{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39231/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39231","id":"gutenberg_39231","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39231","summary":null,"tags":["Biographical fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Historical Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Children -- Conversion to Christianity -- Juvenile fiction","Christian life -- Juvenile fiction","Conversion -- Juvenile fiction","Galilee (Israel) -- Juvenile fiction","Jesus Christ -- Juvenile fiction","Martyrs -- Juvenile fiction","Preaching -- Juvenile fiction","Siblings -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Cover]\n\n\n\n\nJOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE.\n\n\n\n\nWorks of\n\nANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON\n\n\nThe Little Colonel Series\n\n(_Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of._)\n\nEach one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated\n\n    The Little Colonel Stories                   $1.50\n      (Containing in one volume the three\n       stories, \"The Little Colonel,\" \"The\n       Giant Scissors,\" and \"Two Little\n       Knights of Kentucky.\")\n    The Little Colonel's House Party              1.50\n    The Little Colonel's Holidays                 1.50\n    The Little Colonel's Hero                     1.50\n    The Little Colonel at Boarding-School         1.50\n    The Little Colonel in Arizona                 1.50\n    The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation       1.50\n    The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor             1.50\n    The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding      1.50\n    Mary Ware: The Little Colonel's Chum          1.50\n    Mary Ware in Texas                            1.50\n    Mary Ware's Promised Land                     1.50\n    The above 12 vols., _boxed_, as a set        18.00\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    The Little Colonel Good Times Book            1.50\n    The Little Colonel Doll Book--First Series    1.50\n    The Little Colonel Doll Book--Second Series   1.50\n\n\nIllustrated Holiday Editions\n\nEach one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed in color\n\n    The Little Colonel                           $1.25\n    The Giant Scissors                            1.25\n    Two Little Knights of Kentucky                1.25\n    Big Brother                                   1.25\n\n\nCosy Corner Series\n\nEach one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated\n\n    The Little Colonel                            $.50\n    The Giant Scissors                             .50\n    Two Little Knights of Kentucky                 .50\n    Big Brother                                    .50\n    Ole Mammy's Torment                            .50\n    The Story of Dago                              .50\n    Cicely                                         .50\n    Aunt 'Liza's Hero                              .50\n    The Quilt that Jack Built                      .50\n    Flip's \"Islands of Providence\"                 .50\n    Mildred's Inheritance                          .50\n\n\nOther Books\n\n    Joel: A Boy of Galilee                       $1.50\n    In the Desert of Waiting                   Net .50\n    The Three Weavers                          Net .50\n    Keeping Tryst                              Net .50\n    The Legend of the Bleeding Heart           Net .50\n    The Rescue of the Princess Winsome         Net .50\n    The Jester's Sword                         Net .50\n    Asa Holmes                                    1.00\n    Travelers Five Along Life's Highway           1.25\n\n    THE PAGE COMPANY\n    53 Beacon Street        Boston, Mass.\n\n[Illustration: \"'THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR EVER'\"\n\n    (_See page 96_)]\n\n\n\n\n_NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION_\n\nJOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE\n\nBy\n\nANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON\n\n    Author of \"The Little Colonel Series,\" \"Big Brother,\"\n    \"Ole Mammy's Torment,\" \"Asa Holmes,\" etc.\n\n    With Pictures by L. J. BRIDGMAN\n\n    [Illustration]\n\n    BOSTON\n    THE PAGE COMPANY\n    PUBLISHERS\n\n\n\n\n    _Copyright, 1895_\n    BY ROBERTS BROTHERS\n\n    _Copyright, 1904_\n    BY THE PAGE COMPANY\n\n    _All rights reserved_\n\n    Eleventh Impression, October, 1910\n    Twelfth Impression, March, 1915\n    Thirteenth Impression, March, 1918\n\n    THE COLONIAL PRESS\n    C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHER'S PREFACE\n\n\nIN this volume, it has been the purpose of the author to present to\nchildren, through \"Joel,\" as accurate a picture of the times of the\nChrist as has been given to older readers through \"Ben Hur.\" With this\nin view, the customs of the private and public life of the Jews, the\ntemple service with its sacerdotal rites, and the minute observances of\nthe numerous holidays have been studied so carefully that the\ndescriptions have passed the test of the most critical inspection. An\neminent rabbi pronounces them correct in every detail.\n\nWhile the story is that of an ordinary boy, living among shepherds and\nfishermen, it touches at every point the gospel narrative, making Joel,\nin a natural and interesting way, a witness to the miracles, the death,\nand the resurrection of the Nazarene.\n\nIt was with the deepest reverence that the task was undertaken, and the\nfact that the little book is accomplishing its mission is evinced not\nonly by the approval accorded its first editions by so many, from Bible\nstudents to bishops, but by the boys and girls here and in distant\nlands.\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                              PAGE\n\n  \"'THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR\n      EVER'\" (_See page 96_)            _Frontispiece_\n\n  \"HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED\n      BLISSFULLY\"                               34\n\n  \"'I PEEPED OUT 'TWEEN 'E WOSE-VINES'\"         82\n\n  \"NOT A WORD WAS SAID\"                        104\n\n  \"'WE TALKED LATE'\"                           139\n\n  \"'YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY'\"                     184\n\n  \"A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE\n      NIGHT\"                                   203\n\n  \"'THE STONE IS GONE!'\"                       233\n\n\n\n\nJOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n\nIT was market day in Capernaum. Country people were coming in from the\nlittle villages among the hills of Galilee, with fresh butter and eggs.\nFishermen held out great strings of shining perch and carp, just dipped\nup from the lake beside the town. Vine-dressers piled their baskets with\ntempting grapes, and boys lazily brushed the flies from the dishes of\nwild honey, that they had gone into the country before day-break to\nfind.\n\nA ten-year-old girl pushed her way through the crowded market-place,\ncarrying her baby brother in her arms, and scolding another child, who\nclung to her skirts.\n\n\"Hurry, you little snail!\" she said to him. \"There's a camel caravan\njust stopped by the custom-house. Make haste, if you want to see it!\"\n\nTheir bare feet picked their way quickly over the stones, down to the\nhot sand of the lake shore. The children crept close to the shaggy\ncamels, curious to see what they carried in their huge packs. But before\nthey were made to kneel, so that the custom-house officials could\nexamine the loads, the boy gave an exclamation of surprise.\n\n\"Look, Jerusha! Look!\" he cried, tugging at her skirts. \"What's that?\"\n\nFarther down the line, came several men carrying litters. On each one\nwas a man badly wounded, judging by the many bandages that wrapped him.\n\nJerusha pushed ahead to hear what had happened. One of the drivers was\ntelling a tax-gatherer.\n\n\"In that last rocky gorge after leaving Samaria,\" said the man, \"we were\nset upon by robbers. They swarmed down the cliffs, and fought as\nfiercely as eagles. These men, who were going on ahead, had much gold\nwith them. They lost it all, and might have been killed, if we had not\ncome up behind in such numbers. That poor fellow there can hardly live,\nI think, he was beaten so badly.\"\n\nThe children edged up closer to the motionless form on the litter. It\nwas badly bruised and blood-stained, and looked already lifeless.\n\n\"Let's go, Jerusha,\" whispered the boy, whimpering and pulling at her\nhand. \"I don't like to look at him.\"\n\nWith the heavy baby still in her arms, and the other child tagging\nafter, she started slowly back towards the market-place.\n\n\"I'll tell you what we'll do,\" she exclaimed. \"Let's go up and get the\nother children, and play robbers. We never did do that before. It will\nbe lots of fun.\"\n\nThere was a cry of welcome as Jerusha appeared again in the\nmarket-place, where a crowd of children were playing tag, regardless of\nthe men and beasts they bumped against. They were all younger than\nherself, and did not resent her important air when she called, \"Come\nhere! I know a better game than that!\"\n\nShe told them what she had just seen and heard down at the beach, and\ndrew such a vivid picture of the attack, that the children were ready\nfor anything she might propose.\n\n\"Now we'll choose sides,\" she said. \"I'll be a rich merchant coming up\nfrom Jerusalem with my family and servants, and the rest of you can be\nrobbers. We'll go along with our goods, and you pounce out on us as we\ngo by. You may take the baby as a prisoner if you like,\" she added, with\na mischievous grin. \"I'm tired of carrying him.\"\n\nA boy sitting near by on a door-step, jumped up eagerly. \"Let me play,\ntoo, Jerusha!\" he cried. \"I'll be one of the robbers. I know just the\nbest places to hide!\"\n\nThe girl paused an instant in her choosing to say impatiently, although\nnot meaning to be unkind, \"Oh, no, Joel! We do not want you. You're too\nlame to run. You can't play with us!\"\n\nThe bright, eager look died out of the boy's face, and an angry light\nshone in his eyes. He pressed his lips together hard, and sat down again\non the step.\n\nThere was a patter of many bare feet as the children raced away. Their\nvoices sounded fainter and fainter, till they were lost entirely in the\nnoise of the busy street.\n\nUsually, Joel found plenty to amuse and interest him here. He liked to\nwatch the sleepy donkeys with their loads of fresh fruit and vegetables.\nHe liked to listen to the men as they cried their wares, or chatted over\nthe bargains with their customers. There was always something new to be\nseen in the stalls and booths. There was always something new to be\nheard in the scraps of conversation that came to him where he sat.\n\nDown this street there sometimes came long caravans; for this was \"the\nhighway to the sea,\"--the road that led from Egypt to Syria. Strange,\ndusky faces sometimes passed this way; richly dressed merchant princes\nwith their priceless stuffs from beyond the Nile; heavy loads of\nBabylonian carpets; pearls from Ceylon, and rich silks for the court of\nthe wicked Herodias, in the town beyond. Fisherman and sailor, rabbi and\nbusy workman passed in an endless procession.\n\nSometimes a Roman soldier from the garrison came by with ringing step\nand clanking sword. Then Joel would start up to look after the erect\nfigure, with a longing gaze that told more plainly than words, his\nadmiration of such strength and symmetry.\n\nBut this morning the crowd gave him a strange, lonely feeling,--a hungry\nlonging for companionship.\n\nTwo half-grown boys passed by on their way to the lake, with fish nets\nslung over their shoulders. He knew the larger one,--a rough,\nkind-hearted fellow who had once taken him in his boat across the lake.\nHe gave Joel a careless, good-natured nod as he passed. A moment after\nhe felt a timid pull at the fish net he was carrying, and turned to see\nthe little cripple's appealing face.\n\n\"Oh, Dan!\" he cried eagerly. \"Are you going out on the lake this\nmorning? Could you take me with you?\"\n\nThe boy hesitated. Whatever kindly answer he may have given, was rudely\ninterrupted by his companion, whom Joel had never seen before.\n\n\"Oh, no!\" he said roughly. \"We don't want anybody limping along after\nus. You can't come, Jonah; you would bring us bad luck.\"\n\n\"My name isn't Jonah!\" screamed the boy, angrily clinching his fists.\n\"It's Joel!\"\n\n\"Well, it is all the same,\" his tormentor called back, with a coarse\nlaugh. \"You're a Jonah, any way.\"\n\nThere were tears in the boy's eyes this time, as he dragged himself back\nagain to the step.\n\n\"I hate everybody in the world!\" he said in a hissing sort of whisper.\n\"I hate'm! I hate'm!\"\n\nA stranger passing by turned for a second look at the little cripple's\nsensitive, refined face. A girlishly beautiful face it would have been,\nwere it not for the heavy scowl that darkened it.\n\nJoel pulled the ends of his head-dress round to hide his crooked back,\nand drew the loose robe he wore over his twisted leg.\n\nLife seemed very bitter to him just then. He would gladly have changed\nplaces with the heavily laden donkey going by.\n\n\"I wish I were dead,\" he thought moodily. \"Then I would not ache any\nmore, and I could not hear when people call me names!\"\n\nBeside the door where he sat was a stand where tools and hardware were\noffered for sale. A man who had been standing there for some time,\nselecting nails from the boxes placed before him, and had heard all that\npassed, spoke to him.\n\n\"Joel, my lad, may I ask your help for a little while?\" The friendly\nquestion seemed to change the whole atmosphere.\n\nJoel drew his hands across his eyes to clear them of the blur of tears\nhe was too proud to let fall, and then stood up respectfully. \"Yes,\nRabbi Phineas, what would you have me to do?\"\n\nThe carpenter gathered up some strips of lumber in one hand, and his\nhammer and saws in the other.\n\n\"I have my hands too full to carry these nails,\" he answered. \"If you\ncould bring them for me, it would be a great service.\"\n\nIf the man had offered him pity, Joel would have fiercely resented it.\nHis sensitive nature appreciated the unspoken sympathy, the fine tact\nthat soothed his pride by asking a service of him, instead of seeking to\nrender one.\n\nHe could not define the feeling, but he gratefully took up the bag of\nnails, and limped along beside his friend to the carpenter's house at\nthe edge of the town. He had never been there before, although he met\nthe man daily in the market-place, and long ago had learned to look\nforward to his pleasant greeting; it was so different from most\npeople's. Somehow the morning always seemed brighter after he had met\nhim.\n\nThe little whitewashed house stood in the shade of two great fig-trees\nnear the beach. A cool breeze from the Galilee lifted the leaves, and\nswayed the vines growing around the low door.\n\nJoel, tired by the long walk, was glad to throw himself on the grass in\nthe shade. It was so still and quiet here, after the noise of the street\nhe had just left.\n\nAn old hen clucked around the door-step with a brood of downy, yellow\nchickens. Doves cooed softly, somewhere out of sight. The carpenter's\nbench stood under one of the trees, with shavings and chips all around\nit. Two children were playing near it, building houses of the scattered\nblocks; one of them, a black-eyed, sturdy boy of five, kept on playing.\nThe other, a little girl, not yet three, jumped up and followed her\nfather into the house. Her curls gleamed like gold as she ran through\nthe sunshine. She glanced at the stranger with deep-blue eyes so like\nher father's that Joel held out his hand.\n\n\"Come and tell me your name,\" he said coaxingly. But she only shook the\ncurls all over her dimpled face, and hurried into the house.\n\n\"It's Ruth,\" said the boy, deigning to look up. \"And mine is Jesse, and\nmy mother's is Abigail, and my father's is Phineas, and my grandfather's\nis--\"\n\nHow far back he would have gone in his genealogy, Joel could not guess;\nfor just then his father came out with a cool, juicy melon, and Jesse\nhurried forward to get his share.\n\n\"How good it is!\" sighed Joel, as the first refreshing mouthful slipped\ndown his thirsty throat. \"And how cool and pleasant it is out here. I\ndid not know there was such a peaceful spot in all Capernaum.\"\n\n\"Didn't you always live here?\" asked the inquisitive Jesse.\n\n\"No, I was born in Jerusalem. I was to have been a priest,\" he said\nsadly.\n\n\"Well, why didn't you be one then,\" persisted the child, with his mouth\nfull of melon.\n\nJoel glanced down at his twisted leg, and said nothing.\n\n\"Why?\" repeated the boy.\n\nPhineas, who had gone back to his work-bench, looked up kindly. \"You ask\ntoo many questions, my son. No one can be a priest who is maimed or\nblemished in any way. Some sad accident must have befallen our little\nfriend, and it may be painful for him to talk about it.\"\n\nJesse asked no more questions with his tongue; but his sharp, black eyes\nwere fixed on Joel like two interrogation points.\n\n\"I do not mind telling about it,\" said Joel, sitting up straighter.\n\"Once when I was not much older than you, just after my mother died, my\nfather brought me up to this country from Jerusalem, to visit my Aunt\nLeah.\n\n\"I used to play down here by the lake, with my cousins, in the\nfishermen's boats. There was a boy that came to the beach sometimes, a\ngreat deal larger than I,--a dog of a Samaritan,--who pulled my hair\nand threw sand in my eyes. He was so much stronger than I, that I could\nnot do anything to him but call him names. But early one morning he was\nswimming in the lake. I hid his clothes in the oleander bushes that\nfringe the water. Oh, but he was angry! I wanted him to be. But I had to\nkeep away from the lake after that.