to be blind; so I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
take Rehum's eyesight also, some time. Oh, if
that time were only here!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It was just at the close of the evening meal.
Nathan ben Obed rose half-way from his seat in
astonishment, then sank back.</p>
<p>"How old a man is this friend of yours?" he
asked.</p>
<p>"About thirty, I think," answered Phineas.
"He is a little younger than I."</p>
<p>"Where was he born?"</p>
<p>"In Bethlehem, I have heard it said, though
his home has always been in Nazareth."</p>
<p>"Strange, strange!" muttered the man, stroking
his long white beard thoughtfully.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"What was that?" asked the old man, arousing
from his reverie.</p>
<p>When Phineas had repeated his conversation
with the stranger on the day of his journey,
Nathan ben Obed exchanged meaning glances
with his wife.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
<p>"Send for the old shepherd Heber," he said.
"I would have speech with him."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Pleased as a child, he saluted his new audience,
and began to tell them his only story.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.'</p>
<p>"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!'</p>
<p>"Oh, the sound of the rejoicing that filled that
upper air! Ever since in my heart have I carried
that foretaste of heaven!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
not Thy servant depart until these eyes that
beheld the Child shall have seen the King in
His beauty!"</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>There was another solemn stillness, so deep
that the soft fluttering of a night-moth around
the lamp startled them.</p>
<p>Then the child's voice rang out, eager and
shrill, but triumphant as if inspired: "Rabbi
Phineas, <i>He</i> it was who changed the water into
wine!—This friend of Nazareth and the babe of
Bethlehem are the same!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The old shepherd sat on the couch, feebly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 102px;">
<img src="images/drop_n.png" width="102" height="105" alt="N" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />EXT 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <i>He had
been there, and gone again.</i></p>
<p>Nathan ben Obed and his train tarried only
one night in the place, and then pressed on
again towards Jerusalem. Phineas went with
them.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Only one more year," exclaimed Joel, joyfully.
"If that passes as quickly as the one
just gone, it will soon be here."</p>
<p>"Look after my little family," said the carpenter,
at parting. "Come every day to the work, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
you wish, just as when I am here; and remember,
my lad, you are almost a man."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Almost, it might be, but never in its fulness,
could he hope to attain the proud stature of
a perfect man.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"What is your will concerning the prisoner,
O most gracious sovereign," the jailer would
ask.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>—</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>The Messiah would come to His kingdom, and
then—and then—the thought leaped to its
last daring limit.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>A sweet baby voice at the foot of the steps
brought him suddenly down from the height of
his intense feeling.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
<p>"Joel! Joel!" called little Ruth, "where is
you?"</p>
<p>Then Jesse's voice added, "We're all a-coming
up for you to tell us a story."</p>
<p>Up the stairs they swarmed to the roof, the
carpenter's children and half-a-dozen of their
little playmates.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The carpenter was rather surprised that He
should have made such a public disturbance.</p>
<p>"Rabbi Phineas," said Joel, with a trembling
voice, "don't you think your friend is the
prophet we are expecting?"</p>
<p>Phineas shook his head. "No, my lad, I am
sure of it now."</p>
<p>"But the herald angels and the star," insisted
the boy.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>The man's positive answer seemed to shatter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Phineas wondered sometimes at the dogged
<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'persistance'">persistence</ins> with which the child stuck to his
task, in spite of his tired, aching body.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>To the ladies of the court, the sums they paid
for his pretty wares seemed trifling; but to
Joel the small bag of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'coin'">coins</ins> hidden in the folds
of his clothes was a little fortune, daily growing
larger.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_i.png" width="101" height="103" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />T 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He stood aside respectfully for them to pass,
as they came down the outside stairway, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
crossed the court-yard on their way to the
morning service.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Another roll of parchment was brought out.
The boy looked up with interest. Probably one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
of his uncle's guests would be invited to read
from it, and speak to the people.</p>
<p>No, it was a stranger whom he had not noticed
before, sitting behind one of the tall elders, who
was thus honored.</p>
<p>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,
<i>the Rabbi Jesus</i>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
unhappy creature said to be possessed of an
unclean spirit.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>There was a great stir, especially in the
woman's gallery; and those standing nearest
him backed away as far as possible.</p>
<p>Every face was curious and excited, at this
sudden interruption,—every face but one; the
Rabbi Jesus alone was calm.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
in his arms, and was borne away to the little
home, now no longer darkened by the shadow
of a sore affliction.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>That he might not seem behind his guests in
zeal and devotion to the Law, the dignified Laban
would not follow the crowds.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>So the three sat in the upper chamber on the
roof, and discussed the new teacher with many
shakes of their wise heads.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>But Galilee cared little how far the path<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
turned from the narrow faith of the Pharisees,
so long as it led to life and healing.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>After awhile the same people began to come
back.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It was a sight they never could forget. So
they watched wonderingly till darkness fell, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
the last happy-hearted healed one had gone
home to a rejoicing household.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Come, children," called his Aunt Leah, as she
lit the lamp that was to burn all night. "Come!
It is bed-time!"</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
about it until his Uncle Laban came down and
crossly ordered him to go to bed.</p>
<p>He went in, saying softly to himself, "I will go
to him to-morrow; yes, early in the morning!"</p>
<p>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."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 102px;">
<img src="images/drop_w.png" width="102" height="101" alt="W" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />HEN 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.</div>
<p>"Where have all these people been?" he
asked of the baker's boy, whom he ran against
at the first corner.</p>
<p>The boy stopped whistling, and rested his
basket of freshly baked bread against his knee,
as he answered:—</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
Look how much shorter this leg is than the
other. Oh, <i>do</i> you think he could make them
all right?"</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I am going right now," he declared, starting
to run in his excitement. "I can't wait another
minute."</p>
<p>"But he's gone!" the boy called after him.
"That's why the people are all coming back."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 400px;">
<img src="images/i002.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="" />
<span class="caption">"'I PEEPED OUT 'TWEEN 'E WOSE—VINES'"</span>
</div>
<p>It was such a bitter disappointment to be so
near the touch of healing, and then to miss it
altogether.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Where is your father, little one?" he called.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a><br /><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
<p>"Bears and lions," said a proverb, "might be
the fiercest wild beasts in the forests; but publicans
and informers were the worst in cities."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He must have wondered also at the reports on
every tongue, and the sights he had seen himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
The common people fell back when they saw
them, and allowed them to pass into the centre
of the throng.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The scribe began to grow uneasy as he listened,
carried along by the earnest tones of the
speaker.</p>
<p>There was a great commotion on the edge of
the crowd, as some one tried to push through to
the centre.</p>
<p>"Stand back! Go away!" demanded angry
voices.</p>
<p>The scribe was a tall man, and by stretching a
little, managed to see over the heads of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
others. Four men, bearing a helpless paralytic,
were trying to carry him through the throngs; but
they would not make room for this interruption.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <i>sins</i> be forgiven thee!"</p>
<p>He looked at Laban and his companion, and
the three exchanged meaning glances. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
they looked again at the speaker, His eyes seemed
to read their inmost thoughts.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"The man is a liar and a blasphemer!" exclaimed
the scribe, as they sat once more in the
privacy of Laban's garden.</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
<p>"Still He healed him," spoke up the scribe,
musingly.</p>
<p>"Only through the power of Satan!" interrupted
Laban. "When He says He can forgive
sins, He blasphemes."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'acknowleged'">acknowledged</ins> proudly that
Phineas had always known this famous man from
Nazareth, even in childhood, and was one of his
most devoted followers.</p>
<p>"This man Phineas is a traitor to the faith!"
