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diff --git a/5303.txt b/5303.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8186c76 --- /dev/null +++ b/5303.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1106 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Little Hunchback Zia, by Frances Hodgson Burnett + +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: The Little Hunchback Zia + +Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett + +Illustrator: Spencer Baird Nichols + W. T. Benda + +Posting Date: September 1, 2012 [EBook #5303] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 25, 2002 +Last Updated: August 13, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK ZIA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK ZIA + +BY + +FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +SPENCER BAIRD NICHOLS +AND +W. T. BENDA + + + + + +And it came to pass nigh upon +nineteen hundred and sixteen years ago + + + + + +THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK ZIA + +The little hunchback Zia toiled slowly up the steep road, keeping in the +deepest shadows, even though the night had long fallen. Sometimes he +staggered with weariness or struck his foot against a stone and +smothered his involuntary cry of pain. He was so full of terror that he +was afraid to utter a sound which might cause any traveler to glance +toward him. This he feared more than any other thing--that some man or +woman might look at him too closely. If such a one knew much and had +keen eyes, he or she might in some way guess even at what they might not +yet see. + +Since he had fled from the village in which his wretched short life had +been spent he had hidden himself in thickets and behind walls or rocks +or bushes during the day, and had only come forth at night to stagger +along his way in the darkness. If he had not managed to steal some food +before he began his journey and if he had not found in one place some +beans dropped from a camel's feeding-bag, he would have starved. For +five nights he had been wandering on, but in his desperate fear he had +lost count of time. When he had left the place he had called his home he +had not known where he was going or where he might hide himself in the +end. The old woman with whom he had lived and for whom he had begged and +labored had driven him out with a terror as great as his own. + +"Begone!" she had cried in a smothered shriek. "Get thee gone, accursed! +Even now thou mayest have brought the curse upon me also. A creature +born a hunchback comes on earth with the blight of Jehovah's wrath upon +him. Go far! Go as far as thy limbs will carry thee! Let no man come +near enough to thee to see it! If thou go far away before it is known, +it will be forgotten that I have harbored thee." + +He had stood and looked at her in the silence of the dead, his immense, +black Syrian eyes growing wider and wider with childish horror. He had +always regarded her with slavish fear. What he was to her he did not +know; neither did he know how he had fallen into her hands. He knew only +that he was not of her blood or of her country and that he yet seemed to +have always belonged to her. In his first memory of his existence, a +little deformed creature rolling about on the littered floor of her +uncleanly hovel, he had trembled at the sound of her voice and had +obeyed it like a beaten spaniel puppy. When he had grown older he had +seen that she lived upon alms and thievery and witchlike evil doings +that made all decent folk avoid her. She had no kinsfolk or friends, and +only such visitors as came to her in the dark hours of night and seemed +to consult with her as she sat and mumbled strange incantations while +she stirred a boiling pot. Zia had heard of soothsayers and dealers with +evil spirits, and at such hours was either asleep on his pallet in a far +corner or, if he lay awake, hid his face under his wretched covering and +stopped his ears. Once when she had drawn near and found his large eyes +open and staring at her in spellbound terror, she had beaten him +horribly and cast him into the storm raging outside. + +A strange passion in her seemed her hatred of his eyes. She could not +endure that he should look at her as if he were thinking. He must not +let his eyes rest on her for more than a moment when he spoke. He must +keep them fixed on the ground or look away from her. From his babyhood +this had been so. A hundred times she had struck him when he was too +young to understand her reason. The first strange lesson he had learned +was that she hated his eyes and was driven to fury when she found them +resting innocently upon her. Before he was three years old he had +learned this thing and had formed the habit of looking down upon the +earth as he limped about. For long he thought that his eyes were as +hideous as his body was distorted. In her frenzies she told him that +evil spirits looked out from them and that he was possessed of devils. +Without thought of rebellion or resentment he accepted with timorous +humility, as part of his existence, her taunts at his twisted limbs. +What use in rebellion or anger? With the fatalism of the East he +resigned himself to that which was. He had been born a deformity, and +even his glance carried