\n\n\"One day some older children took me to the hills back of the town to\ngather almonds. This Rehum followed us. I had strayed away from the\nothers a little distance, and was stooping to put the nuts in my basket,\nwhen he slipped up behind me. How he beat me! I screamed so that the\nother children came running back to me. When he saw them coming, he gave\nme a great push that sent me rolling over a rocky bank. It was not very\nhigh, but there were sharp stones below.\n\n\"They thought I was dead when they picked me up. It was months before I\ncould walk at all; and I can never be any better than I am now. Just as\nmy father was about to take me back to Jerusalem, he took a sudden\nfever, and died. So I was left, a poor helpless burden for my aunt to\ntake care of. It has been six years since then.\"\n\nJoel threw himself full length on the grass, and scowled up at the sky.\n\n\"Where is that boy that hurt you,\" asked Jesse.\n\n\"Rehum?\" questioned Joel. \"I wish I knew,\" he muttered fiercely. \"Oh,\nhow I hate him! I can never be a priest as my father intended. I can\nnever serve in the beautiful temple with the white pillars and golden\ngates. I can never be like other people, but must drag along, deformed\nand full of pain as long as I live. And it's all his fault!\"\n\nA sudden gleam lit up the boy's eyes, as lightning darts through a\nstorm-cloud.\n\n\"But I shall have my revenge!\" he added, clinching his fists. \"I cannot\ndie till I have made him feel at least a tithe of what I have suffered.\n'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!' That is the least that can\nsatisfy me. Oh, you cannot know how I long for that time! Often I lie\nawake late into the night, planning my revenge. Then I forget how my\nback hurts and my leg pains; then I forget all the names I have been\ncalled, and the taunts that make my life a burden. But they all come\nback with the daylight; and I store them up and add them to his account.\nFor everything he has made me suffer, I swear he shall pay for it\nfour-fold in his own sufferings!\"\n\nRuth shrank away, frightened by the wild, impassioned boy who sat up,\nangrily staring in front of him with eyes that saw nothing of the sweet,\ngreen-clad world around him. The face of his enemy blotted out all the\nsunny landscape. One murderous purpose filled him, mind and soul.\n\nNothing was said for a little while. The doves as before cooed of peace,\nand Phineas began a steady tap-tap with his hammer.\n\nA pleasant-faced woman came out of the door with a water-jar on her\nhead, and passed down the path to the public well. She gave Joel a\nfriendly greeting in passing.\n\n\"Wait, mother!\" lisped Ruth, as she ran after her. The woman turned to\nsmile at the little one, and held out her hand. Her dress, of some soft,\ncotton material, hung in long flowing folds. It was a rich blue color,\ncaught at the waist with a white girdle. The turban wound around her\ndark hair was white also, and so was the veil she pushed aside far\nenough to show a glimpse of brown eyes and red cheeks. She wore a broad\nsilver bracelet on the bare arm which was raised to hold the water-jar,\nand the rings in her ears and talismans on her neck were of quaintly\nwrought silver.\n\n\"I did not know it was so late,\" said Joel, rising to his feet. \"Time\npasses so fast here.\"\n\n\"Nay, do not go,\" said Phineas. \"It is a long walk back to your home,\nand the sun is very hot. Stay and eat dinner with us.\"\n\nJoel hesitated; but the invitation was repeated so cordially, that he\nlet Jesse pull him down on the grass again.\n\n\"Now I'll tickle your lips with this blade of grass,\" said the child.\n\"See how long you can keep from laughing.\"\n\nWhen Abigail came back with the water, both the boys were laughing as\nheartily as if there had never been an ache or pain in the world. She\nsmiled at them approvingly, as she led the way into the house.\n\nJoel looked around with much curiosity. It was like most of the other\nhouses of its kind in the town. There was only one large square room, in\nwhich the family cooked, ate, and slept; but on every side it showed\nthat Phineas had left traces of his skilful hands.\n\nThere was a tiny window cut in one wall; most of the houses of this\ndescription had none, but depended on the doorway for light and air.\nSeveral shelves around the walls held the lamp and the earthenware\ndishes. The chest made to hold the rugs and cushions which they spread\ndown at night to sleep on, was unusually large and ornamental. A broom,\na handmill, and a bushel stood in one corner.\n\nNear the door, a table which Phineas had made, stood spread for the\nmid-day meal.\n\nThere was broiled fish on one of the platters, beans and barley bread, a\ndish of honey, and a pitcher of milk. The fare was just the same that\nJoel was accustomed to in his uncle's house; but something made the\nsimple meal seem like a banquet. It may have been that the long walk had\nmade him hungrier than usual, or it may have been because he was treated\nas the honored guest, instead of a child tolerated through charity.\n\nHe watched his host carefully, as he poured the water over his hands\nbefore eating, and asked a blessing on the food.\n\n\"He does not keep the law as strictly as my Uncle Laban,\" was his inward\ncomment. \"He asked only one blessing, and Uncle Laban blesses every kind\nof food separately. But he must be a good man, even if he is not so\nstrict a Pharisee as my uncle, for he is kinder than any one I ever knew\nbefore.\"\n\nIt was wonderful how much Joel had learned, in his eleven short years,\nof the Law. His aunt's husband had grown to manhood in Jerusalem, and,\nunlike the simple Galileans among whom he now lived, tried to observe\nits most detailed rules.\n\nThe child heard them discussed continually, till he felt he could\nneither eat, drink, nor dress, except by these set rules. He could not\nplay like other children, and being so much with older people had made\nhim thoughtful and observant.\n\nHe had learned to read very early; and hour after hour he spent in the\nhouse of Rabbi Amos, the most learned man of the town, poring over his\nrolls of scriptures. Think of a childhood without a picture, or a\nstory-book! All that there was to read were these old records of Jewish\nhistory.\n\nThe old man had taken a fancy to him, finding him an appreciative\nlistener and an apt pupil. So Joel was allowed to come whenever he\npleased, and take out the yellow rolls of parchment from their velvet\ncovers.\n\nHe was never perfectly happy except at these times, when he was reading\nthese old histories of his country's greatness. How he enjoyed chasing\nthe armies of the Philistines, and fighting over again the battles of\nIsrael's kings! Many a tale he stored away in his busy brain to be\nrepeated to the children gathered around the public fountain in the cool\nof the evening.\n\nIt mattered not what character he told them of,--priest or prophet,\njudge or king,--the picture was painted in life-like colors by this\npatriotic little hero-worshipper.\n\nHere and at home he heard so many discussions about what was lawful and\nwhat was not, that he was constantly in fear of breaking one of the many\nrules, even in as simple a duty as washing a cup.\n\nSo he watched his host closely till the meal was over, finding that in\nthe observance of many customs, he failed to measure up to his uncle's\nstrict standard.\n\nPhineas went back to his work after dinner. He was greatly interested in\nJoel, and, while he sawed and hammered, kept a watchful eye on him. He\nwas surprised at the boy's knowledge. More than once he caught himself\nstanding with an idle tool in hand, as he listened to some story that\nJoel was telling to Jesse.\n\nAfter a while he laid down his work and leaned against the bench. \"What\ndo you find to do all day, my lad?\" he asked, abruptly.\n\n\"Nothing,\" answered Joel, \"after I have recited my lessons to Rabbi\nAmos.\"\n\n\"Does your aunt never give you any tasks to do at home?\"\n\n\"No. I think she does not like to have me in her sight any more than she\nis obliged to. She is always kind to me, but she doesn't love me. She\nonly pities me. I hate to be pitied. There is not a single one in the\nworld who really loves me.\"\n\nHis lips quivered, but he winked back the tears. Phineas seemed lost in\nthought a few minutes; then he looked up. \"You are a Levite,\" he said\nslowly, \"so of course you could always be supported without needing to\nlearn a trade. Still you would be a great deal happier, in my opinion,\nif you had something to keep you busy. If you like, I will teach you to\nbe a carpenter. There are a great many things you might learn to make\nwell, and, by and by, it would be a source of profit to you. There is no\nbread so bitter as the bread of dependence, as you may learn when you\nare older.\"\n\n\"Oh, Rabbi Phineas!\" cried Joel. \"Do you mean that I may come here every\nday? It is too good to be true!\"\n\n\"Yes; if you will promise to stick to it until you have mastered the\ntrade. If you are as quick to learn with your hands as you have been\nwith your head, I shall have reason to be proud of such a pupil.\"\n\nJoel's face flushed with pleasure, and he sprang up quickly, saying,\n\"May I begin right now? Oh, I'll try _so_ hard to please you!\"\n\nPhineas laid a soft pine board on the bench, and began to mark a line\nacross it with a piece of red chalk.\n\n\"Well, you may see how straight a cut you can make through this plank.\"\n\nHe picked up a saw, and ran his fingers lightly along its sharp teeth.\nBut he paused in the act of handing it to Joel, to ask, \"You are sure,\nnow, that your uncle and aunt will consent to such an arrangement?\"\n\n\"Yes indeed!\" was the emphatic answer. \"They will be glad enough to have\nme out of the way, and learning something useful.\"\n\nThe saw cut slowly through the wood; for the weak little hand was a\ncareful one, and the boy was determined not to swerve once from the\nline. He smiled with satisfaction as the pieces fell apart, showing a\nclean, straight edge.\n\n\"Well done!\" said Phineas, kindly. \"Now let me see you drive a nail.\"\nMade bold by his first success, Joel pounded away vigorously, but the\nhammer slipped more than once, and his unpractised fingers ached with\nthe blows that he had aimed at the nail's head.\n\n\"You'll soon learn,\" said Phineas, with an encouraging pat on the boy's\nshoulder. \"Gather up those odds and ends under the bench. When you've\nsawed them into equal lengths, I'll show you how to make a box.\"\n\nJoel bent over his work with almost painful intensity. He fairly held\nhis breath, as he made the measurements. He gripped the saw as if his\nlife depended on the strength of his hold. Phineas smiled at his\nearnestness.\n\n\"Be careful, my lad,\" he said. \"You will soon wear out at that rate.\"\n\nIt seemed to Joel that there never had been such a short afternoon. He\nhad stopped to rest several times, when Phineas had insisted upon it;\nbut this new work had all the fascination of an interesting game. The\ntrees threw giant shadows across the grass, when he finally laid his\ntools aside. His back ached with so much unusual exercise, and he was\nvery tired.\n\n\"Rabbi Phineas,\" he asked gently, after a long pause, \"what makes you so\ngood to me? What makes you so different from other people? While I am\nwith you, I feel like I want to be good. Other people seem to rub me the\nwrong way, and make me cross and hateful; then I feel like I'd rather\nbe wicked than not. Why this afternoon, I've scarcely thought of Rehum\nat all. I forgot at times that I am lame. When you talk to me, I feel\nlike I did that day Dan took me out on the lake. It seemed a different\nkind of a world,--all blue sky and smooth water. I felt if I could stay\nout there all the time, where it was so quiet and comforting, that I\ncould not even hate Rehum as much as I do.\"\n\nA surprised, pleased look passed over the man's face. \"Do I really make\nyou feel that way, little one? Then I am indeed glad. Once when I was a\nyoung boy living in Nazareth, I had a playmate who had that influence\nover me and all the boys he played with. I never could be selfish and\nimpatient when he was with me. His very presence rebuked such\nthoughts,--when we were children playing together, like my own two\nlittle ones there, and when we were older grown, working at the same\nbench. It has been many a long year since I left Nazareth, but I think\nof him daily. Even now, after our long separation, the thought of his\nblameless life inspires me to a higher living. Yes,\" he went on\nmusingly, more to himself than the boy, \"it was like music. Surely no\nwhite-robed priest in the holy temple ever offered up more acceptable\npraise than the perfect harmony of his daily life.\"\n\nJoel's lips trembled. \"If I had ever had one real friend to care for\nme--not just pity me, you know--maybe I would have been different. But I\nhave never had a single one since my father died.\"\n\nPhineas smiled, and held out his hand. \"You have one now, my lad, never\nforget that.\"\n\nThe strong brown hand closed in a warm grasp, and Joel drew it, with a\ngrateful impulse, to his lips. Ruth came up with wondering eyes. She\ncould not understand what had passed; but Joel's eyes were full of\ntears, and she vaguely felt that he needed comfort. She had a pet pigeon\nin her arms, that she carried everywhere with her.\n\n\"Here,\" she lisped, holding out the snowy winged bird. \"Boy, take it!\nBoy, keep it!\"\n\nJoel looked up inquiringly at Phineas. \"Take it,\" he said, in a low\ntone. \"Let it be the omen of a happier life commencing for you.\"\n\n\"I never had a pet of any kind before,\" said Joel, in delight, smoothing\nthe white wings folded contentedly against his breast. \"But she loves\nit so, I dislike to take it from her. How beautiful it is!\"\n\n\"My little Ruth is a born comforter,\" said Phineas, tossing her up in\nhis arms. \"Shall Joel take the pigeon home with him, little daughter?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she answered, nodding her head. \"Boy cried.\"\n\n\"I'll name it 'Little Friend,'\" said Joel, rising with it in his arms.\n\"I'll take it home with me, and keep it until after the Sabbath, to make\nme feel sure that this day has not been just a dream; but I will bring\nit back next time I come. I can see it here every day, and it will be\nhappier here. Oh, Rabbi Phineas, I can never thank you enough for this\nday!\"\n\nIt was a pitiful little figure that limped away homeward in the fading\nlight, with the white pigeon in his arms.\n\nLooking anxiously up in the sky, Joel saw one star come twinkling out.\nThe Sabbath would soon begin, and then he must not be found carrying\neven so much as this one poor little pigeon. The slightest burden would\nbe unlawful.\n\nAs he hurried on, the loud blast of a trumpet, blown from the roof of\nthe synagogue, signalled the laborers in the fields to stop all work.\nHe knew that very soon it would sound again, to call the town people\nfrom their tasks; and at the third blast, the Sabbath lamp would be\nlighted in every home.\n\nFearful of his uncle's displeasure at his tardiness, he hurried\npainfully onward, to provide food and a resting-place for his \"little\nfriend\" before the second sounding of the trumpet.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n\nEARLY in the morning after the Sabbath, Joel was in his accustomed place\nin the market, waiting for his friend Phineas. His uncle had given a\ngruff assent, when he timidly asked his approval of the plan.\n\nThe good Rabbi Amos was much pleased when he heard of the arrangement.\n\"Thou hast been a faithful student,\" he said, kindly. \"Thou knowest\nalready more of the Law than many of thy elders. Now it will do thee\ngood to learn the handicraft of Phineas. Remember, my son, 'the balm was\ncreated by God before the wound.' Work, that is as old as Eden, has been\ngiven us that we might forget the afflictions of this life that fleeth\nlike a shadow. May the God of thy fathers give thee peace!\"\n\nWith the old man's benediction repeating itself like a solemn refrain in\nall his thoughts, Joel stood smoothing the pigeon in his arms, until\nPhineas had made his daily purchases. Then they walked on together in\nthe cool of the morning, to the little white house under the fig-trees.\nPhineas was surprised at his pupil's progress. To be sure, the weak arms\ncould lift little, the slender hands could attempt no large tasks. But\nthe painstaking care he bestowed on everything he attempted, resulted in\nbeautifully finished work. If there was an extra smooth polish to be put\non some wood, or a delicate piece of joining to do, Joel's deft fingers\nseemed exactly suited to the task.\n\nBefore the winter was over, he had made many pretty little articles of\nfurniture for Abigail's use.\n\n\"May I have these pieces of fine wood to use as I please?\" he asked of\nPhineas, one day.\n\n\"All but that largest strip,\" he answered. \"What are you going to make?\"\n\n\"Something for Ruth's birthday. She will be three years old in a few\nweeks, Jesse says, and I want to make something for her to play with.\"\n\n\"What are you going to make her?\" inquired Jesse, from under the\nwork-bench. \"Let me see too.\"\n\n\"Oh, I didn't know you were anywhere near,\" answered Joel, with a start\nof alarm.\n\n\"Tell me!\" begged Jesse.\n\n\"Well, if you will promise to keep her out of the way while I am\nfinishing it, and never say a word about it--\"\n\n\"I'll promise,\" said the child, solemnly. He had to clap his hand over\nhis mouth a great many times in the next few weeks, to keep his secret\nfrom telling itself, and he watched admiringly while Joel carved and\npolished and cut.\n\nOne of the neighbors had come in to talk with Abigail the day he\nfinished it, and as the children were down on the beach, playing in the\nsand, he took it in the house to show to the women. It was a little\ntable set with toy dishes, that he had carved out of wood,--plates and\ncups and platters, all complete.\n\nThe visitor held up her hands with an exclamation of delight. After\ntaking up each little highly polished dish to admire it separately, she\nsaid, \"I know where you might get a great deal of money for such work.