roared Laban. "He is a dangerous man, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
league with these fellows to do great evil to our
nation."</p>
<p>The scribe and the rabbi nodded approvingly.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A little girl passed, carrying one child in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
arms, and talking to another who clung to her
skirts. It was Jerusha.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
<p>"There was an errand to be done, and no one
else to do it," answered Joel, "so Aunt sent me."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Both the little girl's face and manner expressed
intense disgust.</p>
<p>Joel was shocked. "Oh, are you sure?" he
cried. "You certainly must be mistaken! It
cannot be so!"</p>
<p>"I guess I know what I see with my own eyes,
and hear with my own ears!" she retorted, angrily.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It was no light thing for a child to contradict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
the doctors of the Law, and, in a case of this
kind, little less than a crime to take the stand
Joel did.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>The little cripple was white to the lips, and
he trembled from head to foot as he stood up
to speak.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"He is no child of mine!" retorted Laban.
"Nor shall he stay among them!" Then he
turned to Joel.</p>
<p>"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!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I cannot!" he said hoarsely. "Oh, I cannot!"</p>
<p>"Then take yourself out of my sight forever.
The doors of this house shall never open
for you again!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 103px;">
<img src="images/drop_p.png" width="103" height="108" alt="P" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />HINEAS, 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!</div>
<p>"Why, my child! My poor child!" he exclaimed,
putting his arm around the trembling,
misshapen form. "What is the meaning of all
this?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
<p>Phineas drew him closer, and stroked the head
on his shoulder in pitying silence.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Phineas gathered the boy so close in his
arms that Joel could feel his strong, even
heart-beats.</p>
<p>"My child," he said solemnly, "call me no
more, Rabbi! Henceforth, it is to be <i>father</i>
Phineas. You shall be to me as my own son!"</p>
<p>"But the curse!" sobbed Joel. "The curse
that is set upon me! It will blight you too!"</p>
<p>"Nay," was the quiet answer; "for it is written,
'As the bird by wandering, as the swallow
by flying, <i>so the curse, causeless, shall not come</i>.'"</p>
<p>But the boy still shook as with a chill. His
face and hands were burning hot.</p>
<p>"Come!" said Phineas. He picked him up in
his strong arms, and carried him down the beach
to Abigail's motherly care and comforting.</p>
<p>"He will be a long time getting over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
shock of this," she said to her husband, when he
was at last soothed to sleep.</p>
<p>"Ah, loyal little heart!" he answered, "he
has suffered much for the sake of his friendship
with us!"</p>
<p>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!</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Just about this time, Phineas and Joel were
starting out from Capernaum to the mountain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Joel was obliged to walk slowly, so that by the
time they reached the plain below, a great multitude
had gathered.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
could catch glimpses of lofty living such as he
had never even dreamed of before.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Still the voice led on, "Ye have heard that
it hath been said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.'"</p>
<p>Joel started so violently at hearing his own
familiar motto, that he nearly lost his balance on
the rock.</p>
<p>"But I say unto you <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'That'">that</ins> 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."</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>He heard little of the rest of the sermon, for
through it all the words kept echoing, "Bless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
them that curse you! Do good to them that
hate you! Pray for them which despitefully use
you!"</p>
<p>"Oh, I can't! I can't!" he groaned inwardly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>After all his weeks of waiting the opportunity
had come; but he dared not let the Sinless One
look into his soul.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>By the time the two guardian fig-trees were in
sight, he had decided. He would rather go helpless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
and halting through life than give up his
cherished purpose.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
<div class="figright" style="width: 402px;">
<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="402" height="600" alt="meeting" />
<span class="caption">"NOT A WORD WAS SAID"</span>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It seemed to him the world had never looked
one half so beautiful before, as he stood there.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Joel covered his face with his hands, seeming
to hear the still small voice that spoke to the
prophet out of the whirlwind.</p>
<p>"He is the Christ!" he whispered reverently,—"He
is the Christ!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>From that moment, he lived but to serve and
to follow Him.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a><br /><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 106px;">
<img src="images/drop_h.png" width="106" height="103" alt="H" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />IGH 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.</div>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But the guilty Herodias bided her time, with
blood-thirsty impatience; his life should pay
the penalty of his bold speech.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He wondered if his words still lived; if any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>With a cry of joy he groped his way toward
them, and clung to their friendly hands.</p>
<p>"How did you manage to penetrate these
Roman-guarded walls?" he asked, in astonishment.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>They had much to tell of the outside world.
Pilate had just given special offence, by appropriating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>There was a cry for a national uprising to
avenge the murder.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"We questioned some of them closely, and
they gave us marvellous reports of the things
He had done."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
<p>"Is it not strange," asked Benjamin the
potter, "that having such power He still delays
to establish His kingdom?"</p>
<p>The captive prophet made no answer for awhile.
Then he groped in the thick darkness till his hand
rested heavily on Benjamin's arm.</p>
<p>"Go back, and say that John Baptist asks,
'Art Thou the Coming One, or must we look for
another?'"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"What did He say?" demanded the prisoner,
eagerly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
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 <i>hath</i> 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!'"</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>For him, the kingdom was indeed at hand.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>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.</p>
<p>Now when he spoke of the man who had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
both friend and playfellow, it was almost reverently
that he gave Him the title of Master.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"How much you have accomplished!" he
said in surprise. "You have filled my place
like a grown man."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"If I could only do something for Him!"
<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Was'">was</ins> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Let us pass over unto the other side," He
said.</p>
<p>Joel slipped up to Andrew, who was busily
arranging their sails. "Let me go, too!" he
whispered pleadingly.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
<p>"Well," assented the man, carelessly, "You
can make yourself useful, I suppose. Will you
hand me that rope?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'kness'">knees</ins> in readiness.</p>
<p>Several times he reached forward to lay it over
Him, and each time drew back. Then he fell
asleep himself.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>As wave after wave beat in, some of the men
could no longer control their fear.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
<p>"Master!" they called to the sleeping man, as
they bent over Him in terror. "Carest Thou not
that we perish?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Looking up at the midnight blackness of the
sky, and down at the wild waste of waters, He
stretched out His hand.</p>
<p>"<i>Peace!</i>" he commanded in a deep voice.