evil. This was life. He knew no other. Of his +origin he knew nothing except that from the old woman's rambling +outbursts he had gathered that he was of Syrian blood and a homeless +outcast. + +But though he had so long trained himself to look downward that it had +at last become an effort to lift his heavily lashed eyelids, there came +a time when he learned that his eyes were not so hideously evil as his +task-mistress had convinced him that they were. When he was only seven +years old she sent him out to beg alms for her, and on the first day of +his going forth she said a strange thing, the meaning of which he could +not understand. + +"Go not forth with thine eyes bent downward on the dust. Lift them, and +look long at those from whom thou askest alms. Lift them and look as I +see thee look at the sky when thou knowest not I am near thee. I have +seen thee, hunchback. Gaze at the passers-by as if thou sawest their +souls and asked help of them." + +She said it with a fierce laugh of derision, but when in his +astonishment he involuntarily lifted his gaze to hers, she struck at +him, her harsh laugh broken in two. + +"Not at me, hunchback! Not at me! At those who are ready to give!" she +cried out. + +He had gone out stunned with amazement. He wondered so greatly that when +he at last sat down by the roadside under a fig-tree he sat in a dream. +He looked up at the blueness above him as he always did when he was +alone. His eyelids did not seem heavy when he lifted them to look at the +sky. The blueness and the billows of white clouds brought rest to him, +and made him forget what he was. The floating clouds were his only +friends. There was something--yes, there was something, he did not know +what. He wished he were a cloud himself, and could lose himself at last +in the blueness as the clouds did when they melted away. Surely the +blueness was the something. + +The soft, dull pad of camel's feet approached upon the road without his +hearing them. He was not roused from his absorption until the camel +stopped its tread so near him that he started and looked up. It was +necessary that he should look up a long way. He was a deformed little +child, and the camel was a tall and splendid one, with rich trappings +and golden bells. The man it carried was dressed richly, and the +expression of his dark face was at once restless and curious. He was +bending down and staring at Zia as if he were something strange. + +"What dost thou see, child?" he said at last, and he spoke almost in a +breathless whisper. "What art thou waiting for?" + +Zia stumbled to his feet and held out his bag, frightened, because he +had never begged before and did not know how, and if he did not carry +back money and food, he would be horribly beaten again. + +"Alms! alms!" he stammered. "Master--Lord--I beg for--for her who keeps +me. She is poor and old. Alms, great lord, for a woman who is old!" + +The man with the restless face still stared. He spoke as if unaware that +he uttered words and as if he were afraid. + +"The child's eyes!" he said. "I cannot pass him by! What is it? I must +not be held back. But the unearthly beauty of his eyes!" He caught his +breath as he spoke. And then he seemed to awaken as one struggling +against a spell. + +"What is thy name?" he asked. + +Zia also had lost his breath. What had the man meant when he spoke of +his eyes? + +He told his name, but he could answer no further questions. He did not +know whose son he was; he had no home; of his mistress he knew only that +her name was Judith and that she lived on alms. + +Even while he related these things he remembered his lesson, and, +dropping his eyelids, fixed his gaze on the camel's feet. + +"Why dost thou cast thine eyes downward?" the man asked in a troubled +and intense voice. + +Zia could not speak, being stricken with fear and the dumbness of +bewilderment. He stood quite silent, and as he lifted his eyes and let +them rest on the stranger's own, they became large with tears--big, +piteous tears. + +"Why?" persisted the man, anxiously. "Is it because thou seest evil in +my soul?" + +"No, no!" sobbed Zia. "One taught me to look away because I am hideous +and--my eyes--are evil." + +"Evil!" said the stranger. "They have lied to thee." He was trembling as +he spoke. "A man who has been pondering on sin dare not pass their +beauty by. They draw him, and show him his own soul. Having seen them, I +must turn my camel's feet backward and go no farther on this road which +was to lead me to a black deed." He bent down, and dropped a purse into +the child's alms-bag, still staring at him and breathing hard. "They +have the look," he muttered, "of eyes that might behold the Messiah. Who +knows? Who knows?" And he turned his camel's head, still shuddering a +little, and he rode away back toward the place from which he had come. + +There was gold in the purse he had given, and when Zia carried it back +to Judith, she snatched it from him and asked him many questions. She +made him repeat word for word all that had passed. + +After that he was sent out to beg day after day, and in time he vaguely +understood that the old woman had spoken falsely when she had said that +evil spirits looked forth hideously from his eyes. People often said that +they were