\nThere is a rich Roman living near the garrison, who spends money like a\nlord. No price is too great for him to pay for anything that pleases his\nfancy. Why don't you take some up there, and offer them for sale?\"\n\n\"I believe I will,\" said Joel, after considering the matter. \"I'll go\njust as soon as I can get them made.\"\n\nRuth spread many a little feast under the fig-trees; but after the first\nbirthday banquet, Jesse was her only guest. Joel was too busy making\nmore dishes and another little table, to partake of them.\n\nThe whole family were interested in his success. The day he went up to\nthe great house near the garrison to offer them for sale, they waited\nanxiously for his return.\n\n\"He's sold them! He's sold them!\" cried Jesse, hopping from one foot to\nthe other, as he saw Joel coming down the street empty-handed. Joel was\nhobbling along as fast as he could, his face beaming.\n\n\"See how much money!\" he cried, as he opened his hand to show a shining\ncoin, stamped with the head of Caesar. \"And I have an order for two more.\nI'll soon have a fortune! The children liked the dishes so much,\nalthough they had the most beautiful toys I ever saw. They had images\nthey called dolls. Some of them had white-kid faces, and were dressed as\nrichly as queens. I wish Ruth had one.\"\n\n\"The law forbids!\" exclaimed Phineas. \"Have you forgotten that it is\nwritten, 'Thou shalt not make any likeness of anything in the heavens\nabove or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth'? She is happy\nwith what she has, and needs no strange idols of the heathen to play\nwith.\"\n\nJoel made no answer; but he thought of the merry group of Roman children\nseated around the little table he had made, and wished again that Ruth\nhad one of those gorgeously dressed dolls.\n\nSkill and strength were not all he gained by his winter's work; for some\nof the broad charity that made continual summer in the heart of Phineas\ncrept into his own embittered nature. He grew less suspicious of those\naround him, and smiles came more easily now to his face than scowls.\n\nBut the strong ambition of his life never left him for an instant. To\nall the rest of the world he might be a friend; to Rehum he could only\nbe the most unforgiving of enemies.\n\nThe thought that had given him most pleasure when the wealthy Roman had\ntossed him his first earnings, was not that his work could bring him\nmoney, but that the money could open the way for his revenge.\n\nThat thought, like a dark undercurrent, gained depth and force as the\ndays went by. As he saw how much he could do in spite of his lameness,\nhe thought of how much more he might have accomplished, if he had been\nlike other boys. It was a constant spur to his desire for revenge.\n\nOne day Phineas laid aside his tools much earlier than usual, and\nwithout any explanation to his wondering pupil, went up into the town.\n\nWhen he returned, he nodded to his wife, who sat in the doorway\nspinning, and who had looked up inquiringly as he approached.\n\n\"Yes, it's all arranged,\" he said to her. Then he turned to Joel to ask,\n\"Did you ever ride on a camel, my boy?\"\n\n\"No, Rabbi,\" answered the boy, in surprise, wondering what was coming\nnext.\n\n\"Well, I have a day's journey to make to the hills in Upper Galilee. A\ncamel caravan passes near the place where my business calls me, as it\ngoes to Damascus. I seek to accompany it for protection. I go on foot,\nbut I have made arrangements for you to ride one of the camels.\"\n\n\"Oh, am I really to go, too?\" gasped Joel, in delighted astonishment.\n\"Oh, Rabbi Phineas! How did you ever think of asking me?\"\n\n\"You have not seemed entirely well, of late,\" was the answer. \"I thought\nthe change would do you good. I said nothing about it before, for I had\nno opportunity to see your uncle until this afternoon; and I did not\nwant to disappoint you, in case he refused his permission.\"\n\n\"And he really says I may go?\" demanded the boy, eagerly.\n\n\"Yes, the caravan moves in the morning, and we will go with it.\"\n\nThere was little more work done that day. Joel was so full of\nanticipations of his journey that he scarcely knew what he was doing.\nPhineas was busy with preparations for the comfort of his little family\nduring his absence, and went into town again.\n\nOn his return he seemed strangely excited. Abigail, seeing something was\namiss, watched him carefully, but asked no questions. He took a piece of\ntimber that had been laid away for some especial purpose, and began\nsawing it into small bits.\n\n\"Rabbi Phineas,\" ventured Joel, respectfully, \"is that not the wood you\ncharged me to save so carefully?\"\n\nPhineas gave a start as he saw what he had done, and threw down his saw.\n\n\"Truly,\" he said, smiling, \"I am beside myself with the news I have\nheard. I just now walked ten cubits past my own house, unknowing where I\nwas, so deeply was I thinking upon it. Abigail,\" he asked, \"do you\nremember my friend in Nazareth whom I so often speak of,--the son of\nJoseph the carpenter? Last week he was bidden to a marriage in Cana. It\nhappened, before the feasting was over, the supply of wine was\nexhausted, and the mortified host knew not what to do. Six great jars of\nstone had been placed in the room, to supply the guests with water for\nwashing. _He changed that water into wine!_\"\n\n\"I cannot believe it!\" answered Abigail, simply.\n\n\"But Ezra ben Jared told me so. He was there, and drank of the wine,\"\ninsisted Phineas.\n\n\"He could not have done it,\" said Abigail, \"unless he were helped by the\nevil one, or unless he were a prophet. He is too good a man to ask help\nof the powers of darkness; and it is beyond belief that a son of Joseph\nshould be a prophet.\"\n\nTo this Phineas made no answer. His quiet thoughts were shaken out of\ntheir usual routine as violently as if by an earthquake.\n\nJoel thought more of the journey than he did of the miracle. It seemed\nto the impatient boy that the next day never would dawn. Many times in\nthe night he wakened to hear the distant crowing of cocks. At last, by\nstraining his eyes he could distinguish the green leaves of the vine on\nthe lattice from the blue of the half-opened blossoms. By that token he\nknew it was near enough the morning for him to commence saying his first\nprayers.\n\nDressing noiselessly, so as not to disturb the sleeping family, he\nslipped out of the house and down to the well outside the city-gate.\nHere he washed, and then ate the little lunch he had wrapped up the\nnight before. A meagre little breakfast,--only a hard-boiled egg, a bit\nof fish, and some black bread. But the early hour and his excitement\ntook away his appetite for even that little.\n\nSoon all was confusion around the well, as the noisy drivers gathered to\nwater their camels, and make their preparations for the start.\n\nJoel shrunk away timidly to the edge of the crowd, fearful that his\nfriend Phineas had overslept himself.\n\nIn a few minutes he saw him coming with a staff in one hand, and a small\nbundle swinging from the other.\n\nJoel had one breathless moment of suspense as he was helped on to the\nback of the kneeling camel; one desperate clutch at the saddle as the\nhuge animal plunged about and rose to its feet. Then he looked down at\nPhineas, and smiled blissfully.\n\n[Illustration: \"HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED BLISSFULLY\"]\n\nOh, the delight of that slow easy motion! The joy of being carried along\nwithout pain or effort! Who could realize how much it meant to the\nlittle fellow whose halting steps had so long been taken in weariness\nand suffering?\n\nSwinging along in the cool air, so far above the foot-passengers, it\nseemed to him that he looked down upon a new earth. Blackbirds flew\nalong the roads, startled by their passing. High overhead, a lark had\nnot yet finished her morning song. Lambs bleated in the pastures, and\nthe lowing of herds sounded on every hill-side.\n\nNot a sight or sound escaped the boy; and all the morning he rode on\nwithout speaking, not a care in his heart, not a cloud on his horizon.\n\nAt noon they stopped in a little grove of olive-trees where a cool\nspring gurgled out from the rocks.\n\nPhineas spread out their lunch at a little distance from the others; and\nthey ate it quickly, with appetites sharpened by the morning's travel.\nAfterwards Joel stretched himself out on the ground to rest, and was\nasleep almost as soon as his eyelids could shut out the noontide glare\nof the sun from his tired eyes.\n\nWhen he awoke, nearly an hour afterward, he heard voices near him in\nearnest conversation. Raising himself on his elbow, he saw Phineas at a\nlittle distance, talking to an old man who had ridden one of the\nforemost camels.\n\nThey must have been talking of the miracle, for the old man, as he\nstroked his long white beard, was saying, \"But men are more wont to be\nastonished at the sun's eclipse, than at his daily rising. Look, my\nfriend!\"\n\nHe pointed to a wild grape-vine clinging to a tree near by. \"Do you see\nthose bunches of half-grown grapes? There is a constant miracle. Day by\nday, the water of the dew and rain is being changed into the wine of the\ngrape. Soil and sunshine are turning into fragrant juices. Yet you feel\nno astonishment.\"\n\n\"No,\" assented Phineas; \"for it is by the hand of God it is done.\"\n\n\"Why may not this be also?\" said the old man. \"Even this miracle at the\nmarriage feast in Cana?\"\n\nPhineas started violently. \"What!\" he cried. \"Do you think it possible\nthat this friend of mine is the One to be sent of God?\"\n\n\"Is not this the accepted time for the coming of Israel's Messiah?\"\nanswered the old man, solemnly. \"Is it not meet that he should herald\nhis presence by miracles and signs and wonders?\"\n\nJoel lay down again to think over what he had just heard. Like every\nother Israelite in the whole world, he knew that a deliverer had been\npromised his people.\n\nTime and again he had read the prophecies that foretold the coming of a\nking through the royal line of David; time and again he had pictured to\nhimself the mighty battles to take place between his down-trodden race\nand the haughty hordes of Caesar. Sometime, somewhere, a universal\ndominion awaited them. He firmly believed that the day was near at hand;\nbut not even in his wildest dreams had he ever dared to hope that it\nmight come in his own lifetime.\n\nHe raised himself on his elbow again, for the old man was speaking.\n\n\"About thirty years ago,\" he said slowly, \"I went up to Jerusalem to be\nregistered for taxation, for the emperor's decree had gone forth and no\none could escape enrolment. You are too young to remember the taking of\nthat census, my friend; but you have doubtless heard of it.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" assented Phineas, respectfully.\n\n\"I was standing just outside the Joppa gate, bargaining with a man for a\ncage of gold finches he had for sale, which I wished to take to my\ndaughter, when we heard some one speaking to us. Looking up we saw\nseveral strange men on camels, who were inquiring their way. They were\nrichly dressed. The trappings and silver bells on their camels, as well\nas their own attire, spoke of wealth. Their faces showed that they were\nwise and learned men from far countries.\n\n\"We greeted them respectfully, but could not speak for astonishment when\nwe heard their question:\n\n\"'Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star\nin the East, and have come to worship him.' The bird-seller looked at\nme, and I looked at him in open-mouthed wonder. The men rode on before\nwe could find words wherewith to answer them.\n\n\"All sorts of rumors were afloat, and everywhere we went next day,\nthroughout Jerusalem, knots of people stood talking of the mysterious\nmen, and their strange question. Even the king was interested, and\nsought audience with them.\"\n\n\"Could any one answer them?\" asked Phineas.\n\n\"Nay! but it was then impressed on me so surely that the Christ was\nborn, that I have asked myself all these thirty years, 'Where is he that\nis born king of the Jews?' For I too would fain follow on to find and\nworship him. As soon as I return from Damascus, I shall go at once to\nCana, and search for this miracle-worker.\"\n\nThe old man's earnest words made a wonderful impression on Joel. All the\nafternoon, as they rose higher among the hills, the thought took\nstronger possession of him. He might yet live, helpless little cripple\nas he was, to see the dawn of Israel's deliverance, and a son of David\nonce more on its throne.\n\nRide on, little pilgrim, happy in thy day-dreams! The time is coming;\nbut weary ways and hopeless heart-aches lie between thee and that\nto-morrow. The king is on his way to his coronation, but it will be with\nthorns.\n\nRide on, little pilgrim, be happy whilst thou can!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\nIT was nearly the close of the day when the long caravan halted, and\ntents were pitched for the night near a little brook that came splashing\ndown from a cold mountain-spring.\n\nJoel, exhausted by the long day's travel, crowded so full of new\nexperiences, was glad to stretch his cramped limbs on a blanket that\nPhineas took from the camel's back.\n\nHere, through half-shut eyes, he watched the building of the camp-fire,\nand the preparations for the evening meal.\n\n\"I wonder what Uncle Laban would do if he were here!\" he said to\nPhineas, with an amused smile. \"Look at those dirty drivers with their\nunwashed hands and unblessed food. How little regard they have for the\nLaw. Uncle Laban would fast a lifetime rather than taste anything that\nhad even been passed over a fire of their building. I can imagine I see\nhim now, gathering up his skirts and walking on the tips of his sandals\nfor fear of being touched by anything unclean.\"\n\n\"Your Uncle Laban is a good man,\" answered Phineas, \"one careful not to\ntransgress the Law.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the boy. \"But I like your way better. You keep the fasts,\nand repeat the prayers, and love God and your neighbors. Uncle Laban is\ncareful to do the first two things; I am not so sure about the others.\nLife is too short to be always washing one's hands.\"\n\nPhineas looked at the little fellow sharply. How shrewd and old he\nseemed for one of his years! Such independence of thought was unusual in\na child trained as he had been. He scarcely knew how to answer him, so\nhe turned his attention to spreading out the fruits and bread he had\nbrought for their supper.\n\nNext morning, after the caravan had gone on without them, they started\nup a narrow bridle-path, that led through hillside-pastures where flocks\nof sheep and goats were feeding.\n\nThe dew was still on the grass, and the air was so fresh and sweet in\nthis higher altitude that Joel walked on with a feeling of strength and\nvigor unknown to him before.\n\n\"Oh, look!\" he cried, clasping his hands in delight, as a sudden turn\nbrought them to the upper course of the brook whose waters, falling far\nbelow, had refreshed them the night before.\n\nThe poetry of the Psalms came as naturally to the lips of this\nbeauty-loving little Israelite as the breath he drew.\n\nNow he repeated, in a low, reverent voice, \"'The Lord is my shepherd; I\nshall not want.' Oh, Rabbi Phineas, did you ever know before that there\ncould be such green pastures and still waters?\"\n\nThe man smiled at the boy's radiant, upturned face. \"'Yea, the earth is\nthe Lord's and the fulness thereof,'\" he murmured. \"We have indeed a\ngoodly heritage.\"\n\nHushed into silence by the voice of the hills and the beauty on every\nside, they walked on till the road turned again.\n\nJust ahead stood a house unusually large for a country district;\neverything about it bore an air of wealth and comfort.\n\n\"Our journey is at an end now,\" said Phineas. \"Yonder lies the house of\nNathan ben Obed. He owns all those flocks and herds we have seen in\npassing this last half hour. It is with him that I have business; and we\nwill tarry with him until after the Sabbath.\"\n\nThey were evidently expected, for a servant came running out to meet\nthem. He opened the gate and conducted them into a shaded court-yard.\nHere another servant took off their dusty sandals, and gave them water\nto wash their feet.\n\nThey had barely finished, when an old man appeared in the doorway; his\nlong beard and hair were white as the abba he wore.\n\nPhineas would have bowed himself to the ground before him, but the old\nman prevented it, by hurrying to take both hands in his, and kiss him on\neach cheek.\n\n\"Peace be to thee, thou son of my good friend Jesse!\" he said. \"Thou art\nindeed most welcome.\"\n\nJoel lagged behind. He was always sensitive about meeting strangers; but\nthe man's cordial welcome soon put him at his ease.\n\nHe was left to himself a great deal during the few days following. The\nbusiness on which the old man had summoned Phineas required long\nconsultations.\n\nOne day they rode away together to some outlying pastures, and were gone\nuntil night-fall. Joel did not miss them. He was spending long happy\nhours in the country sunshine. There was something to entertain him,\nevery way he turned. For a while he amused himself by sitting in the\ndoor and poring over a roll of parchment that Sarah, the wife of Nathan\nben Obed, brought him to read.\n\nShe was an old woman, but one would have found it hard to think so, had\nhe seen how briskly she went about her duties of caring for such a large\nhousehold.\n\nAfter Joel had read for some little time, he became aware that some one\nwas singing outside, in a whining, monotonous way, and he laid down his\nbook to listen. The voice was not loud, but so penetrating he could not\nshut it out, and fix his mind on his story again. So he rolled up the\nparchment and laid it on the chest from which it had been taken; then\nwinding his handkerchief around his head, turban fashion, he limped out\nin the direction of the voice.