"<i>Be still!</i>" 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.</p>
<p>The men huddled fearfully together. "What
manner of man is this?" they asked, one of
another. "Even the wind and the sea obey
Him!"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
<p>Just so had this voice thrilled the storm with
its "Peace! Be still!" into utter calm.</p>
<p>The child crouched at His feet, burying his
face in his mantle, and whispering, in awe and
adoration, "He <i>is</i> the Christ! He is the son of
God!"</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 99px;">
<img src="images/drop_a.png" width="99" height="100" alt="A" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />FTER 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
the town slept, and heaven bent nearer in the
starlight to the quiet earth.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"When are we going to start for Jerusalem?"
was his first eager question.</p>
<p>Phineas looked searchingly into his face as he
replied, "Would you be greatly disappointed, my
son, not to go this year?"</p>
<p>Joel looked perplexed; it was such an unheard
of thing for Phineas to miss going up
to the Feast of the Passover.</p>
<p>"These are evil times, my Joel," he explained.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"You have been with Him so much, father
Phineas. Have <i>you</i> ever known Him to do
anything to make these men His enemies?"</p>
<p>"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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Is He never going to set up His kingdom?"
asked Joel. "Does He never talk about it?"</p>
<p>"Yes," said Phineas; "though we are often
puzzled by what He says, and ask ourselves His
meaning."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
where we may have rest from the people that are
always pushing and clamoring about us."</p>
<p>"How long before you start?" asked Joel.</p>
<p>"In a very few minutes," answered Andrew;
"for the boat is in readiness."</p>
<p>Joel glanced from the street above the beach to
the water's edge, as if calculating the distance.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>As the day wore on, he heard the disciples ask
that the multitudes might be sent away.</p>
<p>"It would take two hundred pennyworth of
bread to feed them," said Philip, "and even that
would not be enough."</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
<p>He hardly knew what to expect as the people
were made to sit down on the grass in orderly
ranks of fifties.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Joel wondered why He should refuse. Surely
no other man he had ever known could have
resisted such an appeal.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It seemed so marvellous to him that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"The Master knew they followed Him because
of the loaves and fishes," he said. "He told
them so.</p>
<p>"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!'</p>
<p>"While He talked there was a murmuring all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>While Phineas was pouring out his anxious
forebodings to his wife and Joel, the Master was
going homeward with His chosen twelve.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>The others nodded their assent, all but one.
Judas Iscariot clutched the money bags he held,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
and looked off across the lake, to avoid the
searching eyes that were fixed upon him.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The year of popularity was at an end.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 99px;">
<img src="images/drop_a.png" width="99" height="100" alt="A" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />BIGAIL 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.</div>
<p>"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—"</p>
<p>"Nay! I have little wish to eat," he interrupted,
"but I have much to say to you. Come!
the work can wait."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
of Him. And He would fain have others beside
the twelve He has chosen to go with Him on His
journey."</p>
<p>"And you wish to go too?" she questioned, as
he paused.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Is not this prophet, Jesus, He who is to save
Israel?" asked Abigail. "Is He not even now
making ready to establish His kingdom?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Then, again, why should He go down to the
beach, and choose for His confidential friends
just simple fishermen. They have neither influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>"Where were the hosts of Pharaoh when our
fathers passed through the Red Sea? Was there
bloodshed and fighting there?</p>
<p>"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?</p>
<p>"Why may not His prophet speak peace to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
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?</p>
<p>"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?</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>Her low voice thrilled him with its inspiring
questions, and he looked down into her rapt face
with a feeling of awe.</p>
<p>"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 Cæsar. In the fulness of
time He will free us with a breath.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"How long do you expect to be away?" she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
asked, after a pause, suddenly returning to the
first subject.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"Why did I not come to you before with my
worries?" asked Phineas. "How easily you make
the crooked places straight!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A week later, Phineas stood at the city gate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But Phineas, thinking of the dangers by the
way, and filled with many forebodings, watched
their departure with a heavy heart.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>First on one side of the road, then the other,
she pointed out some spot and told its history.</p>
<p>Here was Dothan, where Joseph went out to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
when his mother happened to have her
back turned.</p>
<div class="figright" style="width: 397px;">
<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="397" height="600" alt="sitting and talking" />
<span class="caption">"'WE TALKED LATE'"</span>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"That is all true, my daughter," he acknowledged;
"still I shall not stay here to witness his
punishment."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Who lives across the street?" asked Joel, the
morning after their arrival.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a><br /><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"Mary says some of the copies of the Scriptures
he has made are the most beautifully written
that she has ever seen."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Oh, I can never begin to tell you, Rabbi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
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!"</p>
<p>"Yes, my boy, I know!" answered the young
man, gently; "for I, too, love Him."</p>
<p>This strong bond of sympathy between the
two made them feel as if they had known each
other always.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joel ran back for permission. Only stopping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
to wind his white linen turban around his head,
he soon regained his new-found friend.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Lazarus smiled at his pleasure. "Come," he
said, "it is still more beautiful inside."</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Here Lazarus left Joel for a few moments,
while he went to give the rolls to the priest
for whom he had copied them.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"No," he thought to himself; "I'd rather be
with Him than wear the High Priest's mitre."</p>
<p>It was almost sundown when they found themselves
on the road homeward. They had visited
place after place of interest.</p>
<p>Lazarus found the boy an entertaining companion,
and the friendship begun that day
grew deep and lasting.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 125px;">
<img src="images/drop_w_quote.png" width="125" height="101" alt="W" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />HAT are you looking for, grandfather?"
called Jesse, as he pattered
up the outside stairs to the roof,
where Reuben stood, scanning the
sky intently.</div>
<p>"Come here, my son," he called. "Stand right
here in front of me, and look just where I point.
What do you see?"</p>
<p>The child peered anxiously into the blue
depths just now lit up by the sunset.</p>
<p>"Oh, the new moon!" he cried. "Where did it
come from?"</p>
<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
other eyes have been sharper than mine, for see!
Already the beacon light has been kindled on
the Mount of Olives!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I wish it could be this way every night,
don't you, Ruth?" said Jesse. "Are you not
glad we are here?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"We must not miss the processions," he said.
"We will go outside the gates a little way, and
watch the people come in."</p>
<p>They did not have long to wait till the stream<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Soon after the time of this rejoicing was over,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Then came the closing ceremonies, when the
great congregation bowed themselves three times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
to the ground, with the High Priest shouting
solemnly, "Ye are clean! Ye are clean! Ye
are clean!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"When are we going back to our other
home?" asked Ruth, one day.</p>
<p>"Why, are you not happy here, little daughter?"
said Abigail. "I thought you had forgotten all
about the old place."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>After a while she began to flit in and out of
the house as fearlessly as a bright-winged
butterfly.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"See what I have brought you, little one," he
said. "It is to take the place of the pigeons you
are always mourning for."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I see my father coming, and another man,"
cried the boy. "I'm going to meet them."</p>
<p>They all hastened to the door, just as the
tired, dusty travellers reached it.</p>
<p>"Peace be to this house, and all who dwell
therein," said the stranger, before Phineas could
give his wife and friends a warmer greeting.</p>
<p>"We went first to your father's house, but,
finding no one at home, came here," said
Phineas.</p>
<p>"Come in!" insisted Martha. "You look
sorely in need of rest and refreshment."</p>
<p>But they had a message to deliver before they
could be persuaded to eat or wash.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"At last, at last!" cried Mary, clasping her
hands. "Oh, to think that I have lived to see
this day of Israel's glory!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
<p>"Tell us what the Master has been doing,"
urged Abigail, after the men had been refreshed
by food and water.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"What did He say?" asked Abigail, eagerly.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Are you going to stay at home now,
father?" asked Jesse, anxiously.</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Jesse was charmed with the great tent of green
boughs.</p>
<p>"I wish I could have been one of the children
that Moses led up out of Egypt," he said, with a
sigh.</p>
<p>"Why, my son?" asked Reuben.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Where is the Master?" asked Abigail.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
<p>"I know not," answered her husband. "He
sent us on before."</p>
<p>"Will He be here, I wonder?" she asked, and
that question was on nearly every lip in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Will He be here?" whispered the scribes to
the Pharisees. "Let Him beware!"</p>
<p>"Will He be here?" muttered Caiaphas the
High Priest. "Then better one man should die,
than that the whole community perish."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In the Court of the Women, in the Temple, all
the golden lamps were lit, twinkling and burning
like countless stars.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>In the midst of all the feasting and the gayeties
that followed, the long-expected Voice was
heard in the arcades of the Temple.</p>
<p>The Child of Nazareth was once more in His
Father's house about His Father's business.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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: "<i>If any man thirst, let him come
unto me</i>." The other was when all eyes were
turned on the blazing lamps. "<i>I am the Light of
the World!</i>"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He had overheard a conversation between the
Temple police, and some of the chief priests and
Pharisees.</p>
<p>"Why did ye not take Him, as ye were ordered?"
they demanded angrily.</p>
<p>"We could not," was the response; "for never
man spake like this man."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_i.png" width="101" height="103" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />T 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.</div>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Grandfather will tell you," answered his
mother. "Run out and ask him for the story.