beautiful, and gave him money because something in his gaze +drew them near to him. But this was not all. At times there were those +who spoke under their breath to one another of some wonder of light in +them, some strange luminousness which was not earthly. + +[Illustration with caption: "'Perhaps when he is a man he will be a +great soothsayer and reader of the stars'"] + +"He surely sees that which we cannot. Perhaps when he is a man he will +be a great soothsayer and reader of the stars," he heard a woman whisper +to a companion one day. + +Those who were evil were afraid to meet his gaze, and hated it as old +Judith did, though, as he was not their servant, they dared not strike +him when he lifted his soft, heavy eyelids. + +But Zia could not understand what people meant when they whispered about +him or turned away fiercely. A weight was lifted from his soul when he +realized that he was not as revolting as he had believed. And when +people spoke kindly to him he began to know something like happiness for +the first time in his life. He brought home so much in his alms-bag that +the old woman ceased to beat him and gave him more liberty. He was +allowed to go out at night and sleep under the stars. At such times he +used to lie and look up at the jeweled myriads until he felt himself +drawn upward and floating nearer and nearer to that unknown something +which he felt also in the high blueness of the day. + +When he first began to feel as if some mysterious ailment was creeping +upon him he kept himself out of Judith's way as much as possible. He +dared not tell her that sometimes he could scarcely crawl from one place +to another. A miserable fevered weakness became his secret. As the old +woman took no notice of him except when he brought back his day's +earnings, it was easy to evade her. One morning, however, she fixed her +eyes on him suddenly and keenly. + +"Why art thou so white?" she said, and caught him by the arm, whirling +him toward the light. "Art thou ailing?" + +"No! no!" cried Zia. + +She held him still for a few seconds, still staring. + +"Thou art too white," she said. "I will have no such whiteness. It is +the whiteness of--of an accursed thing. Get thee gone!" + +He went away, feeling cold and shaken. He knew he was white. One or two +almsgivers had spoken of it, and had looked at him a little fearfully. +He himself could see that the flesh of his thin body was becoming an +unearthly color. Now and then he had shuddered as he looked at it +because--because--There was one curse so horrible beyond all others that +the strongest man would have quailed in his dread of its drawing near +him. And he was a child, a twelve-year-old boy, a helpless little +hunchback mendicant. + +When he saw the first white-and-red spot upon his flesh he stood still +and stared at it, gasping, and the sweat started out upon him and rolled +down in great drops. + +"Jehovah!" he whispered, "God of Israel! Thy servant is but a child!" + +But there broke out upon him other spots, and every time he found a new +one his flesh quaked, and he could not help looking at it in secret +again and again. Every time he looked it was because he hoped it might +have faded away. But no spot faded away, and the skin on the palms of +his hands began to be rough and cracked and to show spots also. + + +In a cave on a hillside near the road where he sat and begged there +lived a deathly being who, with face swathed in linen and with bandaged +stumps of limbs, hobbled forth now and then, and came down to beg also, +but always keeping at a distance from all human creatures, and, as he +approached the pitiful, rattled loudly his wooden clappers, wailing out: +"Unclean! Unclean!" + +It was the leper Berias, whose hopeless tale of awful days was almost +done. Zia himself had sometimes limped up the hillside and laid some of +his own poor food upon a stone near his cave so that he might find it. +One day he had also taken a branch of almond-blossom in full flower, and +had laid it by the food. And when he had gone away and stood at some +distance watching to see the poor ghost come forth to take what he had +given, he had seen him first clutch at the blossoming branch and fall +upon his face, holding it to his breast, a white, bound, shapeless +thing, sobbing, and uttering hoarse, croaking, unhuman cries. No +almsgiver but Zia had ever dreamed of bringing a flower to him who was +forever cut off from all bloom and loveliness. + +It was this white, shuddering creature that Zia remembered with the sick +chill of horror when he saw the spots. + +"Unclean! Unclean!" he heard the cracked voice cry to the sound of the +wooden clappers. "Unclean! Unclean!" + +Judith was standing at the door of her hovel one morning when Zia was +going forth for the day. He had fearfully been aware that for days she +had been watching him as he had never known her to watch him before. +This morning she had followed him to the door, and had held him there a +few moments in the light with some harsh speech, keeping her eyes fixed +on him the while. + +Even as they so stood there fell upon the clear air of the morning a +hollow, far-off sound--the sound of wooden clappers rattled together, +and the hopeless crying of two words, "Unclean! Unclean!" + +Then