\n\nJust around the corner of the house, under a great oak-tree, a woman sat\nchurning. From three smooth poles joined at the top to form a tripod, a\ngoat-skin bag hung by long leather straps. This was filled with cream;\nshe was slapping it violently back and forth in time to her weird song.\n\nHer feet were bare, and she wore only a coarse cotton dress. But a gay\nred handkerchief covered her black hair, and heavy copper rings hung\nfrom her nose and ears.\n\nThe song stopped suddenly as she saw Joel. Then recognizing her master's\nguest, she smiled at him so broadly that he could see her pretty white\nteeth.\n\nJoel hardly knew what to say at this unexpected encounter, but bethought\nhimself to ask the way to the sheep-folds and the watch-tower. \"It is a\nlong way there,\" said the woman, doubtfully; Joel flushed as he felt her\nblack eyes scanning his misshapen form.\n\nJust then Sarah appeared in the door, and the maid repeated the question\nto her mistress.\n\n\"To be sure,\" she said. \"You must go out and see our shepherds with\ntheir flocks. We have a great many employed just now, on all the\nsurrounding hills. Rhoda, call your son, and bid him bring hither the\ndonkey that he always drives to market.\"\n\nThe woman left her churning, and presently came back with a boy about\nJoel's age, leading a donkey with only one ear.\n\nJoel knew what that meant. At some time in its life the poor beast had\nstrayed into some neighbor's field, and the owner of the field had been\nat liberty to cut off an ear in punishment.\n\nThe boy that led him wore a long shirt of rough hair-cloth. His feet and\nlegs were brown and tanned. A shock of reddish sunburned hair was the\nonly covering for his head. There was a squint in one eye, and his face\nwas freckled.\n\nHe made an awkward obeisance to his mistress.\n\n\"Buz,\" she said, \"this young lad is your master's guest. Take him out\nand show him the flocks and herds, and the sheep-folds. He has never\nseen anything of shepherd life, so be careful to do his pleasure. Stay!\"\nshe added to Joel. \"You will not have time to visit them all before the\nmid-day meal, so I will give you a lunch, and you can enjoy an entire\nday in the fields.\"\n\nAs the two boys started down the hill, Joel stole a glance at his\ncompanion. \"What a stupid-looking fellow!\" he thought; \"I doubt if he\nknows anything more than this sleepy beast I am riding. I wonder if he\nenjoys any of this beautiful world around him. How glad I am that I am\nnot in his place.\"\n\nBuz, trudging along in the dust, glanced at the little cripple on the\ndonkey's back with an inward shiver.\n\n\"What a dreadful lot his must be,\" he thought. \"How glad I am that I am\nnot like he is!\"\n\nIt was not very long till the shyness began to wear off, and Joel found\nthat the stupid shepherd lad had a very busy brain under his shock of\ntangled hair. His eyes might squint, but they knew just where to look in\nthe bushes for the little hedge-sparrow's nest. They could take unerring\naim, too, when he sent the smooth sling-stones whizzing from the sling\nhe carried.\n\n\"How far can you shoot with it?\" asked Joel.\n\nFor answer Buz looked all around for some object on which to try his\nskill; then he pointed to a hawk slowly circling overhead. Joel watched\nhim fit a smooth pebble into his sling; he had no thought that the boy\ncould touch it at such a distance. The stone whizzed through the air\nlike a bullet, and the bird dropped several yards ahead of them.\n\n\"See!\" said Buz, as he ran to pick it up, and display it proudly. \"I\nstruck it in the head.\"\n\nJoel looked at him with increasing respect. \"That must have been the\nkind of sling that King David killed the giant with,\" he said, handing\nit back after a careful examination.\n\n\"King David!\" repeated Buz, dully, \"seems to me I have heard of him,\nsometime or other; but I don't know about the giant.\"\n\n\"Why where have you been all your life?\" cried Joel, in amazement. \"I\nthought everybody knew about that. Did you never go to a synagogue?\"\n\nBuz shook his bushy head. \"They don't have synagogues in these parts.\nThe master calls us in and reads to us on the Sabbath; but I always get\nsleepy when I sit right still, and so I generally get behind somebody\nand go to sleep. The shepherds talk to each other a good deal about such\nthings, I am never with them though. I spend all my time running\nerrands.\"\n\nShocked at such ignorance, Joel began to tell the shepherd king's life\nwith such eloquence that Buz stopped short in the road to listen.\n\nSeeing this the donkey stood still also, wagged its one ear, and went to\nsleep. But Buz listened, wider awake than he had ever been before in his\nlife.\n\nThe story was a favorite one with Joel, and he put his whole soul into\nit.\n\n\"Who told you that?\" asked Buz, taking a long breath when the\ninteresting tale was finished.\n\n\"Why I read it myself!\" answered Joel.\n\n\"Oh, can you read?\" asked Buz, looking at Joel in much the same way that\nJoel had looked at him after he killed the hawk. \"I do not see how\nanybody can. It puzzles me how people can look at all those crooked\nblack marks and call them rivers and flocks and things. I looked one\ntime, just where Master had been reading about a great battle. And I\ndidn't see a single thing that looked like a warrior or a sword or a\nbattle-axe, though he called them all by name. There were several little\nround marks that might have been meant for sling-stones; but it was more\nthan I could make out, how he could get any sense out of it.\"\n\nJoel leaned back and laughed till the hills rang, laughed till the tears\nstood in his eyes, and the donkey waked up and ambled on.\n\nBuz did not seem to be in the least disturbed by his merriment, although\nhe was puzzled as to its cause. He only stooped to pick up more stones\nfor his sling as they went on.\n\nIt was not long till they came to some of the men,--great brawny fellows\ndressed in skins, with coarse matted hair and tanned faces. How little\nthey knew of what was going on in the busy world outside their fields!\nAs Joel talked to them he found that Caesar's conquests and Hero's\nmurders had only come to them as vague rumors. All the petty wars and\npolitical turmoils were unknown to them. They could talk to him only of\ntheir flocks and their faith, both as simple as their lives.\n\nJoel, in his wisdom learned of the Rabbis, felt himself infinitely their\nsuperior, child though he was. But he enjoyed his day spent with them.\nHe and Buz ate the ample lunch they had brought, dipped up water from\nthe brook in cups they made of oak-leaves, and both finally fell asleep\nto the droning music of the shepherd's pipes, played softly on the\nuplands.\n\nA distant rumble of thunder aroused them, late in the afternoon; and\nthey started up to find the shepherds calling in their flocks. The gaunt\nsheep dogs raced to and fro, bringing the straying goats together. The\nshepherds brought the sheep into line with well-aimed sling-shots,\ntouching them first on one side, and then on the other, as oxen are\nguided by the touch of the goad.\n\nJoel looked up at the darkening sky with alarm. \"Who would have thought\nof a storm on such a day!\" he exclaimed.\n\nBuz cocked his eyes at the horizon. \"I thought it might come to this,\"\nhe said; \"for as we came along this morning there were no spider-webs\non the grass; the ants had not uncovered the doors of their hills; and\nall the signs pointed to wet weather. I thought though, that the time of\nthe latter rains had passed a week ago. I am always glad when the stormy\nseason is over. This one is going to be a hard one.\"\n\n\"What shall we do?\" asked Joel.\n\nBuz scratched his head. Then he looked at Joel. \"You never could get\nhome on that trifling donkey before it overtakes us; and they'll be\nworried about you. I'd best take you up to the sheep-fold. You can stay\nall night there, very comfortably. I'll run home and tell them where you\nare, and come back for you in the morning.\"\n\nJoel hesitated, appalled at spending the night among such dirty men; but\nthe heavy boom of thunder, steadily rolling nearer, silenced his\nhalf-spoken objection. By the time the donkey had carried him up the\nhillside to the stone-walled enclosure round the watch-tower, the\nshepherds were at the gates with their flocks.\n\nJoel watched them go through the narrow passage, one by one. Each man\nkept count of his own sheep, and drove them under the rough sheds put up\nfor their protection.\n\nA good-sized hut was built against the hillside, where the shepherds\nmight find refuge. Buz pointed it out to Joel; then he turned the donkey\ninto one of the sheds, and started homeward on the run.\n\nJoel shuddered as a blinding flash of lightning was followed by a crash\nof thunder that shook the hut. The wind bore down through the trees like\nsome savage spirit, shrieking and moaning as it flew. Joel heard a\nshout, and looked out to the opposite hillside. Buz was flying along in\nbreak-neck race with the storm. At that rate he would soon be home. How\nhe seemed to enjoy the race, as his strong limbs carried him lightly as\na bird soars!\n\nAt the top he turned to look back and laugh and wave his arms,--a sinewy\nlittle figure standing out in bold relief against a brazen sky.\n\nJoel watched till he was out of sight. Then, as the wind swooped down\nfrom the mountains, great drops of rain began to splash through the\nleaves.\n\nThe men crowded into the hut. One of them started forward to close the\ndoor, but stopped suddenly, with his brown hairy hand uplifted.\n\n\"Hark ye!\" he exclaimed.\n\nJoel heard only the shivering of the wind in the tree-tops; but the\nman's trained ear caught the bleating of a stray lamb, far off and very\nfaint.\n\n\"I was afraid I was mistaken in my count; they jostled through the gate\nso fast I could not be sure.\" Going to a row of pegs along the wall, he\ntook down a lantern hanging there and lit it; then wrapping his coat of\nskins more closely around him, and calling one of the dogs, he set out\ninto the gathering darkness.\n\nJoel watched the fitful gleam of the lantern, flickering on unsteadily\nas a will-o'-the-wisp. A moment later he heard the man's deep voice\ncalling tenderly to the lost animal; then the storm struck with such\nfury that they had to stand with their backs against the door of the hut\nto keep it closed.\n\nFlash after flash of lightning blinded them. The wind roared down the\nmountain and beat against the house till Joel held his breath in terror.\nIt was midnight before it stopped. Joel thought of the poor shepherd out\non the hills, and shuddered. Even the men seemed uneasy about him, as\nhour after hour passed, and he did not come.\n\nFinally he fell asleep in the corner, on a pile of woolly skins. In the\ngray dawn he was awakened by a great shout. He got up, and went to the\ndoor. There stood the shepherd. His bare limbs were cut by stones and\ntorn by thorns. Blood streamed from his forehead where he had been\nwounded by a falling branch. The mud on his rough garments showed how\noften he had slipped and fallen on the steep paths.\n\nJoel noticed, with a thrill of sympathy, how painfully he limped. But\nthere on the bowed shoulders was the lamb he had wandered so far to\nfind; and as the welcoming shout arose again, Joel's weak little cheer\njoined gladly in.\n\n\"How brave and strong he is,\" thought the boy. \"He risked his life for\njust one pitiful little lamb.\"\n\nThe child's heart went strangely out to this rough fellow who stood\nholding the shivering animal, sublimely unconscious that he had done\nanything more than a simple duty.\n\nJoel, who felt uncommonly hungry after his supperless night, thought he\nwould mount the donkey and start back alone. But just as he was about to\ndo so, a familiar bushy head showed itself in the door of the sheepfold.\nBuz had brought him some wheat-cakes and cheese to eat on the way back.\n\nJoel was so busy with this welcome meal that he did not talk much. Buz\nkept eying him in silence, as if he longed to ask some question. At\nlast, when the cheese had entirely disappeared, he found courage to ask\nit.\n\n\"Were you always like that?\" he said abruptly, motioning to Joel's back\nand leg. Somehow the reference did not wound him as it generally did. He\nbegan to tell Buz about the Samaritan boy who had crippled him. He never\nwas able to tell the story of his wrongs without growing passionately\nangry. He had worked himself into a white heat by the time he had\nfinished.\n\n\"I'd get even with him,\" said Buz, excitedly, with a wicked squint of\nhis eyes.\n\n\"How would you do it?\" demanded Joel. \"Cripple him as he did me?\"\n\n\"Worse than that!\" exclaimed Buz, stopping to take deliberate aim at a\nleaf overhead, and shooting a hole exactly through the centre with his\nsling. \"I'd blind him as quick as that! It's a great deal worse to be\nblind than lame.\"\n\nJoel closed his eyes, and rode on a few moments in darkness. Then he\nopened them and gave a quick glad look around the landscape. \"My! What\nif I never could have opened them again,\" he thought. \"Yes, Buz, you're\nright,\" he said aloud. \"It _is_ worse to be blind; so I shall take\nRehum's eyesight also, some time. Oh, if that time were only here!\"\n\nAlthough the subject of the miracle at Cana had been constantly in the\nmind of Phineas, and often near his lips, he did not speak of it to his\nhost until the evening before his departure.\n\nIt was just at the close of the evening meal. Nathan ben Obed rose\nhalf-way from his seat in astonishment, then sank back.\n\n\"How old a man is this friend of yours?\" he asked.\n\n\"About thirty, I think,\" answered Phineas. \"He is a little younger than\nI.\"\n\n\"Where was he born?\"\n\n\"In Bethlehem, I have heard it said, though his home has always been in\nNazareth.\"\n\n\"Strange, strange!\" muttered the man, stroking his long white beard\nthoughtfully.\n\nJoel reached over and touched Phineas on the arm. \"Will you not tell\nRabbi Nathan about the wonderful star that was seen at that time?\" he\nasked, in a low tone.\n\n\"What was that?\" asked the old man, arousing from his reverie.\n\nWhen Phineas had repeated his conversation with the stranger on the day\nof his journey, Nathan ben Obed exchanged meaning glances with his\nwife.\n\n\"Send for the old shepherd Heber,\" he said. \"I would have speech with\nhim.\"\n\nRhoda came in to light the lamps. He bade her roll a cushioned couch\nthat was in one corner to the centre of the room.\n\n\"This old shepherd Heber was born in Bethlehem,\" he said; \"but since his\nsons and grandsons have been in my employ, he has come north to live. He\nused to help keep the flocks that belonged to the Temple, and that were\nused for sacrifices. His has always been one of the purest of lives; and\nI have never known such faith as he has. He is over a hundred years old,\nso must have been quite aged at the time of the event of which he will\ntell us.\"\n\nPresently an old, old man tottered into the room, leaning on the\nshoulders of his two stalwart grandsons. They placed him gently on the\ncushions of the couch, and then went into the court-yard to await his\nreadiness to return. Like the men Joel had seen the day before, they\nwere dressed in skins, and were wild-looking and rough. But this aged\nfather, with dim eyes and trembling wrinkled hands, sat before them like\nsome hoary patriarch, in a fine linen mantle.\n\nPleased as a child, he saluted his new audience, and began to tell them\nhis only story.\n\nAs the years had gone by, one by one the lights of memory had gone out\nin darkness. Well-known scenes had grown dim; old faces were forgotten;\nnames he knew as well as his own, could not be recalled: but this one\nstory was as fresh and real to him, as on the night he learned it.\n\nThe words he chose were simple, the voice was tremulous with weakness;\nbut he spoke with a dramatic fervor that made Joel creep nearer and\nnearer, until he knelt, unknowing, at the old man's knee, spell-bound by\nthe wonderful tale.\n\n\"We were keeping watch in the fields by night,\" began the old shepherd,\n\"I and my sons and my brethren. It was still and cold, and we spoke but\nlittle to each other. Suddenly over all the hills and plains shone a\ngreat light,--brighter than light of moon or stars or sunshine. It was\nso heavenly white we knew it must be the glory of the Lord we looked\nupon and we were sore afraid, and hid our faces, falling to the ground.\nAnd, lo! an angel overhead spake to us from out of the midst of the\nglory, saying, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great\njoy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the\ncity of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a\nsign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,\nlying in a manger.'\n\n\"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host\npraising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth,\ngood-will toward men!'\n\n\"Oh, the sound of the rejoicing that filled that upper air! Ever since\nin my heart have I carried that foretaste of heaven!\"\n\nThe old shepherd paused, with such a light on his upturned face that he\nseemed to his awestruck listeners to be hearing again that same angelic\nchorus,--the chorus that rang down from the watch-towers of heaven,\nacross earth's lowly sheep-fold, on that first Christmas night.\n\nThere was a solemn hush. Then he said, \"And when they were gone away,\nand the light and the song were no more with us, we spake one to\nanother, and rose in haste and went to Bethlehem. And we found the Babe\nlying in a manger with Mary its mother; and we fell down and worshipped\nHim.\n\n\"Thirty years has it been since the birth of Israel's Messiah; and I sit\nand wonder all the day,--wonder when He will appear once more to His\npeople. Surely the time must be well nigh here when He may claim His\nkingdom. O Lord, let not Thy servant depart until these eyes that\nbeheld the Child shall have seen the King in His beauty!\"\n\nJoel remained kneeling beside old Heber, perfectly motionless. He was\nfitting together the links that he had lately found. A child, heralded\nby angels, proclaimed by a star worshipped by the Magi! A man changing\nwater into wine at only a word!