I know you will like it."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"For so the brave deeds of the Maccabees burn
in the memory of every child of Abraham!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
and elbowing his way through the jostling
crowds, till he stood close beside Him.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>But after a while he began to realize that it
was for no friendly purpose that the chief priests
came pressing around with questions.</p>
<p>"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:—</p>
<p>"The works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me. I and my Father are
one!"</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>None of Reuben's family had gone into Jerusalem
that day on account of the weather, but
were keeping the feast at home.</p>
<p>They were startled when the usually quiet
boy burst excitedly into the house, and told
them what he had just seen.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
child, and might not be able to stand the hardships
of such a journey."</p>
<p>"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. <i>He</i>
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!"</p>
<p>"Child, have you no care for us?" she responded
reproachfully.</p>
<p>"Oh, do not speak so!" he cried, catching up
her hand and kissing it. "I <i>do</i> 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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
<p>When once more a little band of fugitives
followed their Master across the Jordan, Joel
was with them.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>Meanwhile in Bethany, Rabbi Reuben and
his wife rejoiced that their daughter's visit
stretched out indefinitely.</p>
<p>Jesse openly declared that he intended to stay
there always, and learn to be a goldsmith like
his grandfather.</p>
<p>Ruth, too, was happy and contented, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
as he caught sight of her slipping noiselessly
through the door.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Who is that boy talking to Jesse?" asked
Abigail of Rebecca, who stood in the doorway,
holding out her arms as Ruth came up.</p>
<p>"Why, that is little Joseph, the only son of
Simon the leper. Poor child!"</p>
<p>"Simon the leper," repeated Abigail. "A
stranger to me."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Not the husband of my little playmate
Esther!" cried Abigail. "Surely he has not
been stricken with leprosy!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Poor Esther!" sighed Abigail. "Does she
ever see him?"</p>
<p>"Not now. The disease is fast destroying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Out in the street the boys were making each
other's acquaintance in the off-hand way boys of
that age have.</p>
<p>"My name is Jesse. What's yours?"</p>
<p>"Joseph."</p>
<p>"Where do you live?"</p>
<p>"Around the corner, next to the synagogue."</p>
<p>"My father is a carpenter. What's yours?"</p>
<p>Joseph hesitated. "He used to be an oil-seller,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
he said finally. "He doesn't do anything
now."</p>
<p>"Why?" persisted Jesse.</p>
<p>"He is a leper now," was the reluctant answer.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>Several days after he met Joseph and a servant
who was carrying a large, covered basket and a
water-bottle made of skin.</p>
<p>"I'm going to see my father, now," said
Joseph. "Ask your mother if you can come
with me."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"You'll catch it when you get home!" exclaimed
Joseph.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joseph looked at him in utter astonishment.</p>
<p>"Yes, I would," he insisted; "so come on!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>At a safe distance the servant emptied his
basket on a large flat rock, and poured the water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Who's Joel?" asked Joseph.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joseph shook his head. "Lepers can't be
cured. Can they, Seth?" he asked, appealing
to the servant.</p>
<p>"No, lepers are just the same as dead,"
answered Seth. "There's no help for them."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Next morning Joseph was waiting for him out
in front. "Well, did she whip you?" he asked,
with embarrassing frankness.</p>
<p>"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."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 103px;">
<img src="images/drop_r.png" width="103" height="103" alt="R" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />UTH 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
<p>"He will come right away and make him
well, won't He, mother?" she asked anxiously.</p>
<p>"Surely, my child," answered Abigail. "He
loves him too well to let him suffer so."</p>
<p>But the day wore on, and the next; still
another, and He did not come.</p>
<p>Ruth stole around like a frightened shadow,
because of the anxious looks on every face.</p>
<p>"Why doesn't He come?" she wondered; and
on many another lip was the same question.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Neither shed a tear, but seemed to watch
with their souls in their eyes, for one more
word, one more look of recognition.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A sudden cry from Mary, as she fell fainting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
to the floor, called her attention to the bed
again. Martha was silently rocking herself to
and fro, in an agony of grief.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"I shall keep her away from the funeral."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Many friends came out from Jerusalem to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"He's come!" she cried. "He's come, and so
has my father. Hurry! He is waiting for you!"</p>
<p>Martha drew her veil about her, and mechanically
followed the eager child to the gate, where
Phineas met her with the same message.</p>
<p>"Oh, why did He not come sooner?" she
thought bitterly, as she pressed on after her
guide.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"Thy brother shall rise again," He said gently.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>Then for the first time came those words
that have brought balm into thousands of
broken hearts, and hope into countless tear-blind
eyes.</p>
<p>"I am the resurrection and the life. He that
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou
this?"</p>
<p>Martha looked up reverently. "Yea, Lord, I
believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of
God which should come into the world."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>So she quietly called her sister from the room,
whispering, "The Master is come, and calleth for
thee!"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
<p>Mary met Him with the same exclamation that
her sister had uttered, and fell at His feet.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Behold how He loved Lazarus!" said a man
to the one who stood beside him.</p>
<p>"Why did He not save him then?" was the
mocking answer.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Father," He said,—He seemed to be speaking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>A cold shiver of expectancy ran over those
who heard. Then He cried, in a loud voice,
"<i>Lazarus, come forth!</i>" 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.</p>
<p>His face was hidden in a napkin. "Loose
him, and let him go," said the Master, calmly.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Not till he spoke, however, could the frightened
people believe that it was Lazarus, and not a ghost
they saw.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The streets were full of people, laughing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
shouting, crying, fairly beside themselves with
astonishment.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
the Romans shall come and take away both
our place and our nation."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"Yes, indeed!" answered Joel, positively,
"I've seen it done."</p>
<p>"Oh, have you?" cried the boy, in delight.
"Then Joseph can have his father back again."</p>
<p>He told him the story of Simon the leper, and
of his visit to the lonely cave.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
<p>The boy sprang up eagerly. "Do you know
when the Master is going to leave Bethany?" he
asked.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"And will He go out by the same road that we
came?"</p>
<p>"It is most probable."</p>
<p>Joel waited for no more information from him,
but went back to Jesse to learn the way to the
cave.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Oh, I'm so glad you are going!" he exclaimed.