silence fell. Upon Zia descended a fear beyond all power of words +to utter. In his quaking young torment he lifted his eyes and met the +gaze of the old woman as it flamed down upon him. + +"Go within!" she commanded suddenly, and pointed to the wretched room +inside. He obeyed her, and she followed him, closing the door behind +them. + +"Tear off thy garment!" she ordered. "Strip thyself to thy skin--to thy +skin!" + +He shook from head to foot, his trembling hands almost refusing to obey +him. She did not touch him, but stood apart, glaring. His garments fell +from him and lay in a heap at his feet, and he stood among them naked. + +One look, and she broke forth, shaking with fear herself, into a +breathless storm of fury. + +"Thou hast known this thing and hidden it!" she raved. "Leper! Leper! +Accursed hunchback thing!" + +As he stood in his nakedness and sobbed great, heavy childish sobs, she +did not dare to strike him, and raged the more. + +If it were known that she had harbored him, the priests would be upon +her, and all that she had would be taken from her and burned. She would +not even let him put his clothes on in her house. + +"Take thy rags and begone in thy nakedness! Clothe thyself on the +hillside! Let none see thee until thou art far away! Rot as thou wilt, +but dare not to name me! Begone! begone! begone!" + +And with his rags he fled naked through the doorway, and hid himself in +the little wood beyond. + +Later, as he went on his way, he had hidden himself in the daytime +behind bushes by the wayside or off the road; he had crouched behind +rocks and boulders; he had slept in caves when he had found them; he had +shrunk away from all human sight. He knew it could not be long before he +would be discovered, and then he would be shut up; and afterward he +would be as Berias until he died alone. Like unto Berias! To him it +seemed as though surely never child had sobbed before as he sobbed, +lying hidden behind his boulders, among his bushes, on the bare hill +among the rocks. + + +For the first four nights of his wandering he had not known where he was +going, but on this fifth night he discovered. He was on the way to +Bethlehem--beautiful little Bethlehem curving on the crest of the +Judean mountains and smiling down upon the fairness of the fairest of +sweet valleys, rich with vines and figs and olives and almond-trees. He +dimly recalled stories he had overheard of its loveliness, and when he +found that he had wandered unknowingly toward it, he was aware of a +faint sense of peace. He had seen nothing of any other part of the world +than the poor village outside which the hovel of his bond-mistress had +clung to a low hill. Since he was near it, he vaguely desired to see +Bethlehem. + +He had learned of its nearness as he lay hidden in the undergrowth on +the mountain-side that he had begun to climb the night before. Awakening +from sleep, he had heard many feet passing up the climbing road--the +feet of men and women and children, of camels and asses, and all had +seemed to be of a procession ascending the mountainside. Lying flat upon +the earth, he had parted the bushes cautiously, and watched, and +listened to the shouts, cries, laughter, and talk of those who were near +enough to be heard. So bit by bit he had heard the story of the passing +throng. The great Emperor Augustus, who, to the common herd seemed some +strange omnipotent in his remote and sumptuous paradise of Rome, +had issued a decree that all the world of his subjects should be +enrolled, and every man, woman, and child must enroll himself in his own +city. And to the little town of Bethlehem all these travelers were +wending their way, to the place of their nativity, in obedience to the +great Caesar's command. + +All through the day he watched them--men and women and children who +belonged to one another, who rode together on their beasts, or walked +together hand in hand. Women on camels or asses held their little ones +in their arms, or walked with the youngest slung on their backs. He +heard boys laugh and talk with their fathers--boys of his own age, who +trudged merrily along, and now and again ran forward, shouting with +glee. He saw more than one strong man swing his child up to his shoulder +and bear him along as if he found joy in his burden. Boy and girl +companions played as they went and made holiday of their journey; young +men or women who were friends, lovers, or brothers and sisters bore one +another company. + +"No one is alone," said Zia, twisting his thin fingers together--"no +one! no one! And there are no lepers. The great Caesar would not count a +leper. Perhaps, if he saw one, he would command him to be put to death." + +And then he writhed upon the grass and sobbed again, his bent chest +almost bursting with his efforts to make no sound. He had always been +alone--always, always; but this loneliness was such as no young human +thing could bear. He was no longer alive; he was no longer a human +being. Unclean! Unclean! Unclean! + +At last he slept, exhausted, and past his piteous, prostrate childhood +and helplessness the slow procession wound its way up the mountain road +toward the crescent of Bethlehem, knowing nothing of his nearness to its +unburdened comfort and simple peace. + +When