\n\n\"I shall yet see Him!\" exclaimed the voice of old Heber, with such\nsublime assurance of faith that it found a response in every heart.\n\nThere was another solemn stillness, so deep that the soft fluttering of\na night-moth around the lamp startled them.\n\nThen the child's voice rang out, eager and shrill, but triumphant as if\ninspired: \"Rabbi Phineas, _He_ it was who changed the water into\nwine!--This friend of Nazareth and the babe of Bethlehem are the same!\"\n\nThe heart of the carpenter was strangely stirred, but it was full of\ndoubt. Not that the Christ had been born,--the teachings of all his\nlifetime led him to expect that; but that the chosen One could be a\nfriend of his,--the thought was too wonderful for him.\n\nThe old shepherd sat on the couch, feebly twisting his fingers, and\ntalking to himself. He was repeating bits of the story he had just told\nthem: \"And, lo, an angel overhead!\" he muttered. Then he looked up,\nwhispering softly, \"Glory to God in the highest--and peace, yes, on\nearth peace!\"\n\n\"He seems to have forgotten everything else,\" said Nathan, signalling to\nthe men outside to lead him home. \"His mind is wiped away entirely, that\nit may keep unspotted the record of that night's revelation. He tells it\nover and over, whether he has a listener or not.\"\n\nThey led him gently out, the white-haired, white-souled old shepherd\nHeber. It seemed to Joel that the wrinkled face was illuminated by some\ninner light, not of this world, and that he lingered among men only to\nrepeat to them, over and over, his one story. That strange sweet story\nof Bethlehem's first Christmas-tide.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n\nNext morning a goodly train set out from the gates of Nathan ben Obed.\nIt was near the time of the feast of the Passover, and he, with many of\nhis household, was going down to Jerusalem.\n\nThe family and guests went first on mules and asses. Behind them\nfollowed a train of servants, driving the lambs, goats, and oxen to be\noffered as sacrifices in the temple, or sold in Jerusalem to other\npilgrims.\n\nAll along the highway, workmen were busy repairing the bridges, and\ncleaning the springs and wells, soon to be used by the throngs of\ntravellers.\n\nAll the tombs near the great thoroughfares were being freshly\nwhite-washed; they gleamed with a dazzling purity through the green\ntrees, only to warn passers-by of the defilement within. For had those\non their way to the feast approached too near these homes of the dead,\neven unconsciously, they would have been accounted unclean, and unfit\nto partake of the Passover. Nothing escaped Joel's quick sight, from the\ntulips and marigolds flaming in the fields, to the bright-eyed little\nviper crawling along the stone-wall.\n\nBut while he looked, he never lost a word that passed between his friend\nPhineas and their host. The pride of an ancient nation took possession\nof him as he listened to the prophecies they quoted.\n\nEvery one they met along the way coming from Capernaum had something to\nsay about this new prophet who had arisen in Galilee. When they reached\nthe gate of the city, a great disappointment awaited them. _He had been\nthere, and gone again._\n\nNathan ben Obed and his train tarried only one night in the place, and\nthen pressed on again towards Jerusalem. Phineas went with them.\n\n\"You shall go with us next year,\" he said to Joel; \"then you will be\nover twelve. I shall take my own little ones too, and their mother.\"\n\n\"Only one more year,\" exclaimed Joel, joyfully. \"If that passes as\nquickly as the one just gone, it will soon be here.\"\n\n\"Look after my little family,\" said the carpenter, at parting. \"Come\nevery day to the work, if you wish, just as when I am here; and\nremember, my lad, you are almost a man.\"\n\nAlmost a man! The words rang in the boy's thoughts all day as he pounded\nand cut, keeping time to the swinging motion of hammer and saw. Almost a\nman! But what kind of one? Crippled and maimed, shorn of the strength\nthat should have been his pride, beggared of his priestly birthright.\n\nAlmost, it might be, but never in its fulness, could he hope to attain\nthe proud stature of a perfect man.\n\nA fiercer hate sprang up for the enemy who had made him what he was; and\nthe wild burning for revenge filled him so he could not work. He put\naway his tools, and went up the narrow outside stairway that led to the\nflat roof of the carpenter's house. It was called the \"upper chamber.\"\nHere a latticed pavilion, thickly overgrown with vines, made a cool\ngreen retreat where he might rest and think undisturbed.\n\nSitting there, he could see the flash of white sails on the blue lake,\nand slow-moving masses of fleecy clouds in the blue of the sky above.\nThey brought before him the picture of the flocks feeding on the\npastures of Nathan ben Obed.\n\nThen, naturally enough, there flashed through his mind a thought of Buz.\nHe seemed to see him squinting his little eyes to take aim at a leaf\noverhead. He heard the stone whirr through it, as Buz said: \"I'd blind\nhim!\"\n\nSome very impossible plans crept into Joel's day-dreams just then. He\nimagined himself sitting in a high seat, wrapped in robes of state;\nsoldiers stood around him to carry out his slightest wish. The door\nwould open and Rehum would be brought forth in fetters.\n\n\"What is your will concerning the prisoner, O most gracious sovereign,\"\nthe jailer would ask.\n\nJoel closed his eyes, and waved his hand before an imaginary audience.\n\"Away with him,--to the torture! Wrench his limbs on the rack! Brand his\neyelids with hot irons! Let him suffer all that man can suffer and live!\nThus shall it be done unto the man on whom the king delighteth to take\nvengeance!\"\n\nJoel was childish enough to take a real satisfaction in this scene he\nconjured up. But as it faded away, he was man enough to realize it could\nnever come to pass, save in his imagination; he could never be in such a\nposition for revenge, unless,--\n\nThat moment a possible way seemed to open for him. Phineas would\nprobably see his friend of Nazareth at the Passover. What could be more\nnatural than that the old friendship should be renewed. He whose hand\nhad changed the water into wine should finally cast out the alien king\nwho usurped the throne of Israel, for one in whose veins the blood of\nDavid ran royal red,--what was more to be expected than that?\n\nThe Messiah would come to His kingdom, and then--and then--the thought\nleaped to its last daring limit.\n\nPhineas, who had been His earliest friend and playfellow, would he not\nbe lifted to the right hand of power? Through him, then, lay the royal\nroad to revenge.\n\nThe thought lifted him unconsciously to his feet. He stood with his arms\nout-stretched in the direction of the far-away Temple, like some young\nprophet. David's cry of triumph rose to his lips: \"Thou hast girded me\nwith strength unto the battle,\" he murmured. \"Thou hast also given me\nthe necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me!\"\n\nA sweet baby voice at the foot of the steps brought him suddenly down\nfrom the height of his intense feeling.\n\n\"Joel! Joel!\" called little Ruth, \"where is you?\"\n\nThen Jesse's voice added, \"We're all a-coming up for you to tell us a\nstory.\"\n\nUp the stairs they swarmed to the roof, the carpenter's children and\nhalf-a-dozen of their little playmates.\n\nJoel, with his head still in the clouds, told them of a mighty king who\nwas coming to slay all other kings, and change all tears--the waters of\naffliction--into the red wine of joy.\n\n\"H'm! I don't think much of that story,\" said Jesse, with out-spoken\ncandor. \"I'd rather hear about Goliath, or the bears that ate up the\nforty children.\"\n\nBut Joel was in no mood for such stories, just then. On some slight\npretext he escaped from his exacting audience, and went down to the\nsea-shore. Here, skipping stones across the water, or writing idly in\nthe sand, he was free to go on with his fascinating day-dreams.\n\nFor the next two weeks the boy gave up work entirely. He haunted the\ntoll-gates and public streets, hoping to hear some startling news from\nJerusalem. He was so full of the thought that some great revolution was\nabout to take place, that he could not understand how people could be\nso indifferent. All on fire with the belief that this man of Nazareth\nwas the one in whom lay the nation's hope, he looked and longed for the\nreturn of Phineas, that he might learn more of Him.\n\nBut Phineas had little to tell when he came back. He had met his friend\ntwice in Jerusalem,--the same gentle quiet man he had always known,\nmaking no claims, working no wonders. Phineas had heard of His driving\nthe moneychangers out of the Temple one day, and those who sold doves in\nits sacred courts, although he had not witnessed the scene.\n\nThe carpenter was rather surprised that He should have made such a\npublic disturbance.\n\n\"Rabbi Phineas,\" said Joel, with a trembling voice, \"don't you think\nyour friend is the prophet we are expecting?\"\n\nPhineas shook his head. \"No, my lad, I am sure of it now.\"\n\n\"But the herald angels and the star,\" insisted the boy.\n\n\"They must have proclaimed some one else. He is the best man I ever\nknew; but there is no more of the king in His nature, than there is in\nmine.\"\n\nThe man's positive answer seemed to shatter Joel's last hope. Downcast\nand disappointed, he went back to his work. Only with money could he\naccomplish his life's object, and only by incessant work could he earn\nthe shining shekels that he needed.\n\nPhineas wondered sometimes at the dogged persistence with which the\nchild stuck to his task, in spite of his tired, aching body.\n\nHe had learned to make sandal-wood jewel-boxes, and fancifully wrought\ncups to hold the various dyes and cosmetics used by the ladies of the\ncourt.\n\nSeveral times, during the following months, he begged a sail in some of\nthe fishing-boats that landed at the town of Tiberias. Having gained the\nfavor of the keeper of the gates, by various little gifts of his own\nmanufacture, he always found a ready admittance to the palace.\n\nTo the ladies of the court, the sums they paid for his pretty wares\nseemed trifling; but to Joel the small bag of coins hidden in the folds\nof his clothes was a little fortune, daily growing larger.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n\nIT was Sabbath morning in the house of Laban the Pharisee. Joel, sitting\nalone in the court-yard, could hear his aunt talking to the smaller\nchildren, as she made them ready to take with her to the synagogue.\n\nFrom the upper chamber on the roof, came also a sound of voices, for two\nguests had arrived the day before, and were talking earnestly with their\nhost. Joel already knew the object of their visit.\n\nThey had been there before, when the preaching of John Baptist had drawn\nsuch great crowds from all the cities to the banks of the Jordan. They\nhad been sent out then by the authorities in Jerusalem to see what\nmanner of man was this who, clothed in skins and living in the\nwilderness, could draw the people so wonderfully, and arouse such\nintense excitement. Now they had come on a like errand, although on\ntheir own authority.\n\nAnother prophet had arisen whom this John Baptist had declared to be\ngreater than himself. They had seen Him drive the moneychangers from the\nTemple; they had heard many wild rumors concerning Him. So they followed\nHim to His home in the little village of Nazareth, where they heard Him\ntalk in the synagogue.\n\nThey had seen the listening crowd grow amazed at the eloquence of His\nteaching, and then indignant that one so humble as a carpenter's son\nshould claim that Isaiah's prophecies had been fulfilled in Himself.\n\nThey had seen Him driven from the home of His boyhood, and now had come\nto Capernaum that they might be witnesses in case this impostor tried to\nlead these people astray by repeating His claims.\n\nAll this Joel heard, and more, as the earnest voices came distinctly\ndown to him through the deep hush of the Sabbath stillness. It shook his\nfaith somewhat, even in the goodness of this friend of his friend\nPhineas, that these two learned doctors of the Law should consider Him\nan impostor.\n\nHe stood aside respectfully for them to pass, as they came down the\noutside stairway, and crossed the court-yard on their way to the\nmorning service.\n\nTheir long, flowing, white robes, their broad phylacteries, their\ndignified bearing, impressed him greatly. He knew they were wise, good\nmen whose only aim in life was to keep the letter of the Law, down to\nits smallest details. He followed them through the streets until they\ncame to the synagogue. They gave no greeting to any one they passed, but\nwalked with reverently bowed heads that their pious meditation might not\nbe disturbed by the outside world. His aunt had already gone by the way\nof the back streets, as it was customary for women to go, her face\nclosely veiled.\n\nThe synagogue, of finely chiselled limestone, with its double rows of\ngreat marble pillars, stood in its white splendor, the pride of the\ntown. It had been built by the commander of the garrison who, though a\nRoman centurion, was a believer in the God of the Hebrews, and greatly\nloved by the whole people.\n\nJoel glanced up at the lintel over the door, where Aaron's rod and a pot\nof manna carved in the stone were constant reminders to the daily\nworshippers of the Hand that fed and guided them from generation to\ngeneration.\n\nJoel limped slowly to his place in the congregation. In the seats of\nhonor, facing it, sat his uncle and his guests, among the rulers of the\nsynagogue.\n\nFor a moment his eyes wandered curiously around, hoping for a glimpse of\nthe man whose fame was beginning to spread all over Galilee. It had been\nrumored that He would be there. But Joel saw only familiar faces. The\nelders took their seats.\n\nDuring the reading of the usual psalm, the reciting of a benediction,\nand even the confession of the creed, Joel's thoughts wandered. When the\nreader took up his scroll to read the passages from Deuteronomy, the boy\nstole one more quick glance all around. But as the whole congregation\narose, and turned facing the east, he resolutely fixed his mind on the\nduties of the hour.\n\nThe eighteen benedictions, or prayers, were recited in silence by each\ndevout worshipper. Then the leader repeated them aloud, all the\ncongregation responding with their deep Amen! and Amen! Joel always\nliked that part of the service and the chanting that followed.\n\nAnother roll of parchment was brought out. The boy looked up with\ninterest. Probably one of his uncle's guests would be invited to read\nfrom it, and speak to the people.\n\nNo, it was a stranger whom he had not noticed before, sitting behind one\nof the tall elders, who was thus honored.\n\nJoel's heart beat so fast that the blood throbbed against his ear-drums,\nas he heard the name called. It was the friend of his friend Phineas,\n_the Rabbi Jesus_.\n\nJoel bent forward, all his soul in his eyes, as the stranger unrolled\nthe book, and began to read from the Prophets. The words were old\nfamiliar ones; he even knew them by heart. But never before had they\ncarried with them such music, such meaning. When He laid aside the roll,\nand began to speak, every fibre in the boy's being thrilled in response\nto the wonderful eloquence of that voice and teaching.\n\nThe whole congregation sat spell-bound, forgetful of everything except\nthe earnestness of the speaker who moved and swayed them as the wind\ndoes the waving wheat.\n\nSuddenly there arose a wild shriek, a sort of demon-like howl that\ntransfixed them with its piercing horror. Every one turned to see the\ncause of the startling sound. There, near the door, stood a man whom\nthey all knew,--an unhappy creature said to be possessed of an unclean\nspirit.\n\n\"Ha!\" he cried, in a blood-curdling tone. \"What have we to do with Thee,\nJesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know Thee, who thou\nart, the holy One of God!\"\n\nThere was a great stir, especially in the woman's gallery; and those\nstanding nearest him backed away as far as possible.\n\nEvery face was curious and excited, at this sudden interruption,--every\nface but one; the Rabbi Jesus alone was calm.\n\n\"Hold thy peace and come out of him!\" He commanded. There was one more\nshriek, worse than before, as the man fell at His feet in a convulsion;\nbut in a moment he stood up again, quiet and perfectly sane. The wild\nlook was gone from his eyes. Whatever had been the strange spell that\nhad bound him before, he was now absolutely free.\n\nThere was another stir in the woman's gallery. Contrary to all rule or\ncustom, an aged woman pushed her way out. Down the stairs she went,\nunveiled through the ranks of the men, to reach her son whom she had\njust seen restored to reason. With a glad cry she fell forward,\nfainting, in his arms, and was borne away to the little home, now no\nlonger darkened by the shadow of a sore affliction.\n\nLittle else was talked about that day, until the rumor of another\nmiracle began to spread through the town. Phineas, stopping at Laban's\nhouse on his way home from an afternoon service, confirmed the truth of\nit.\n\nOne of his neighbors had been dangerously ill with a fever that was\ncommon in that part of the country; she was the mother-in-law of Simon\nbar Jonah. It was at his home that the Rabbi Jesus had been invited to\ndine.\n\nAs soon as He entered the house, they besought Him to heal her. Standing\nbeside her, He rebuked the fever; and immediately she arose, and began\nto help her daughter prepare for the entertainment of their guest.\n\n\"Abigail was there yesterday,\" said Phineas, \"to carry some broth she\nhad made. She thought then it would be impossible for the poor creature\nto live through the night. I saw the woman a few hours ago, and she is\nperfectly well and strong.\"\n\nThat night when the sun was setting, and the Sabbath was at an end, a\nmotley crowd streamed along the streets to the door of Simon bar Jonah.