"Shall I run and tell Joseph what
you are going to do?"</p>
<p>"No, do not say a word to any one," answered
Joel. "I shall be back in a very short time."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_s.png" width="101" height="100" alt="S" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />IMON 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.</div>
<p>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:</p>
<p>"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?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>The sound of some one scrambling over the
rocks made him look up quickly.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Joel came on, and stopped by the rock where
the water-jar stood.</p>
<p>Simon stood up, covering himself with his
mantle, and crying out, warningly, "Beware!
Unclean! Come no further!"</p>
<p>"I bring you news from the village," said
Joel. The man threw out his hand with a gesture
of alarm.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"But Lazarus lives again!" exclaimed Joel,
simply. He had seen so many miracles lately,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
that he forgot the startling effect such an announcement
would have on one not accustomed
to them.</p>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 402px;">
<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="402" height="600" alt="under a tree" />
<span class="caption">"'YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY'"</span>
</div>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joel drew himself up to his fullest height.
Simon looked at him, completely puzzled.</p>
<p>"Why did you take the trouble to come and
tell me that,—a poor despised leper?" he finally
asked.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Oh, if I could only believe it!" he cried.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Where can I find this man?" he asked.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a><br /><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Next morning, after they left Bethany, Joel
looked anxiously behind every rock and tree
that they passed; but Simon was not to be seen.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>These were evidently not the ones he was
waiting for. These were only simple wayfarers;
most of them looked like Galileans.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
to see but one face, it was so full of loving
pity.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>The eyes that looked down into his seemed to
search his soul. "Believest thou that I can do
this?"</p>
<p>The pleading faith in Simon's eyes could not
be refused. "Yea, Lord," he cried, "Thou hast
but to speak the word!"</p>
<p>He waited, trembling, for the answer that
meant life or death to him.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>The party passed on, and Simon stood looking
after them. <i>Was</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
himself to the priests. Immediately he started
across the fields on a run, towards the road leading
into Jerusalem.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The next morning, she sent Seth, as usual, with
the provisions. But he brought them back, saying
the place was still deserted.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The sun was entirely out of sight, but the west<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
tremulously, as he held her close, "Praise God!
Praise God!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 120px;">
<img src="images/drop_i_quote.png" width="120" height="101" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br /> 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.</div>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"Would that this next Passover were the
time!" responded Reuben. "How I would rejoice
to see His enemies laid low in the dust!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:—</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Babies cooed in their mother's arms. Bright
little faces smiled out from behind protecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Suffer the little children to come unto me,"
He said, sternly, "and forbid them not; for of
such is the kingdom of heaven!"</p>
<p>Then holding out His hands He took them up in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Several hours before the first trumpet blast
from the roof of the synagogue proclaimed the
approaching Sabbath, Simon hurried to his
home.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
face seemed to reveal as never before the
divine soul soon to leave the worn body where
it now tarried.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>At last, when the banquet was almost over,
she stepped noiselessly forward. There was a
hush of surprise at this unusual interruption,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
although every one there was familiar with the
custom, and recognized its deep meaning and
symbolism.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Across this eloquent silence that the softest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
sound would have jarred upon, a cold, unfeeling
voice broke harshly.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Simon frowned indignantly at this low-browed
guest, who was so lacking in courtesy, and
Mary looked up distressed.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>That night there was another secret council
of some of the Sanhedrin, and Judas Iscariot was
in their midst.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;">
<img src="images/i006.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="skulking" />
<span class="caption">"A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE NIGHT"</span>
</div>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 125px;">
<img src="images/drop_w_quote.png" width="125" height="101" alt="W" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />HO 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.</div>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"About me?" echoed Joel, in surprise.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>"What does he want to do?" asked Joel.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It was in this perplexed state of mind that he
started up to Jerusalem with Jesse and his grandfather.</p>
<p>The streets were rapidly filling with people,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
coming up to the Feast of the Passover, and Joel
recognized many old friends from Galilee.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I wonder where He has gone," said Joel, in a
disappointed tone. "I thought they would surely
crown Him."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>So he stayed closely with Phineas and Abigail,
taking a great interest in all the great preparations
for the feast.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>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.</p>
<p>The priests, in two long rows, caught the blood
in great gold and silver vessels, as the animals were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
killed, and passed it to others behind, till it reached
the altar, at the foot of which it was poured out.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
<p>"Oh, how? Who told you?" cried Joel, eagerly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Poor Rehum!" exclaimed Joel.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"No," answered Joel, simply; "I forgave him
a year ago, the night before I was healed."</p>
<p>"You forgave him!" gasped Buz,—"you forgave
him! A dog of a Samaritan! Why, how
could you?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
bring him back with me. The Hand that straightened
my back can open his eyes; for I have seen
it done many times."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Dream on! In the hall of Pilate now, thorn-crowned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>Sleep on, little disciple, be happy whilst thou
can!</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;">
<img src="images/drop_i.png" width="101" height="103" alt="I" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />T 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.</div>
<p>Faded branches of palms still lay scattered by
the wayside, thickly covered with dust.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>He turned to look back at the city. The white
and gold of the Temple dazzled his eyes, as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
had deepened and deepened for nearly three
hours, and the mysterious gloom made him long
to be with his friends.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"<i>The veil of the Temple is rent in twain!</i>" he cried,—"<i>The
veil of the Temple is rent in twain!</i>"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He ran past the prostrate priest into the inner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>He ran out of the Temple, and towards the
house where he had slept the night before.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Where?" demanded Joel.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>A sudden fear fell upon the boy that this was
the day that the One he loved best had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
made king, and he had missed it,—had missed
the greatest opportunity of his life.</p>
<p>"Was it to follow Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth?"
he demanded eagerly.</p>
<p>The man nodded.</p>
<p>"To crown Him?" was the next breathless
question.</p>
<p>"No; to crucify Him."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"No, <i>no</i>, <i>no</i>, NO!" he cried; each word was
louder than the last. "I will not believe it! You
do not speak truth!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Everything he saw seemed to confirm the truth
of what he had just heard, but he could not believe
it.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
be able to do it, no matter how much they hated
Him!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The agonized shriek on his lips died half uttered,
as he fell unconscious at the foot of the cross.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
Joel lay down beside it with a heart-broken
moan.</p>
<p>Men came and lifted the body in its spotless
covering. Joel did not look up to see who bore
it away.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Another swift rush of tears blinded Joel, as he
looked at the set, despairing face, and then at
what he carried.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
with dry eyes but trembling lips, as they noiselessly
prepared the body for its hurried burial.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p>
<p>"Oh, wasn't there <i>one</i> to stand up for Him?"
he cried, with clasped hands and streaming eyes.
"Wasn't there <i>one</i> 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!"</p>
<p>He rocked himself to and fro on his knees,
wringing his hands as if the thought brought
him unspeakable anguish.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>How long he stood there, he did not know.