he awakened, the night had fallen, and he opened his eyes upon a +high vault of blue velvet darkness strewn with great stars. He saw this +at the first moment of his consciousness; then he realized that there +was no longer to be heard the sound either of passing hoofs or treading +feet. The travelers who had gone by during the day had probably reached +their journey's end, and gone to rest in their tents, or had found +refuge in the inclosing khan that gave shelter to wayfarers and their +beasts of burden. + +But though there was no human creature near, and no sound of human voice +or human tread, a strange change had taken place in him. His loneliness +had passed away, and left him lying still and calm as though it had +never existed, as though the crushed and broken child who had plunged +from a precipice of woe into deadly, exhausted sleep was only a vague +memory of a creature in a dark past dream. + +Had it been himself? Lying upon his back, seeing only the immensity of +the deep blue above him and the greatness of the stars, he scarcely +dared to draw breath lest he should arouse himself to new anguish. It +had not been he who had so suffered; surely it had been another Zia. +What had come upon him, what had come upon the world? All was so still +that it was as if the earth waited--as if it waited to hear some word +that would be spoken out of the great space in which it hung. He was not +hungry or cold or tired. It was as if he had never staggered and +stumbled up the mountain path and dropped shuddering, to hide behind the +bushes before the daylight came and men could see his white face. Surely +he had rested long. He had never felt like this before, and he had never +seen so wonderful a night. The stars had never been so many and so +large. What made them so soft and brilliant that each one was almost +like a sun? And he strangely felt that each looked down at him as if it +said the word, though he did not know what the word was. Why had he been +so terror-stricken? Why had he been so wretched? There were no lepers; +there were no hunchbacks. There was only Zia, and he was at peace, and +akin to the stars that looked down. + +How heavenly still the waiting world was, how heavenly still! He lay and +smiled and smiled; perhaps he lay so for an hour. Then high, high above +he saw, or thought he saw, in the remoteness of the vault of blue a +brilliant whiteness float. Was it a strange snowy cloud or was he +dreaming? It seemed to grow whiter, more brilliant. His breath came +fast, and his heart beat trembling in his breast, because he had never +seen clouds so strangely, purely brilliant. There was another, higher, +farther distant, and yet more dazzling still. Another and another showed +its radiance until at last an arch of splendor seemed to stream across +the sky. + +"It is like the glory of the ark of the covenant," he gasped, and threw +his arm across his blinded eyes, shuddering with rapture. + +He could not uncover his face, and it was as he lay quaking with an +unearthly joy that he first thought he heard sounds of music as remotely +distant as the lights. + +"Is it on earth?" he panted. "Is it on earth?" + +He struggled to his knees. He had heard of miracles and wonders of old, +and of the past ages when the sons of God visited the earth. + +"Glory to God in the highest!" he stammered again and again and again. +"Glory to the great Jehovah!" and he touched his forehead seven times to +the earth. + +Then he beheld a singular thing. When he had gone to sleep a flock of +sheep had been lying near him on the grass. The flock was still there, +but something seemed to be happening to it. The creatures were awakening +from their sleep as if they had heard something. First one head was +raised, and then another and another and another, until every head was +lifted, and every one was turned toward a certain point as if listening. +What were they listening for? Zia could see nothing, though he turned +his own face toward the climbing road and listened with them. The +floating radiance was so increasing in the sky that at this point of the +mountain-side it seemed no longer to the night, and the far-away paeans +held him breathless with mysterious awe. Was the sound on earth? Where +did it come from? Where? + +"Praised be Jehovah!" he heard his weak and shaking young voice quaver. + +Some belated travelers were coming slowly up the road. He heard an ass's +feet and low voices. + +The sheep heard them also. Had they been waiting for them? They rose one +by one--the whole flock--to their feet, and turned in a body toward the +approaching sounds. + +Zia stood up with them. He waited also, and it was as if at this moment +his soul so lifted itself that it almost broke away from his +body--almost. + +Around the curve an ass came slowly bearing a woman, and led by a man +who walked by his side. He was a man of sober years and walked wearily. +Zia's eyes grew wide with awe and wondering as he gazed, scarce +breathing. + +The light upon the hillside was so softly radiant and so clear that he +could see that the woman's robe was blue and that she lifted her face to +the stars as she rode. It was a young face, and pale with the pallor of +lilies, and her eyes were as stars of the morning. But this was not all. +A