\nMen carried on couches; children in their mother's arms; those wasted by\nburning fevers; those shaken by unceasing palsy; the lame; the blind;\nthe death-stricken,--all pressing hopefully on.\n\nWhat a scene in that little court-yard as the sunset touched the wan\nfaces and smiled into dying eyes. Hope for the hopeless! Balm for the\nbroken in body and spirit! There was rejoicing in nearly every home in\nCapernaum that night, for none were turned away. Not one was refused. It\nis written, \"He laid His hand on every one of them, and healed them.\"\n\nThat he might not seem behind his guests in zeal and devotion to the\nLaw, the dignified Laban would not follow the crowds.\n\n\"Let others be carried away by strange doctrines and false prophets, if\nthey will,\" he declared; \"as for me and my household, we will cling to\nthe true faith of our fathers.\"\n\nSo the three sat in the upper chamber on the roof, and discussed the new\nteacher with many shakes of their wise heads.\n\n\"It is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath day,\" they declared. \"Twice\nduring the past day He has openly transgressed the Law. He will lead all\nGalilee astray!\"\n\nBut Galilee cared little how far the path turned from the narrow faith\nof the Pharisees, so long as it led to life and healing.\n\nDown in the garden below, the children climbed up on the grape-arbor,\nand peered through the vines at the surging crowds which they would have\njoined, had it not been for Laban's strict commands.\n\nOne by one they watched people whom they knew go by, some carried on\nlitters, some leaning on the shoulders of friends. One man crawled\npainfully along on his hands and knees.\n\nAfter awhile the same people began to come back.\n\n\"Look, quick, Joel!\" one of the children cried; \"there goes Simon ben\nLevi. Why, his palsy is all gone! He doesn't shake a bit now! And\nthere's little Martha that lives out near Aunt Rebecca's! Don't you know\nhow white and thin she looked when they carried her by a little while\nago? See! she is running along by herself now as well as we are!\"\n\nThe children could hardly credit their own sense of sight, when\nneighbors they had known all their lives to be bed-ridden invalids came\nback cured, singing and praising God.\n\nIt was a sight they never could forget. So they watched wonderingly till\ndarkness fell, and the last happy-hearted healed one had gone home to a\nrejoicing household.\n\nWhile the fathers on the roof were deciding they would have naught of\nthis man, the children in the grape-arbor were storing up in their\nsimple little hearts these proofs of his power and kindness.\n\nThen they gathered around Joel on the doorstep, while he repeated the\nstory that the old shepherd Heber had told him, of the angels and the\nstar, and the baby they had worshipped that night in Bethlehem.\n\n\"Come, children,\" called his Aunt Leah, as she lit the lamp that was to\nburn all night. \"Come! It is bed-time!\"\n\nHis cousin Hannah lingered a moment after the others had gone in, to\nsay, \"That was a pretty story, Joel. Why don't you go and ask the good\nman to straighten your back?\"\n\nStrange as it may seem, this was the first time the thought had occurred\nto him that he might be benefited himself. He had been so long\naccustomed to thinking of himself as hopelessly lame, that the wonderful\ncures he had witnessed had awakened no hope for himself. A new life\nseemed to open up before him at the little girl's question. He sat on\nthe doorstep thinking about it until his Uncle Laban came down and\ncrossly ordered him to go to bed.\n\nHe went in, saying softly to himself, \"I will go to him to-morrow; yes,\nearly in the morning!\"\n\nStrange that an old proverb should cross his mind just then. \"Boast not\nthyself of to-morrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n\nWHEN Joel went out on the streets next morning, although it was quite\nearly, he saw a disappointed crowd coming up from the direction of\nSimon's house on the lake shore.\n\n\"Where have all these people been?\" he asked of the baker's boy, whom he\nran against at the first corner.\n\nThe boy stopped whistling, and rested his basket of freshly baked bread\nagainst his knee, as he answered:--\n\n\"They were looking for the Rabbi who healed so many people last night.\nSay! do you know,\" he added quickly, as if the news were too good to\nkeep, \"he healed my mother last night. You cannot think how different it\nseems at home, to have her going about strong and well like she used to\nbe.\"\n\nJoel's eyes brightened. \"Do you think he'll do anything for me, if I go\nto him now?\" he asked wistfully. \"Do you suppose he could straighten out\nsuch a crooked back as mine? Look how much shorter this leg is than the\nother. Oh, _do_ you think he could make them all right?\"\n\nThe boy gave him a critical survey, and then answered, emphatically,\n\"Yes! It really does not look like it would be as hard to straighten you\nas old Jeremy, the tailor's father. He was twisted all out of shape, you\nknow. Well, I'll declare! There he goes now!\"\n\nJoel looked across the street. The wrinkled face of the old\nbasket-weaver was a familiar sight in the market; but Joel could hardly\nrecognize the once crippled form, now restored to its original\nshapeliness.\n\n\"I am going right now,\" he declared, starting to run in his excitement.\n\"I can't wait another minute.\"\n\n\"But he's gone!\" the boy called after him. \"That's why the people are\nall coming back.\"\n\nJoel sat down suddenly on a ledge projecting from the stone-wall.\n\"Gone!\" he echoed drearily. It was as if he had been starving, and the\nlife-giving food held to his famished lips had been suddenly snatched\naway. Both his heart and his feet felt like lead when he got up after\nawhile, and dragged himself slowly along to the carpenter's house.\n\n[Illustration: \"'I PEEPED OUT 'TWEEN 'E WOSE--VINES'\"]\n\nIt was such a bitter disappointment to be so near the touch of healing,\nand then to miss it altogether.\n\nNo cheerful tap of the hammer greeted him. The idle tools lay on the\ndeserted workbench. \"Disappointed again!\" he thought. Then the doves\ncooed, and he caught a glimpse of Ruth's fair hair down among the garden\nlilies.\n\n\"Where is your father, little one?\" he called.\n\n\"Gone away wiv 'e good man 'at makes everybody well,\" she answered. Then\nshe came skipping down the path to stand close beside him, and say\nconfidentially: \"I saw Him--'e good man--going by to Simon's house. I\npeeped out 'tween 'e wose-vines, and He looked wite into my eyes wiv His\neyes, and I couldn't help loving Him!\"\n\nJoel looked into the beautiful baby face, thinking what a picture it\nmust have made, as framed in roses it smiled out on the Tender-hearted\nOne, going on His mission of help and healing.\n\nWith her little hand in his, she led him back to hope, for she took him\nto her mother, who comforted him with the assurance that Phineas\nexpected to be home soon, and doubtless his friend would be with him.\n\nSo there came another time to work by himself and dream of the hour\nsurely dawning. And the dreams were doubly sweet now; for side by side\nwith his hope of revenge, was the belief in his possible cure.\n\nThey heard only once from the absent ones. Word came back that a leper\nhad been healed. Joel heard it first, down at the custom-house. He had\ngotten into the way of strolling down in that direction after his work\nwas done; for here the many trading-vessels from across the lake, or\nthose that shipped from Capernaum, had to stop and pay duty. Here, too,\nthe great road of Eastern commerce passed which led from Damascus to the\nharbors of the West. So here he would find a constant stream of\ntravellers, bringing the latest news from the outside world.\n\nThe boy did not know, as he limped up and down the water's edge, longing\nfor some word from his absent friends, that near by was one who watched\nalmost as eagerly as himself.\n\nIt was Levi-Matthew, one of the officials, sitting in the seat of\ncustom. Sprung from the same priestly tribe as Joel, he had sunk so low,\nin accepting the office of tax-gatherer, that the righteous Laban would\nnot have touched him so much as with the tip of his sandal.\n\n\"Bears and lions,\" said a proverb, \"might be the fiercest wild beasts in\nthe forests; but publicans and informers were the worst in cities.\"\n\nOne could not bear witness in the courts, and the disgrace extended to\nthe whole family. They were even classed with robbers and murderers. No\ndoubt there was deep cause for such a feeling; as a class they were\nunscrupulous and unjust. There might have been good ones among their\nnumber, but the company they kept condemned them to the scorn of high\nand low.\n\nWhen a Jew hates, or a Jew scorns, be sure it is thoroughly done; there\nis no half-way course for his intense nature to take.\n\nSo this son of Levi, sitting in the seat of custom, and this son of Levi\nstrolling past him, were, socially, as far apart as the east is from the\nwest,--as unlike as thorn and blossom on the same tribal stem.\n\nMatthew knew all the fishermen and ship-owners that thronged the busy\nbeach in front of him. The sons of Jonah and of Zebedee passed him\ndaily; and he must have wondered when he saw them throw down their nets\nand leave everything to follow a stranger.\n\nHe must have wondered also at the reports on every tongue, and the\nsights he had seen himself of miraculous healing. But while strangely\ndrawn towards this new teacher from Nazareth, it could have been with no\nthought that the hand and the voice were for him. He was a publican, and\nhow could they reach to such depths?\n\nA caravan had just stopped. The pack-animals were being unloaded, bales\nand packages opened, private letters pried into. The insolent officials\nwere tossing things right and left, as they made a list of the taxable\ngoods.\n\nJoel was watching them with as much interest as if he had not witnessed\nsuch scenes dozens of times before, till he noticed a group gathering\naround one of the drivers. He was telling what he had seen on his way to\nCapernaum. Several noisy companions kept interrupting him to bear\nwitness to the truth of his statements.\n\n\"And he who but a moment before had been the most miserable of lepers\nstood up before us all, cleansed of his leprosy. His skin was soft and\nfair as a child's, and his features were restored to him,\" said the\ndriver.\n\nJoel and Levi-Matthew stood side by side. At another time the boy might\nhave drawn his clothes away to keep from brushing against the despised\ntax-gatherer. But he never noticed now that their elbows touched.\n\nWhen he had heard all there was to be told, he limped away to carry the\nnews to Abigail. To know that others were being cured daily made him all\nthe more impatient for the return of this friend of Phineas.\n\nThe publican turned again to his pen and his account-book. He, too,\nlooked forward with a burning heart to the return of the Nazarene,\nunknowing why he did so.\n\nAt last Joel heard of the return, in a very unexpected way. There were\nguests in the house of Laban again. One of the rabbis who had been there\nbefore, and a scribe from Jerusalem. Now there were longer conferences\nin the upper chamber, and graver shakings of the head, over this false\nprophet whose fame was spreading wider.\n\nThe miracle of healing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, when he\nhad gone down to Jerusalem to one of the many feasts, had stirred Judea\nto its farthest borders. So these two men had been sent to investigate.\n\nOn the very afternoon of their arrival, a report flew through the\nstreets that the Rabbi Jesus was once more in the town. Their host led\nthem with all the haste their dignity would allow, to the house where He\nwas said to be preaching. The common people fell back when they saw\nthem, and allowed them to pass into the centre of the throng.\n\nThe Rabbi stood in the doorway, so that both those in the house and\nwithout could distinctly hear Him. The scribe had never seen Him before,\nand in spite of his deep-seated prejudice could not help admiring the\nman whom he had come prepared to despise. It was no wild fanatic who\nstood before him, no noisy debater whose fiery eloquence would be likely\nto excite and inflame His hearers.\n\nHe saw a man of gentlest dignity; truth looked out from the depths of\nHis calm eyes. Every word, every gesture, carried with it the conviction\nthat He who spoke taught with God-given authority.\n\nThe scribe began to grow uneasy as he listened, carried along by the\nearnest tones of the speaker.\n\nThere was a great commotion on the edge of the crowd, as some one tried\nto push through to the centre.\n\n\"Stand back! Go away!\" demanded angry voices.\n\nThe scribe was a tall man, and by stretching a little, managed to see\nover the heads of the others. Four men, bearing a helpless paralytic,\nwere trying to carry him through the throngs; but they would not make\nroom for this interruption.\n\nAfter vainly hunting for some opening through which they might press,\nthe men mounted the steep, narrow staircase on the outside of the\nbuilding, and drew the man up, hammock and all, to the flat roof on\nwhich they stood.\n\nThere was a sound of scraping and scratching as they broke away the\nbrush and mortar that formed the frail covering of the roof. Then the\npeople in the room below saw slowly coming down upon them between the\nrafters, this man whom no obstacle could keep back from the Great\nPhysician.\n\nBut the paralyzed hands could not lift themselves in supplication; the\nhelpless tongue could frame no word of pleading,--only the eyes of the\nsick man could look up into the pitying face bent over him, and implore\na blessing.\n\nThe scribe leaned forward, confidently expecting to hear the man bidden\nto arise. To his surprise and horror, the words he heard were: \"Son, thy\n_sins_ be forgiven thee!\"\n\nHe looked at Laban and his companion, and the three exchanged meaning\nglances. When they looked again at the speaker, His eyes seemed to read\ntheir inmost thoughts.\n\n\"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?\" He asked, with startling\ndistinctness. \"Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy\nsins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?\nBut that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive\nsins,\" here He turned to the helpless form lying at His feet, \"I say\nunto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way unto thine house.\"\n\nThe man bounded to his feet, and picking up the heavy rug on which he\nhad been lying, went running and leaping out of their midst.\n\nWithout a word, Laban and his two guests drew their clothes carefully\naround them, and picked their way through the crowd. Phineas, who stood\nat the gate, gave them a respectful greeting. Laban only turned his eyes\naway with a scowl, and passed coldly on.\n\n\"The man is a liar and a blasphemer!\" exclaimed the scribe, as they sat\nonce more in the privacy of Laban's garden.\n\n\"Only God can forgive sins!\" added his companion. \"This paralytic should\nhave taken a sin-offering to the priest. For only by the blood of\nsacrifice can one hope to obtain pardon.\"\n\n\"Still He healed him,\" spoke up the scribe, musingly.\n\n\"Only through the power of Satan!\" interrupted Laban. \"When He says He\ncan forgive sins, He blasphemes.\"\n\nThe other Pharisee leaned forward to say, in an impressive whisper:\n\"Then you know the Law on that point. He should be stoned to death, His\nbody hung on a tree, and then buried with shame!\"\n\nIt was not long after that Joel, just back from a trip to Tiberias in a\nlittle sailing-boat, came into the garden. He had been away since early\nmorning, so had heard nothing of what had just occurred; he had had good\nluck in disposing of his wares, and was feeling unusually cheerful.\nHearing voices in the corner of the garden, he was about to pass out\nagain, when his uncle called him sternly to come to him at once.\n\nSurprised at the command, he obeyed, and was questioned and\ncross-questioned by all three. It was very little he could tell them\nabout his friend's plans; but he acknowledged proudly that Phineas had\nalways known this famous man from Nazareth, even in childhood, and was\none of his most devoted followers.\n\n\"This man Phineas is a traitor to the faith!\" roared Laban. \"He is a\ndangerous man, and in league with these fellows to do great evil to our\nnation.\"\n\nThe scribe and the rabbi nodded approvingly.\n\n\"Hear me, now!\" he cried, sternly. \"Never again are you to set foot over\nhis threshold, or have any communication whatsoever with him or his\nassociates. I make no idle threat; if you disobey me in this, you will\nhave cause to wish you had never been born. You may leave us now!\"\n\nToo surprised and frightened to say a word, the child slipped away. To\ngive up his daily visit to the carpenter's house, was to give up all\nthat made his life tolerable; while to be denied even speaking to his\nassociates, meant to abandon all hope of cure.\n\nBut he dared not rebel; obedience to those in authority was too\nthoroughly taught in those days to be lightly disregarded. But his uncle\nseemed to fear that his harsh command would be eluded in some way, and\nkept such a strict watch over him, that he rarely got beyond the borders\nof the garden by himself.\n\nOne day he was all alone in the grape-arbor, looking out into the\nstreets that he longed to be in, since their freedom had been denied\nhim.\n\nA little girl passed, carrying one child in her arms, and talking to\nanother who clung to her skirts. It was Jerusha.\n\nJoel threw a green grape at her to attract her attention, and then\nbeckoned her mysteriously to come nearer. She set the baby on the\nground, and gave him her bracelet to play with, while she listened to a\nwhispered account of his wrongs through the latticed arbor.\n\n\"It's a shame!