When he looked up again, the women had gone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
and it was nearly dark. Phineas and several
other men lingered in the black shadows of the
trees, and Joel joined them.</p>
<p>Roman guards came presently. A stout cord
was stretched across the stone, its ends firmly
fastened, and sealed with the seal of Cæsar. A
watch-fire was kindled near by; then the Roman
sentinels began their steady tramp! tramp! as
they paced back and forth.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
been put to death as a felon,—crucified between
two thieves! The cause was lost; he was left
to face an utter failure.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Hope lay dead in the tomb of Joseph, with a
great stone forever walling it in.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 125px;">
<img src="images/drop_w_quote.png" width="125" height="101" alt="W" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />AKE 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
<p>He sat up dizzily, and tried to collect his
thoughts. Then he remembered, and laid his
head wearily down again, with a groan.</p>
<p>"Wake up! Wake up!" she insisted, with
such eager gladness in her voice that Joel
opened his eyes again, now fully aroused.</p>
<p>"What is it?" he asked indifferently.</p>
<p>"<i>He is risen!</i>" 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!'"</p>
<p>Joel rubbed his eyes and looked at her. "No,
no!" he said wearily, "I am dreaming again!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"What is it, Mother Abigail?" he asked,
much puzzled.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
<p>"I do not wonder you are bewildered," she
cried. "It is such blessed, such wonderful
news. Why He is <i>alive</i>, 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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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 Cæsar; and when I left it was
guarded by Roman sentinels in armor. No man
could have opened it."</p>
<p>"But Abigail talks of angels who sat in the
empty tomb, and who told them He had risen,"
replied her father.</p>
<p>Joel, who had overheard this low-toned conversation,
got up and stood close beside them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
He had begun to tremble from weakness and
excitement.</p>
<div class="figright" style="width: 394px;">
<img src="images/i007.jpg" width="394" height="600" alt="Pointing at the moved stone" />
<span class="caption">"'THE STONE IS GONE!'"</span>
</div>
<p>"Father Phineas," he asked, "do you remember
the story we heard from the old shepherd,
Heber? The angels told of His birth;
maybe she <i>did</i> see them in His tomb."</p>
<p>"How can such things be?" queried Reuben,
stroking his beard in perplexity.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Finally, in the waning afternoon, they took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
the road that led from Bethany to the garden
where they firmly believed that the Master still
lay buried.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"See!" he said, pointing into its yawning
darkness. "She was right! The stone is gone!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He stopped them with the question that was
uppermost in his mind.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Ah, how our hearts burned as He talked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
with us by the way!" interrupted the other
man.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Phineas would have laid a detaining hand on
them, but they hurried on, and left him standing
in the road, looking wistfully after them.</p>
<p>"It must be true," said Joel, "or they could
not have been so nearly wild with joy."</p>
<p>Phineas sadly shook his head. "I wish I
could think so," he sighed.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"<i>It is true!</i>" 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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The order of procession was constantly shifting,
and one morning Joel found himself walking
beside John, one of the chosen twelve, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
seemed to have understood his Master better
than any of the others.</p>
<p>The man seemed wrapped in deep thought,
and took no notice of his companion, till Joel
timidly touched his sleeve.</p>
<p>"Do <i>you</i> believe it is true?" the boy asked.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I know it, my lad; I have been with Him."
The quiet positiveness with which he spoke
seemed to destroy Joel's last doubt.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Joel made an exclamation as if about to speak,
and then stopped. "What is it?" asked John.</p>
<p>"How could He mean that He has overcome
the world? Cæsar still rules, and Jerusalem is
full of His enemies. I can't forget that they
killed Him, even if He has risen."</p>
<p>John stooped to tie his sandal before he answered.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
<p>"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.'"</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"Yes, indeed!" answered Joel. "All who
looked up at it were saved; but those who would
not died from the poisonous bites."</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
lifted up on the cruel cross, did I begin to dimly
see what He meant."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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 <i>Him</i> the iniquity of us all'?
What an awful sacrifice!"</p>
<p>The tears streamed down his face as the thought
came over him with overwhelming conviction,
that it was for <i>him</i> that the man he loved so had
endured all the horrible suffering of death by
crucifixion.</p>
<p>"Why did such a thing have to be?" he asked,
looking up appealingly at his companion.</p>
<p>John looked out and up, as if he saw far beyond
the narrow, hill-bound horizon, and quoted
softly: "<i>For God so loved the world, that He gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.</i>"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"'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."</p>
<p>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.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
<div class="figleft" style="width: 103px;">
<img src="images/drop_t.png" width="103" height="100" alt="T" />
</div><div class='unindent'><br />HEY 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.</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He held up his hands in astonishment at the
great haul of fish the boat held.</p>
<p>"We have been with the Master," explained
one of the men. "We toiled all night, and took
nothing till we met Him."</p>
<p>Joel listened eagerly while they told him of
that meeting in the early dawn, and of the meal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The snapping of a twig startled him; the falling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
of a leaf made him look up hopefully. Any
minute the Master might come.</p>
<p>His heart beat so loud it seemed to him that
the wood-birds overhead must surely hear it, and
be frightened away.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>So Joel waited, restless, burning, all in a quiver
of expectancy.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>After awhile, thrilled by some unseen influence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Phineas came down the mountain with his face
all ashine; at last his eyes had been opened.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"When I saw Him put to death as a felon, all
hope died within me; even to-day I came out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I cannot build it for you at all," he answered.</p>
<p>"Not build it!" echoed the man. "I thought
you were anxious for the job."</p>
<p>"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!'</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>The man shrank back into the doorway,
strangely moved by the passionate force of his
earnestness.</p>
<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
already given,—to tell the message to every
creature my voice can reach."</p>
<p>"And you?" asked the man, pointing to the
companion of Phineas.</p>
<p>"I, too, received the command," was the
answer, "and I, too, am ready to go to the world's
end, if need be!"</p>
<p>"Surely there must be truth in what you say,"
muttered the man. Then his glance fell on Joel.
"You, too?" he questioned.</p>
<p>"Nay, he is but a lad," answered Phineas,
before Joel could find words to answer him.