radiance shone from her pure pallor, and bordering her blue robe and +veil was a faint, steady glow of light. And as she passed the standing +and waiting sheep, they slowly bowed themselves upon their knees before +her, and so knelt until she had passed by and was out of sight. Then +they returned to their places, and slept as before. + +[Illustration with caption: "Zia's eyes grew wide with awe and wondering +as he gazed, scarce breathing"--Page 38] + +When she was gone, Zia found that he also was kneeling. He did not know +when his knees had bent. He was faint with ecstasy. + + +"She goes to Bethlehem," he heard himself say as he had heard himself +speak before. "I, too; I, too." + +He stood a moment listening to the sound of the ass's retreating feet as +it grew fainter in the distance. His breath came quick and soft. The +light had died away from the hillside, but the high-floating radiance +seemed to pass to and fro in the heavens, and now and again he thought +he heard the faint, far sound that was like music so distant that it was +as a thing heard in a dream. + +"Perhaps I behold visions," he murmured. "It may be that I shall awake." + +But he found himself making his way through the bushes and setting his +feet upon the road. He must follow, he must follow. Howsoever steep the +hill, he must climb to Bethlehem. But as he went on his way it did not +seem steep, and he did not waver or toil as he usually did when walking. +He felt no weariness or ache in his limbs, and the high radiance gently +lighted the path and dimly revealed that many white flowers he had never +seen before seemed to have sprung up by the roadside and to wave softly +to and fro, giving forth a fragrance so remote and faint, yet so clear, +that it did not seem of earth. It was perhaps part of the vision. + +Of the distance he climbed his thought took no cognizance. There was in +this vision neither distance nor time. There was only faint radiance, +far, strange sounds, and the breathing of air which made him feel an +ecstasy of lightness as he moved. The other Zia had traveled painfully, +had stumbled and struck his feet against wayside stones. He seemed ten +thousand miles, ten thousand years away. It was not he who went to +Bethlehem, led as if by some power invisible. To Bethlehem! To +Bethlehem, where went the woman whose blue robe was bordered with a glow +of fair luminousness and whose face, like an uplifted lily, softly +shone. It was she he followed, knowing no reason but that his soul was +called. + +When he reached the little town and stood at last near the gateway of +the khan in which the day-long procession of wayfarers had crowded to +take refuge for the night, he knew that he would find no place among the +multitude within its walls. Too many of the great Caesar's subjects had +been born in Bethlehem and had come back for their enrolment. The khan +was crowded to its utmost, and outside lingered many who had not been +able to gain admission and who consulted plaintively with one another as +to where they might find a place to sleep, and to eat the food they +carried with them. + +Zia had made his way to the entrance-gate only because he knew the +travelers he had followed would seek shelter there, and that he might +chance to hear of them. + + +He stood a little apart from the gate and waited. Something would tell +him what he must do. Almost as this thought entered his mind he heard +voices speaking near him. Two women were talking together, and soon he +began to hear their words. + +"Joseph of Nazareth and Mary his wife," one said. "Both of the line of +David. There was no room for them, even as there was no room for others +not of royal lineage. To the mangers in the cave they have gone, seeing +the woman had sore need of rest. She, thou knowest--" + +Zia heard no more. He did not ask where the cave lay. He had not needed +to ask his way to Bethlehem. That which had led him again directed his +feet away from the entrance-gate of the khan, past the crowded court and +the long, low wall of stone within the inclosure of which the camels and +asses browsed and slept, on at last to a pathway leading to the gray of +rising rocks. Beneath them was the cave, he knew, though none had told +him so. Only a short distance, and he saw what drew him trembling +nearer. At the open entrance, through which he could see the rough +mangers of stone, the heaps of fodder, and the ass munching slowly in a +corner, the woman who wore the blue robe stood leaning wearily against +the heavy wooden post. And the soft light bordering her garments set her +in a frame of faint radiance and glowed in a halo about her head. + +"The light! the light!" cried Zia in a breathless whisper. And he +crossed his hands upon his breast. + +Her husband surely could not see it. He moved soberly about, unpacking +the burden the ass had carried and seeming to see naught else. He heaped +straw in a corner with care, and threw his mantle upon it. + +"Come," he said. "Here thou canst rest, and I can watch by thy side. The +angels of the Lord be with thee!" The woman turned from the door and +went toward him, walking with slow steps. He gazed at her with mild, +unillumined eyes. + +"Does he not see the light!" panted Zia. "Does he not see the light!" + +Soon