\" she declared indignantly. \"I'll go right down to the\ncarpenter's house and tell them why you cannot go there any more. And\nI'll keep watch on all that happens, and let you know. I go past here\nevery day, and if I have any news, I'll toss a pebble over the wall and\ncluck like a hen. Then if nobody is watching, you can come to this hole\nin the arbor again.\"\n\nThe next day, as Joel was going in great haste to the baker's, whither\nhis aunt had sent him, he heard some one behind him calling him to wait.\nIn another moment Jerusha was in speaking distance, nearly bent double\nwith the weight of her little brother, whom she was carrying as usual.\n\n\"There!\" she said, with a puff of relief, as she put him on his own\nfeet. \"Wait till I get my breath! It's no easy thing to carry such a\nload and run at the same time! How did you get out?\"\n\n\"There was an errand to be done, and no one else to do it,\" answered\nJoel, \"so Aunt sent me.\"\n\n\"Oh, I've got such news for you!\" she exclaimed. \"Guess what has\nhappened! Your Rabbi Jesus has asked Levi-Matthew to be one of His\nfollowers, and go around with Him wherever He goes. Think of it! One of\nthose horrid tax-gatherers! He settled his accounts and gave up his\nposition in the custom-house yesterday. And he is getting ready for a\ngreat feast. I heard the butcher and the wine-dealer both telling about\nthe big orders he had given them.\n\n\"All the publicans and low common people that are his friends are\ninvited. Yes, and so is your friend the carpenter. Think of that, now!\nHe is going to sit down and eat with such people! Of course respectable\nfolks will never have anything more to do with him after that! I guess\nyour uncle was right about him, after all!\"\n\nBoth the little girl's face and manner expressed intense disgust.\n\nJoel was shocked. \"Oh, are you sure?\" he cried. \"You certainly must be\nmistaken! It cannot be so!\"\n\n\"I guess I know what I see with my own eyes, and hear with my own ears!\"\nshe retorted, angrily. \"My father says they are a bad lot. People that\ngo with publicans are just as unclean themselves. If you know so much\nmore than everybody else, I'll not trouble myself to run after you with\nany more news. Mistaken, indeed!\"\n\nWith her head held high, and her nose scornfully turned up, she jerked\nher little brother past him, and went quickly around the corner of the\nstreet.\n\nThe indignation of some of the rabbis knew no bounds. \"It has turned out\njust as I predicted,\" said the scribe to Laban, at supper. \"They are\nnothing but a set of gluttons and wine-bibbers!\"\n\nThere was nothing else talked of during the entire meal. How Joel's\nblood boiled as he listened to their conversation! The food seemed to\nchoke him. As they applied one coarse epithet after another to his\nfriend Phineas, all the kindness and care this man had ever given him\nseemed to rise up before him. But when they turned on the Nazarene, all\nthe stories Joel had heard in the carpenter's house of His gentle\nsinless childhood, all the tokens he had seen himself of His pure\nunselfish manhood, seemed to cry out against such gross injustice.\n\nIt was no light thing for a child to contradict the doctors of the Law,\nand, in a case of this kind, little less than a crime to take the stand\nJoel did.\n\nBut the memory of two faces gave him courage: that of Phineas as it had\nlooked on him through all those busy happy hours in the carpenter's\nhome; the other face he had seen but once, that day of healing in the\nsynagogue,--who, having once looked into the purity of those eyes, the\ninfinite tenderness of that face, could sit calmly by and raise no voice\nagainst the calumny of his enemies?\n\nThe little cripple was white to the lips, and he trembled from head to\nfoot as he stood up to speak.\n\nThe scribe lifted up both hands, and turned to Laban with a meaning\nshrug of the shoulders. \"To think of finding such heresy in your own\nhousehold!\" he exclaimed. \"Among your own children!\"\n\n\"He is no child of mine!\" retorted Laban. \"Nor shall he stay among\nthem!\" Then he turned to Joel.\n\n\"Boy, take back every word you have just uttered! Swear you will\nrenounce this man,--this son of perdition,--and never have aught to say\nwell of Him again!\"\n\nJoel looked around the table, at each face that shone out pale and\nexcited in the yellow lamplight. His eyes were dilated with fear; his\nheart thumped so in the awful pause that followed, that he thought\neverybody else must hear it.\n\n\"I cannot!\" he said hoarsely. \"Oh, I cannot!\"\n\n\"Then take yourself out of my sight forever. The doors of this house\nshall never open for you again!\"\n\nThere was a storm of abuse from the angry man at this open defiance of\nhis authority. With these two cold, stern men to nod approval at his\nzealousness, he went to greater lengths than he might otherwise have\ndone.\n\nWith one more frightened glance around the table, the child hurried out\nof the room. The door into the street creaked after him, and Joel limped\nout into the night, with his uncle's curse ringing in his ears.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n\nPHINEAS, going along the beach that night, in the early moonlight,\ntowards his home, saw a little figure crouched in the shadow of a low\nbuilding beside the wharf. It was shaking with violent sobs. He went up\nto the child, and took its hands down from its wet face, with a\ncomforting expression of pity. Then he started back in surprise. It was\nJoel!\n\n\"Why, my child! My poor child!\" he exclaimed, putting his arm around the\ntrembling, misshapen form. \"What is the meaning of all this?\"\n\n\"Uncle Laban has driven me away from home!\" sobbed the boy. \"He was\nangry because you and Rabbi Jesus were invited to Levi-Matthew's feast.\nHe says I have denied the faith, and am worse than an infidel. He says I\nam fit only to be cast out with the dogs and publicans!--and--and--\" he\nended with a wail. \"Oh, he sent me away with his curse!\"\n\nPhineas drew him closer, and stroked the head on his shoulder in pitying\nsilence.\n\n\"Fatherless and motherless and lame!\" the boy sobbed bitterly. \"And now,\na homeless outcast, blighted by a curse, I have been sitting here with\nmy feet in the dark water, thinking how easy it would be to slip down\ninto it and forget; but, Rabbi Phineas, that face will not let me,--that\nface of your friend,--I keep seeing it all the time!\"\n\nPhineas gathered the boy so close in his arms that Joel could feel his\nstrong, even heart-beats.\n\n\"My child,\" he said solemnly, \"call me no more, Rabbi! Henceforth, it is\nto be _father_ Phineas. You shall be to me as my own son!\"\n\n\"But the curse!\" sobbed Joel. \"The curse that is set upon me! It will\nblight you too!\"\n\n\"Nay,\" was the quiet answer; \"for it is written, 'As the bird by\nwandering, as the swallow by flying, _so the curse, causeless, shall not\ncome_.'\"\n\nBut the boy still shook as with a chill. His face and hands were burning\nhot.\n\n\"Come!\" said Phineas. He picked him up in his strong arms, and carried\nhim down the beach to Abigail's motherly care and comforting.\n\n\"He will be a long time getting over the shock of this,\" she said to\nher husband, when he was at last soothed to sleep.\n\n\"Ah, loyal little heart!\" he answered, \"he has suffered much for the\nsake of his friendship with us!\"\n\nPoor little storm-tossed bark! In the days that followed he had reason\nto bless the boisterous winds, that blew him to such a safe and happy\nharbor!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOver on the horns of Mount Hattin, the spring morning began to shine.\nThe light crept slowly down the side of the old mountain, till it fell\non a little group of men talking earnestly together. It was the Preacher\nof Galilee, who had just chosen twelve men from among those who followed\nHim to help Him in His ministry.\n\nThey gathered around Him in the fresh mountain dawn, as He pictured the\nlife in store for them. Strange they did not quail before it, and turn\nback disheartened. Nay, not strange! For in the weeks they had been with\nHim, they had learned to love Him so, that His \"follow me,\" that drew\nthem from the toll-gate and fishing-boat, was stronger than ties of home\nand kindred.\n\nJust about this time, Phineas and Joel were starting out from Capernaum\nto the mountain. Hundreds of people were already on the way; people who\nhad come from all parts of Judea, and beyond the Jordan. Clouds of dust\nrose above the highway as the travellers trudged along.\n\nJoel was obliged to walk slowly, so that by the time they reached the\nplain below, a great multitude had gathered.\n\n\"Let's get close,\" he whispered. He had heard that those who barely\ntouched the garments of the strange Rabbi were made whole, and it was\nwith the hope that he might steal up and touch Him unobserved that he\nhad begged Phineas to take him on such a long, painful walk.\n\n\"There is too great a crowd, now,\" answered Phineas. \"Let us rest here\nawhile, and listen. Let me lift you up on this big rock, so that you can\nsee. 'Sh! He is speaking!\"\n\nJoel looked up, and, for the second time in his life, listened to words\nthat thrilled him like a trumpet call,--words that through eighteen\nhundred years have not ceased to vibrate; with what mighty power they\nmust have fallen when, for the first time, they broke the morning\nstillness of those mountain wilds!\n\nJoel forgot the press of people about him, forgot even where he was, as\nsentence after sentence seemed to lift him out of himself, till he\ncould catch glimpses of lofty living such as he had never even dreamed\nof before.\n\nRound by round, he seemed to be carried up some high ladder of thought\nby that voice, away from all that was common and low and earthly, to a\nsummit of infinite love and light.\n\nStill the voice led on, \"Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'An eye\nfor an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'\"\n\nJoel started so violently at hearing his own familiar motto, that he\nnearly lost his balance on the rock.\n\n\"But I say unto you that you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite\nthee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Ye have heard\nthat it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine\nenemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,\ndo good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use\nyou, and persecute you.\"\n\nPoor little Joel, it was a hard doctrine for him to accept! How could he\ngive up his hope of revenge, when it had grown with his growth till it\nhad come to be as dear as life itself?\n\nHe heard little of the rest of the sermon, for through it all the words\nkept echoing, \"Bless them that curse you! Do good to them that hate\nyou! Pray for them which despitefully use you!\"\n\n\"Oh, I can't! I can't!\" he groaned inwardly.\n\n\"I have found a chance for you to ride home,\" said Phineas, when the\nsermon was over, and the people began to file down the narrow mountain\npaths. \"But there will be time for you to go to Him first, for healing.\nYou have only to ask, you know.\"\n\nJoel took an eager step forward, and then shrank back guiltily. \"Not\nnow,\" he murmured, \"some other time.\" He could not look into those clear\neyes and ask a blessing, when he knew his heart was black with hate.\n\nAfter all his weeks of waiting the opportunity had come; but he dared\nnot let the Sinless One look into his soul.\n\nPhineas began an exclamation of surprise, but was interrupted by some\none asking him a question. Joel took advantage of this to climb up\nbehind the man who had offered him a ride. All the way home he weighed\nthe two desires in his mind,--the hope of healing, and the hope of\nrevenge.\n\nBy the time the two guardian fig-trees were in sight, he had decided. He\nwould rather go helpless and halting through life than give up his\ncherished purpose.\n\nBut there was no sleep for him that night, after he had gone up to his\nlittle chamber on the roof. He seemed to see that pleading face on the\nmountain-side; it came to him again and again, with the words, \"Bless\nthem that curse you! Pray for them that despitefully use you!\"\n\nAll night he fought against yielding to it. Time and again he turned\nover on his bed, and closed his eyes; but it would not let him alone.\n\nHe thought of Jacob wrestling with the angel till day-break, and knew in\nhis heart that the sweet spirit of forgiveness striving with his selfish\nnature was some heavenly impulse from another world.\n\nAt last when the cock-crowing commenced at dawn, and the stars were\nbeginning to fade, he drew up his crooked little body, and knelt with\nhis face to the kindling east.\n\n\"Father in heaven,\" he prayed softly, \"bless mine enemy Rehum, and\nforgive all my sins,--fully and freely as I now forgive the wrong he has\ndone to me.\"\n\nA feeling of light-heartedness and peace, such as he had never known\nbefore, stole over him. He could not settle himself to sleep, though\nworn out with his night's long vigil.\n\n[Illustration: \"NOT A WORD WAS SAID\"]\n\nHastily slipping on his clothes, he tiptoed down the stairs, and limped,\nbare-headed, down to the beach. The lake shimmered and glowed under the\nfaint rose and gray of the sky like a deep opal. The early breeze blew\nthe hair back from his pale face with a refreshing coolness.\n\nIt seemed to him the world had never looked one half so beautiful\nbefore, as he stood there.\n\nA firm tread on the gravel made him turn partly around. A man was coming\nup the beach; it was the friend of Phineas. As if drawn by some\nuncontrollable impulse, Joel started to meet Him, an unspoken prayer in\nhis pleading little face.\n\nNot a word was said. For one little instant Joel stood there by the\nshining sea, his hand held close in the loving hand of the world's\nRedeemer. For one little instant he looked up into His face; then the\nman passed on.\n\nJoel covered his face with his hands, seeming to hear the still small\nvoice that spoke to the prophet out of the whirlwind.\n\n\"He is the Christ!\" he whispered reverently,--\"He is the Christ!\"\n\nIn his exalted feeling all thought of a cure had left him; but as he\nwalked on down the beach, he noticed that he no longer limped. He was\nmoving along with strong, quick strides. He shook himself and threw\nback his shoulders; there was no pain in the movement. He passed his\nhands over his back and down his limbs.\n\nOh, he was straight and strong and sinewy! He seemed a stranger to\nhimself, as running and leaping, then stopping to look down and feel his\nlimbs again, he ran madly on.\n\nSuddenly he cast his garments aside and dived into the lake. Before his\ninjury, he had been able to swim like a fish, now he reached out with\nlong powerful strokes that sent him darting through the cold water with\na wonderful sense of exhilaration.\n\nThen he dressed again, and went on running and leaping and climbing till\nhe was exhausted, and his first wild delirious joy began to subside into\na deep quiet thankfulness. Then he went home, radiant in the happiness\nof his new-found cure.\n\nBut more than the mystery of the miracle, more than the joy of the\nhealing, was the remembrance of that moment, that one little moment,\nwhen he felt the clasp of the Master's hand, and seemed wrapped about\nwith the boundless love of God.\n\nFrom that moment, he lived but to serve and to follow Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n\nHIGH up among the black lava crags of Perea stood the dismal fortress of\nMacherus. Behind its close prison bars a restless captive groped his way\nback and forth in a dungeon cell. Sometimes, at long intervals, he was\ngiven such liberty as a chained eagle might have, when he was led up\ninto one of the towers of the gloomy keep, and allowed to look down,\ndown into the bottomless gorges surrounding it. For months he had chafed\nin the darkness of his underground dungeon; escape was impossible.\n\nIt was John Baptist, brought from the wild, free life of the desert to\nthe tortures of the \"Black Castle.\" Here he lay at the mercy of Herod\nAntipas, and death might strike at any moment. More than once, the\nwhimsical monarch had sent for him, as he sat at his banquets, to be the\nsport of the passing hour.\n\nThe lights, the color, the flash of gems may have dazzled his eyes for a\nbrief space, accustomed as they were to the midnight darkness of his\ncell; but his keen vision saw, under the paint and purple of royal\napparel, the corrupt life of king and court.\n\nPointing his stern, accusing finger at the uneasy king, he cried, \"It is\nnot lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife!\" With words that stung\nlike hurtling arrows, he laid bare the blackened, beastly life that\nsought to hide its foulness under royal ermine.\n\nAntipas cowered before him; and while he would gladly have been freed\nfrom a man who had such power over him, he dared not lift a finger\nagainst the fearless, unflinching Baptist.\n\nBut the guilty Herodias bided her time, with blood-thirsty impatience;\nhis life should pay the penalty of his bold speech.\n\nMeanwhile he waited in his cell, with nothing but memories to relieve\nthe tediousness of the long hours. Over and over again he lived those\nscenes of his strange life in the desert,--those days of his\npreparation,--the preaching to the multitudes, the baptizing at the ford\nof the Jordan.\n\nHe wondered if his words still lived; if any of his followers still\nbelieved on him. But more than all, he wondered what had become of that\nOne on whom he had seen the spirit of God descending out of heaven in\nthe form of a dove.\n\n\"Where art Thou now?\" he cried. \"If Thou art the Messiah, why dost Thou\nnot set up Thy kingdom, and speedily give Thy servant his liberty?\" The\nempty room rang often with that cry; but the hollow echo of his own\nwords was the only answer.\n\nOne day the door of his cell creaked back far enough to admit two men,\nand then shut again, leaving them in total darkness. In that momentary\nflash of light, he recognized two old followers of his, Timeus bar Joram\nand Benjamin the potter.\n\nWith a cry of joy he groped his way toward them, and clung to their\nfriendly hands.