"Come! we must hasten home."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Why, Aunt Leah!" he cried. "What brought
<i>you</i> here?"</p>
<p>He had not seen her since the night his Uncle
Laban had driven him from home.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
merchant in Bethany, and I came down here,
secretly, to beg you to accept it. In your
father's name I beg you!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>A sudden interest came into the woman's face;
she took a step forward. "Joel, did <i>you</i> see Him
after He was risen?"</p>
<p>"Yes," he answered.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"And Uncle Laban?" questioned Joel.</p>
<p>She shook her head sadly. "He grows more
bitterly opposed every day."</p>
<p>"Aunt Leah," he asked, coming back to the
first question, "don't you think He must have
meant me as well as those men?"</p>
<p>"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."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
<p>After she had gone home, he put away his
tools, and, like one in a dream, started slowly
towards the mountain.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Phineas was going away in the morning. If
Joel went also, maybe he would never look
down on that scene again.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In that instant all the things he had been considering
seemed so small and worthless. He had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
planning to give Simon's gold and silver to the
poor; but the Master had given them His life,
Himself! Could he do less?</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
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.</p>
<p>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:
"<span class="smcap">Lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world!</span>"</p>
<div class='center'>THE END</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1ad" id="Page_1ad">[1]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle1'>Selections from<br />
The Page Company's<br />
Books for Young People<br /><br /></div>
<div class='adtitle2'>THE BLUE BONNET SERIES<br /><br /></div>
<div class='center'>
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated,
per volume</i> $1.50<br /><br />
</div>
<div class='adtitle4'>A TEXAS BLUE BONNET</div>
<p>By <span class="smcap">Caroline E. Jacobs</span>.</p>
<p>"The book's heroine, Blue Bonnet, has the very finest
kind of wholesome, honest, lively girlishness."—<i>Chicago
Inter-Ocean.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />BLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY</div>
<p>By <span class="smcap">Caroline E. Jacobs and Edyth Ellerbeck Read</span>.</p>
<p>"A healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every
chapter."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p>
<div><span class='adtitle4'><br />BLUE BONNET IN BOSTON;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, Boarding-School
Days at Miss North's</span>.</div>
<p>By <span class="smcap">Caroline E. Jacobs and Lela Horn Richards</span>.</p>
<p>"It is bound to become popular because of its wholesomeness
and its many human touches."—<i>Boston Globe.</i></p>
<div><span class='adtitle4'><br />BLUE BONNET KEEPS HOUSE;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, The
New Home in the East</span>.</div>
<p>By <span class="smcap">Caroline E. Jacobs and Lela Horn Richards</span>.</p>
<p>"It cannot fail to prove fascinating to girls in their
teens."—<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />BLUE BONNET—DÉBUTANTE</div>
<p>By <span class="smcap">Lela Horn Richards</span>.</p>
<p>An interesting picture of the unfolding of life for
Blue Bonnet.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2ad" id="Page_2ad">[2]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>THE YOUNG PIONEER SERIES</div>
<div class='center'><br />By <span class="smcap">Harrison Adams</span><br />
<br />
<i>Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume</i> $1.25<br />
<br /></div>
<div class='hang1'><span class='adtitle4'>THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO;</span> <span class="smcap">Or,
Clearing the Wilderness</span>.</div>
<p>"Such books as this are an admirable means of stimulating
among the young Americans of to-day interest in
the story of their pioneer ancestors and the early days of
the Republic."—<i>Boston Globe.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE PIONEER BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES;</span>
<span class="smcap">Or, On the Trail of the Iroquois</span>.</div>
<p>"The recital of the daring deeds of the frontier is not
only interesting but instructive as well and shows the
sterling type of character which these days of self-reliance
and trial produced."—<i>American Tourist, Chicago.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSISSIPPI;</span>
<span class="smcap">Or, The Homestead in the Wilderness.</span>.</div>
<p>"The story is told with spirit, and is full of adventure."—<i>New
York Sun.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSOURI;</span>
<span class="smcap">Or, In the Country of the Sioux</span>.</div>
<p>"Vivid in style, vigorous in movement, full of dramatic
situations, true to historic perspective, this story is a
capital one for boys."—<i>Watchman Examiner, New York
City.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE YELLOWSTONE;</span>
<span class="smcap">Or, Lost in the Land of Wonders</span>.</div>
<p>"There is plenty of lively adventure and action and
the story is well told."—<i>Duluth Herald, Duluth, Minn.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE COLUMBIA;</span>
<span class="smcap">Or, In the Wilderness of the Great Northwest</span>.</div>
<p>"The story is full of spirited action and contains much
valuable historical information."—<i>Boston Herald.</i></p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3ad" id="Page_3ad">[3]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>THE HADLEY HALL SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Louise M. Breitenbach</span><br /><br />
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume</i> $1.50<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ALMA AT HADLEY HALL</span></div>
<p>"The author is to be congratulated on having written
such an appealing book for girls."—<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ALMA'S SOPHOMORE YEAR</span></div>
<p>"It cannot fail to appeal to the lovers of good things
in girls' books."—<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ALMA'S JUNIOR YEAR</span></div>
<p>"The diverse characters in the boarding-school are
strongly drawn, the incidents are well developed and the
action is never dull."—<i>The Boston Herald.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ALMA'S SENIOR YEAR</span></div>
<p>"Incident abounds in all of Miss Breitenbach's stories
and a healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every
Chapter."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p>
<hr class="tb" />
<div class='adtitle2'>THE GIRLS OF<br />
FRIENDLY TERRACE SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Harriet Lummis Smith</span><br />
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated; per volume</i> $1.50<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE</span></div>
<p>"A book sure to please girl readers, for the author seems
to understand perfectly the girl character."—<i>Boston
Globe.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION</span></div>
<p>"It is a wholesome, hearty story."—<i>Utica Observer.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />PEGGY RAYMOND'S SCHOOL DAYS</span></div>
<p>The book is delightfully written, and contains lots of exciting
incidents.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4ad" id="Page_4ad">[4]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Charles H. L. Johnston</span>
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume</i> $1.50<br />
</div>
<div class='adtitle4'>FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS</div>
<p>"More of such books should be written, books that
acquaint young readers with historical personages in a
pleasant, informal way."—<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
<p>"It is a book that will stir the heart of every boy and
will prove interesting as well to the adults."—<i>Lawrence
Daily World.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS</div>
<p>"Mr. Johnston has done faithful work in this volume,
and his relation of battles, sieges and struggles of these
famous Indians with the whites for the possession of
America is a worthy addition to United States History."—<i>New
York Marine Journal.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FAMOUS SCOUTS</div>
<p>"It is the kind of a book that will have a great fascination
for boys and young men, and while it entertains them
it will also present valuable information in regard to
those who have left their impress upon the history of the
country."—<i>The New London Day.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN AND ADVENTURERS
OF THE SEA</div>
<p>"The tales are more than merely interesting; they are
entrancing, stirring the blood with thrilling force and
bringing new zest to the never-ending interest in the
dramas of the sea."—<i>The Pittsburgh Post.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN AND HEROES
OF THE BORDER</div>
<p>This book is devoted to a description of the adventurous
lives and stirring experiences of many pioneer heroes
who were prominently identified with the opening of the
Great West.</p>
<p>"The accounts are not only authentic, but distinctly
readable, making a book of wide appeal to all who love
the history of actual adventure."—<i>Cleveland Leader.</i></p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5ad" id="Page_5ad">[5]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>HILDEGARDE-MARGARET SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Laura E. Richards</span><br /><br />
Eleven Volumes</div>
<p>The Hildegarde-Margaret Series, beginning with
"Queen Hildegarde" and ending with "The Merryweathers,"
make one of the best and most popular series
of books for girls ever written.</p>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Prices">
<tr><td align="left"><i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume</i> </td><td align="right">$1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><i>The eleven volumes boxed as a set</i></td><td align="right">$13.75</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="List of titles">