he himself no longer saw it. Joseph of Nazareth came to the wooden +doors and drew them together, and the boy stood alone on the +mountain-side, trembling still, and wet with the dew of the night; but +not weary, not hungered, not athirst or afraid, only quaking with wonder +and joy--he, the little hunchback Zia, who had known no joy before since +the hour of his birth. + +He sank upon the earth slowly in an exquisite peace--a peace that +thrilled his whole being as it stole over his limbs, deepening moment by +moment. His head drooped softly upon a cushion of moss. As his eyelids +fell, he saw the splendor of whiteness floating in the height of the +purple vault above him. + +The dawn was breaking and yet the stars had not faded away. This was his +thought when his eyes first opened on a great one, greater than any +other in the sky, and of so pure a brilliance that it seemed as if even +the sun would not be bright enough to put it out. It hung high in the +paling blue, high as the white radiance; and as he lay and gazed, he +thought it surely moved. What new star was it that in that one night had +been born? He had watched the stars through so many desolate hours that +he knew each great one as a friend, and this one he had never seen +before. + +The morning was cold, and his clothes were wet with dew, but he felt no +chill. He remembered; yes, he remembered. If he had lived in a vision +the day before, he was surely living in one yet. The Zia who had been +starved and beaten and driven out naked into the world, who had clutched +his thin breast and sobbed, writhing upon the earth, where was he? He +looked down upon his hands and saw the cracked and scaling palms, and it +was as though they were not. He thrust back the covering from his chest +and saw the spots there. But there were no lepers, there were no +hunchbacks; there were only Zia and the light. He knelt and turned +himself toward the cave and prayed, and as he so knelt and prayed the +man Joseph rolled open the heavy wooden door. + +Then Zia, still kneeling, beat himself softly upon the breast and prayed +again, not as before to Jehovah, but to that which he beheld. + +The light was there, fair, radiant, wonderful. The cave was bathed in +it. The woman in the blue robe sat upon the straw, and in her arms she +held a new-born child. Zia touched his forehead to the earth again, +again, again, unknowing that he did so. The child was the light itself! + +He must rise and draw near. That which had drawn him up the mountainside +drew him again. The child was the light itself! As he crept near the +cave's entrance, the woman's eyes rested upon him soft and wonderful. + +She spoke to him--she spoke! + +"Be not afraid," she said. "Draw nigh and behold!" + +Her voice was not as the voice of other women; it was like her eyes, his +body, through his blood, through every limb and fleshy atom of him, he +felt it steal--new life, warming, thrilling, wakening in his veins new +life! As he felt it, he knelt quaking with rapture even as he had stood +the night before gazing at the light. The new-born hand lay still. + +He did not know how long he knelt. He did not know that the woman leaned +toward him, scarce drawing breath, her wondrous eyes resting upon him as +if she waited for a sign. Even as she so gazed she beheld it, and spoke, +whispering as in awed prayer: + +"Go forth and cleanse thy flesh in running water," she said. "Go forth." + +He moved, he rose, he stood upright--the hunchback Zia who had never +stood upright before! His body was straight, his limbs were strong. He +looked upon his hands, and there was no blemish or spot to be seen! + +"I am made whole!" he cried in ecstasy so wild that his boy's voice rang +and echoed in the cave's hollowed roof. "I am made whole!" + +"Go forth," she said softly. "Go forth and give praise." + +He turned and went into the dawning day. He stood swaying, and heard +himself sob forth a rapturous cry of prayer. His flesh was fresh and +pure; he stood erect and tall. He was as others whom God had not cursed. +The light! the light! He stretched forth his arms to the morning sky. + +Some shepherds roughly clothed in the skins of lambs and kids were +climbing the hill toward the cave. They carried their crooks, and they +talked eagerly as though in wonderment at some strange thing which had +befallen them, looking up at the heavens, and one pointed with his +crook. + +"Surely it draws nearer, the star!" he said. "Look!" + +As they passed a thicket where a brook flowed through the trees a fair +boy came forth, cleansed, fresh, and radiant as if he had but just +bathed in its clear waters. It was the boy Zia. + +"Who is this one?" said the oldest shepherd. + +"How beautiful he is! How the light shines on him! He looks like a king's +son." + +[Illustration with caption: "'How beautiful he is!'"--Page 54] + +And as they passed, they made obeisance to him. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Hunchback Zia, by +Frances Hodgson Burnett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK ZIA *** + +***** This file should be named 5303.txt or 5303.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/0/5303/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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