<tr><td align="center"><b>LIST OF TITLES</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>QUEEN HILDEGARDE</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>HILDEGARDE'S HOLIDAY</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>HILDEGARDE'S HOME</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>HILDEGARDE'S NEIGHBORS</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>HILDEGARDE'S HARVEST</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>THREE MARGARETS</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>MARGARET MONTFORT</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>PEGGY</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>RITA</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>FERNLEY HOUSE</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="left"><b>THE MERRYWEATHERS</b></td></tr>
</table></div>
<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6ad" id="Page_6ad">[6]</a></span></p>
<h2>THE CAPTAIN JANUARY SERIES</h2>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Laura E. Richards</span><br />
<i>Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume.</i> <i>Net</i>, 50 cents; carriage paid, 60 cents<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />CAPTAIN JANUARY</span></div>
<p>A charming idyl of New England coast life, whose
success has been very remarkable.</p>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="prices">
<tr><td align="left">SAME. <i>Illustrated Holiday Edition</i></td><td align="left">$1.25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">SAME, <span class="smcap">French Text</span>. <i>Illustrated Holiday Edition</i> </td><td align="left">$1.25</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />MELODY:</span> <span class="smcap">The Story of a Child</span>.</div>
<div class='center'>
SAME. <i>Illustrated Holiday Edition</i> $1.25<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />MARIE</span></div>
<p>A companion to "Melody" and "Captain January."</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ROSIN THE BEAU</span></div>
<p>A sequel to "Melody" and "Marie."</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />SNOW-WHITE;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, The House in the Wood</span>.</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />JIM OF HELLAS;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, In Durance Vile</span>, and
a companion story, <span class="smcap">Bethesda Pool</span>.</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />NARCISSA</span></div>
<p>And a companion story, <span class="smcap">In Verona</span>, being two delightful
short stories of New England life.</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />"SOME SAY"</span></div>
<p>And a companion story, <span class="smcap">Neighbors in Cyrus</span>.</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />NAUTILUS</span></div>
<p>"'Nautilus' is by far the best product of the author's
powers, and is certain to achieve the wide success it so
richly merits."</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />ISLA HERON</span></div>
<p>This interesting story is written in the author's usual
charming manner.</p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE MASTER</span></div>
<p>"A well told, interesting tale of a high character."—<i>California
Gateway Gazette.</i></p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7ad" id="Page_7ad">[7]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>DELIGHTFUL BOOKS FOR LITTLE<br />
FOLKS</div>
<div class='center'><br />By <span class="smcap">Laura E. Richards</span><br /><br /></div>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />THREE MINUTE STORIES</div>
<p>Cloth decorative, 12mo, with eight plates in full color
and many text illustrations by Josephine Bruce.</p>
<div class='center'>
<i>Net</i> $1.25; carriage paid $1.40<br />
</div>
<p>"Little ones will understand and delight in the stories
and poems."—<i>Indianapolis News.</i></p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FIVE MINUTE STORIES</div>
<div class='center'>
Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>A charming collection of short stories and clever poems
for children.</p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />MORE FIVE MINUTE STORIES</div>
<div class='center'>
Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>A noteworthy collection of short stories and poems
for children, which will prove as popular with mothers
as with boys and girls.</p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />FIVE MICE IN A MOUSE TRAP</div>
<div class='center'>
Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>The story of their lives and other wonderful things
related by the Man in the Moon, done in the vernacular
from the lunacular form by Laura E. Richards.</p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE</div>
<div class='center'>
Cloth, 8vo, illustrated $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>The title most happily introduces the reader to the
charming home life of Doctor Howe and Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe, during the childhood of the author.</p>
<div class='adtitle4'><br />A HAPPY LITTLE TIME</div>
<div class='center'>
Cloth, 8vo, illustrated $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>Little Betty and the happy time she had will appeal
strongly to mothers as well as to the little ones who will
have this story read to them, and appeal all the more
on account of its being such a "real" story.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8ad" id="Page_8ad">[8]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>THE BOYS' STORY OF THE<br />
RAILROAD SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>By <span class="smcap">Burton E. Stevenson</span><br />
<br />
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume</i> $1.50<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE YOUNG SECTION-HAND;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, The Adventures
of Allan West</span>.</div>
<p>"A thrilling story, well told, clean and bright. The
whole range of section railroading is covered in the story,
and it contains information as well as interest."—<i>Chicago
Post.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER</span></div>
<p>"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."—<i>Congregationalist.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER</span></div>
<p>"It is a book that can be unreservedly commended to
anyone who loves a good, wholesome, thrilling, informing
yarn."—<i>Passaic News.</i></p>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE YOUNG APPRENTICE;</span> <span class="smcap">Or, Allan West's
Chum</span>.</div>
<p>"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."—<i>Baltimore
Sun.</i></p>
<p>"It appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at
the same time teaches him some valuable lessons in honor,
pluck, and perseverance."—<i>Cleveland Plain Dealer.</i></p>
<p>"The lessons that the books teach in development of
uprightness, honesty and true manly character are sure
to appeal to the reader."—<i>The American Boy.</i></p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9ad" id="Page_9ad">[9]</a></span></p>
<div class='adtitle2'>THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS</div>
<div class='center'><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span><br />
<br />
By <span class="smcap">Annie Fellows Johnston</span><br />
<br />
<i>Each large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume</i> $1.50<br />
</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span><br />
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<div class='unindent'>
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOUSE PARTY</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOLIDAYS</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING-SCHOOL</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHUM</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />MARY WARE IN TEXAS</span><br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />MARY WARE'S PROMISED LAND</span><br />
</div>
<div class='center'>
<i>These twelve volumes, boxed as a set</i>, $18.00.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10ad" id="Page_10ad">[10]</a></span><br />
</div>
<div class='adtitle3'><br />SPECIAL HOLIDAY EDITIONS</div>
<div class='center'>
<i>Each small quarto, cloth decorative, per volume</i> $1.25<br />
</div>
<p>New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page
drawings in color, and many marginal sketches.</p>
<div class='unindent'>
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class='small'>(Trade Mark)</span></span>)<br />
<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY</span><br />
<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />THE GIANT SCISSORS</span><br />
<br />
<span class='adtitle4'><br />BIG BROTHER</span><br />
</div>
<div class='adtitle3'>THE JOHNSTON JEWEL SERIES</div>
<div class='center'>
<i>Each small 16mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece and decorative text borders, per volume</i> <i>Net</i> $0.50<br />
</div>
<div class='hang1'><span class='adtitle4'>IN THE DESERT OF WAITING:</span> <span class="smcap">The Legend
of Camelback Mountain</span>.</div>
<div class='hang1'><span class='adtitle4'>THE THREE WEAVERS:</span> <span class="smcap">A Fairy Tale for
Fathers and Mothers as Well as for Their
Daughters</span>.</div>
<div class='hang1'><span class='adtitle4'>KEEPING TRYST:</span> <span class="smcap">A Tale of King Arthur's
Time</span>.</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'>THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART</span></div>
<div class='hang1'><span class='adtitle4'>THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME:</span>
<span class="smcap">A Fairy Play for Old and Young</span>.</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'>THE JESTER'S SWORD</span></div>
<div class='center'>———————</div>
<div class='unindent'><span class='adtitle4'><br />THE LITTLE COLONEL'S GOOD TIMES BOOK</span></div>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr><td align="left">Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series </td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold </td><td align="right"><i>Net</i> 3.00</td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>Cover design and decorations by Peter Verberg.</p>
<p>"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."—<i>Buffalo
Express.</i></p>
<hr class="tb" />
<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation as in "head-dress"
and "headdress" was retained.</p>
<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p>
<div><b>List of changes made</b><br />
Page 11, word "an" removed from text. Original read (never be an any better)<br />
Page 32, "a good" changed to "good a" (too good a man to)<br />
Page 68, "persistance" changed to "persistence" (persistence with which the)<br />
Page 68, "coin" changed to "coins" (small bag of coins)<br />
Page 90, "acknowleged" changed to "acknowledged" (he acknowledged proudly)<br />
Page 101, "That" changed to "that" (unto you that)<br />
Page 114, "Was" changed to "was" (was Joel's constant)<br />
Page 116, "kness" changed to "knees" (his knees in readiness)</div> </div>
<pre>
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