\n\n\"How did you manage to penetrate these Roman-guarded walls?\" he asked,\nin astonishment.\n\n\"I knew the warden,\" answered Benjamin. \"A piece of silver conveniently\ncloses his eyes to many things. But we must hasten! Our time is\nlimited.\"\n\nThey had much to tell of the outside world. Pilate had just given\nspecial offence, by appropriating part of the treasure of the Temple,\nderived from the Temple tax, to defray the cost of great conduits he had\nbegun, with which to supply Jerusalem with water.\n\nStirred up by the priests and rabbis, the people besieged the government\nhouse, crying loudly that the works be given up. Armed with clubs,\nnumbers of soldiers in plain clothes surrounded the great mob, and\nkilled so many of the people that the wildest excitement prevailed\nthroughout all Judea and Galilee.\n\nThere was a cry for a national uprising to avenge the murder.\n\n\"They only need a leader!\" exclaimed John. \"Where is He for whom I was\nbut a voice crying in the wilderness? Why does He not show Himself?\"\n\n\"We have just come from the village of Nain,\" said Timeus bar Joram. \"We\nsaw Him stop a funeral procession and raise a widow's son to life. He\nwas followed by a motley throng whom He had healed of all sorts of\ndiseases; and there were twelve men whom He had chosen as life-long\ncompanions.\n\n\"We questioned some of them closely, and they gave us marvellous reports\nof the things He had done.\"\n\n\"Is it not strange,\" asked Benjamin the potter, \"that having such power\nHe still delays to establish His kingdom?\"\n\nThe captive prophet made no answer for awhile. Then he groped in the\nthick darkness till his hand rested heavily on Benjamin's arm.\n\n\"Go back, and say that John Baptist asks, 'Art Thou the Coming One, or\nmust we look for another?'\"\n\nDays passed before the devoted friends found themselves once more inside\nthe prison walls. They had had a weary journey over rough hills and\nrocky by-paths.\n\n\"What did He say?\" demanded the prisoner, eagerly.\n\n\"Go and tell John what ye saw and heard: that the blind receive sight;\nthe lame walk; the lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are\nraised; and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.\"\n\nThe man stood up, his long hair hanging to his shoulder, his hand\nuplifted, and his eyes dilated like a startled deer that has caught the\nsound of a coming step.\n\n\"The fulfilment of the words of Isaiah!\" he cried. \"For he hath said,\n'Your God will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be\nopened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame\nman leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing!' Yea, he _hath_\nbound up the broken-hearted; and he shall yet 'proclaim liberty to the\ncaptives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to\nproclaim the acceptable year of the Lord!'\"\n\nThen with both hands clasped high above his head, he made the prison\nring with the cry, \"The kingdom is at hand! The kingdom is at hand! I\nshall soon be free!\"\n\nNot long after that, the castle blazed with the lights of another\nbanquet. The faint aroma of wines, mingled with the heavy odor of\ncountless flowers, could not penetrate the grim prison walls. Nor could\nthe gay snatches of song and the revelry of the feast. No sound of\napplause reached the prisoner's ear, when the daughter of Herodias\ndanced before the king.\n\nSitting in darkness while the birthday banqueters held high carnival, he\nheard the heavy tramp of soldiers' feet coming down the stairs to his\ndungeon. The great bolts shot back, the rusty hinges turned, and a\nlantern flickered its light in his face, as he stood up to receive his\nexecutioners.\n\nA little while later his severed head was taken on a charger to the\nsmiling dancing girl. She stifled a shriek when she saw it; but the\nwicked Herodias looked at it with a gleam of triumph in her treacherous\nblack eyes.\n\nWhen the lights were out, and the feasters gone, two men came in at the\nwarden's bidding,--two men with heavy hearts, and voices that shook a\nlittle when they spoke to each other. They were Timeus and Benjamin.\nSilently they lifted the body of their beloved master, and carried it\naway for burial; and if a tear or two found an unaccustomed path down\ntheir bearded cheeks, no one knew it, under cover of the darkness.\n\nSo, out of the Black Castle of Macherus, out of the prison-house of a\nmortal body, the white-souled prophet of the wilderness went forth at\nlast into liberty.\n\nFor him, the kingdom was indeed at hand.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMeanwhile in the upper country, Phineas was following his friend from\nvillage to village. He had dropped his old familiar form of address, so\nmuch was he impressed by the mysterious power he saw constantly\ndisplayed.\n\nNow when he spoke of the man who had been both friend and playfellow,\nit was almost reverently that he gave Him the title of Master.\n\nIt was with a heavy heart that Joel watched them go away. He, too,\nlonged to follow; but he knew that unless he took the place at the\nbench, Phineas could not be free to go.\n\nGratitude held him to his post. No, not gratitude alone; he was learning\nthe Master's own spirit of loving self-sacrifice. As he dropped the\nplumb-line over his work, he measured himself by that perfect life, and\ntried to straighten himself to its unbending standard.\n\nHe had his reward in the look of pleasure that he saw on the carpenter's\nface when Phineas came in, unexpectedly, one day, dusty and\ntravel-stained.\n\n\"How much you have accomplished!\" he said in surprise. \"You have filled\nmy place like a grown man.\"\n\nJoel stretched his strong arms with a slight laugh. \"It is a pleasure to\nwork now,\" he said. \"It seems so queer never to have a pain, or that\nworn-out feeling of weakness that used to be always with me. At first I\nwas often afraid it was all a happy dream, and could not last. I am\ngetting used to it now. Where is the Master?\" Joel asked, as Phineas\nturned towards the house.\n\n\"He is the guest of Simon. He will be here some days, my son. I know you\nwish to be with Him as much as possible, so I shall not expect your help\nas long as He stays.\"\n\n\"If I could only do something for Him!\" was Joel's constant thought\nduring the next few days. Once he took a coin from the little money bag\nthat held his hoarded savings--a coin that was to have helped buy his\nrevenge--and bought the ripest, juiciest pear he could find in the\nmarket. Often he brought Him water, fresh and cold from the well when He\nlooked tired and warm from His unceasing work.\n\nWherever the Master turned, there, close beside Him, was a beaming\nlittle face, so full of love and childish sympathy that it must have\nbrought more refreshment to His thirsty soul than either the choice\nfruit or the cooling water.\n\nOne evening after a busy day, when He had talked for hours to the people\non the seashore who had gathered around the boat in which He sat, He\nsent away the multitude.\n\n\"Let us pass over unto the other side,\" He said.\n\nJoel slipped up to Andrew, who was busily arranging their sails. \"Let me\ngo, too!\" he whispered pleadingly.\n\n\"Well,\" assented the man, carelessly, \"You can make yourself useful, I\nsuppose. Will you hand me that rope?\"\n\nJoel sprang to obey. Presently the boat pushed away from the shore, and\nthe town, with its tumult and its twinkling lights, was soon left far\nbehind.\n\nThe sea was like glass, so calm and unruffled that every star above\ncould look down and see its unbroken reflection in the dark water below.\n\nJoel, in the hinder part of the ship, lay back in his seat with a sigh\nof perfect enjoyment. The smooth gliding motion of the boat rested him;\nthe soft splash of the water soothed his excited brain. He had seen his\nUncle Laban that afternoon among other of the scribes and Pharisees, and\nheard him declare that Beelzebub alone was responsible for the wonders\nthey witnessed.\n\nJoel's indignation flared up again at the memory. He looked down at the\nMaster, who had fallen asleep on a pillow, and wondered how anybody\ncould possibly believe such evil things about Him.\n\nIt was cooler out where they were now. He wondered if he ought not to\nlay some covering over the sleeping form. He took off the outer mantle\nthat he wore, and bent forward to lay it over the Master's feet. But he\ndrew back timidly, afraid of wakening Him. \"I'll wait awhile,\" he said\nto himself, folding the garment across his knees in readiness.\n\nSeveral times he reached forward to lay it over Him, and each time drew\nback. Then he fell asleep himself.\n\nFrom its situation in the basin of the hills, the Galilee is subject to\nsudden and furious storms. The winds, rushing down the heights, meet and\nclash above the water, till the waves run up like walls, then sink again\ninto seething whirlpools of danger.\n\nJoel, falling asleep in a dead calm, awoke to find the ship rolling and\ntossing and half-full of water. The lightning's track was followed so\nclosely by the crash of thunder, there was not even pause enough between\nto take one terrified gasp.\n\nStill the Master slept. Joel, drenched to the skin, clung to the boat's\nside, expecting that every minute would be his last. It was so dark and\nwild and awful! How helpless they were, buffetted about in the fury of\nthe storm!\n\nAs wave after wave beat in, some of the men could no longer control\ntheir fear.\n\n\"Master!\" they called to the sleeping man, as they bent over Him in\nterror. \"Carest Thou not that we perish?\"\n\nHe heard the cry for help. The storm could not waken Him from His deep\nsleep of exhaustion, but at the first despairing human voice, He was up,\nready to help.\n\nLooking up at the midnight blackness of the sky, and down at the wild\nwaste of waters, He stretched out His hand.\n\n\"_Peace!_\" he commanded in a deep voice. \"_Be still!_\" The storm sank to\nearth as suddenly as a death-stricken raven; a great calm spread over\nthe face of the waters. The silent stars shone out in their places; the\nsilent sea mirrored back their glory at His feet.\n\nThe men huddled fearfully together. \"What manner of man is this?\" they\nasked, one of another. \"Even the wind and the sea obey Him!\"\n\nJoel, looking up at the majestic form, standing so quietly by the\nrailing, thought of the voice that once rang out over the night of\nCreation with the command, \"Let there be light!\" At its mere bidding\nlight had flowed in across the darkness of primeval night.\n\nJust so had this voice thrilled the storm with its \"Peace! Be still!\"\ninto utter calm.\n\nThe child crouched at His feet, burying his face in his mantle, and\nwhispering, in awe and adoration, \"He _is_ the Christ! He is the son of\nGod!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n\nAFTER that night of the voyage to the Gadarenes, Joel ceased to be\nsurprised at the miracles he daily witnessed. Even when the little\ndaughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was called back to life,\nit did not seem so wonderful to him as the stilling of the tempest.\n\nMany a night after Phineas had gone away again with the Master to other\ncities, Joel used to go down to the beach, and stand looking across the\nwater as he recalled that scene.\n\nThe lake had always been an interesting place to him at night. He liked\nto watch the fishermen as they flashed their blazing torches this way\nand that. A sympathetic thrill ran through him as they sighted their\nprey, and raised their bare sinewy arms to fling the net or fly the\nspear.\n\nBut after that morning of healing, and that night of tempest, it seemed\nto be a sacred place, to be visited only on still nights, when the town\nslept, and heaven bent nearer in the starlight to the quiet earth.\n\nThe time of the Passover was drawing near,--the time that Joel had been\nlooking forward to since Phineas had promised him a year ago that he\nshould go to Jerusalem.\n\nThe twelve disciples who had been sent out to all the little towns\nthrough Galilee, to teach the things they had themselves been taught,\nand work miracles in the name of Him who had sent them, began to come\nslowly back. They had an encouraging report to bring of their work; but\nit was shadowed by the news they had heard of the murder of John\nBaptist.\n\nJoel joined them as soon as they came into Capernaum, and walked beside\nPhineas as the footsore travellers pressed on a little farther towards\nSimon's house.\n\n\"When are we going to start for Jerusalem?\" was his first eager\nquestion.\n\nPhineas looked searchingly into his face as he replied, \"Would you be\ngreatly disappointed, my son, not to go this year?\"\n\nJoel looked perplexed; it was such an unheard of thing for Phineas to\nmiss going up to the Feast of the Passover.\n\n\"These are evil times, my Joel,\" he explained. \"John Baptist has just\nbeen beheaded. The Master has many enemies among those in high places.\nIt would be like walking into a lion's den for Him to go up to\nJerusalem.\n\n\"Even here He is not safe from the hatred of Antipas, and after a little\nrest will pass over into the borders of the tetrarch Philip. We have no\nwish to leave Him!\"\n\n\"Oh, why should He be persecuted so?\" asked Joel, looking with\ntear-dimmed eyes at the man walking in advance of them, and talking in\nlow earnest tones to John, who walked beside Him.\n\n\"You have been with Him so much, father Phineas. Have _you_ ever known\nHim to do anything to make these men His enemies?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Phineas. \"He has drawn the people after Him until they are\njealous of His popularity. He upsets their old traditions, and teaches a\nreligion that ignores some of the Laws of Moses. I can easily see why\nthey hate Him so. They see Him at such a long distance from themselves,\nthey can not understand Him. Healing on the Sabbath, eating with\npublicans and sinners, disregarding the little customs and ceremonies\nthat in all ages have set apart our people as a chosen race, are crimes\nin their eyes.\n\n\"If they only could get close enough to understand Him; to see that His\npure life needs no ceremonies of multiplied hand-washings; that it is\nHis broad love for His fellow-men that makes Him stoop to the lowest\nclasses,--I am sure they could not do otherwise than love Him.\n\n\"Blind fanatics! They would put to death the best man that ever lived,\nbecause He is so much broader and higher than they that the little\nmeasuring line of their narrow creed cannot compass Him!\"\n\n\"Is He never going to set up His kingdom?\" asked Joel. \"Does He never\ntalk about it?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Phineas; \"though we are often puzzled by what He says, and\nask ourselves His meaning.\"\n\nThey had reached the house by this time, and as Simon led the way to its\nhospitable door, Phineas said, \"Enter with them, my lad, if you wish. I\nmust go on to my little family, but will join you soon.\"\n\nTo Joel's great pleasure, he found they were to cross the lake at once,\nto the little fishing port of Bethsaida. It was only six miles across.\n\n\"We have hardly had time to eat,\" said Andrew to Joel, as they walked\nalong towards the boat \"I will be glad to get away to some desert\nplace, where we may have rest from the people that are always pushing\nand clamoring about us.\"\n\n\"How long before you start?\" asked Joel.\n\n\"In a very few minutes,\" answered Andrew; \"for the boat is in\nreadiness.\"\n\nJoel glanced from the street above the beach to the water's edge, as if\ncalculating the distance.\n\n\"Don't go without me,\" he said as, breaking into a run, he dashed up the\nbeach at his utmost speed. He was back again in a surprisingly quick\ntime, with a cheap little basket in his hand; he was out of breath with\nhis rapid run.\n\n\"Didn't I go fast?\" he panted. \"I could not have done that a few weeks\nago. Oh, it feels so good to be able to run when I please! It is like\nflying.\"\n\nHe lifted the cover of the basket. \"See!\" he said. \"I thought the Master\nmight be hungry; but I had no time to get anything better. I had to stop\nat the first stall I came to.\"\n\nAt the same time the boat went gliding out into the water with its\nrestful motion, thousands of people were pouring out of the villages on\nfoot, and hurrying on around the lake, ahead of them.\n\nThe boat passed up a narrow winding creek, away from the sail-dotted\nlake; its green banks seemed to promise the longed-for quiet and rest.\nBut there in front of them waited the crowds they had come so far to\navoid.\n\nThey had brought their sick for healing. They needed to be helped and\ntaught; they were \"as sheep without a shepherd!\" He could not refuse\nthem.\n\nJoel found no chance to offer the food he had bought so hastily with\nanother of his hoarded coins,--the coins that were to have purchased his\nrevenge.\n\nAs the day wore on, he heard the disciples ask that the multitudes might\nbe sent away.\n\n\"It would take two hundred pennyworth of bread to feed them,\" said\nPhilip, \"and even that would not be enough.\"\n\nAndrew glanced over the great crowds and stroked his beard thoughtfully.\n\"There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes,\nbut what are they among so many?\"\n\nJoel hurried forward and held out his basket with its little\nstore,--five flat round loaves of bread, not much more than one hungry\nman could eat, and two dried fishes.\n\nHe hardly knew what to expect as the people were made to sit down on the\ngrass in orderly ranks of fifties.\n\nHis eyes grew round with astonishment as the Master took the bread, gave\nthanks, and then passed it to the disciples, who, in turn, distributed\nit among the people. Then the two little fishes were handed around in\nthe same way.\n\nJoel turned to Phineas, who had joined them some time ago. \"Do you see\nthat?\" he asked excitedly. \"They have been multiplied a thousand fold!\"\n\nPhineas smiled. \"We drop one tiny grain of wheat into the earth,\" he\nsaid, \"and when it grows and spreads and bears dozens of other grains on\nits single stalk, we are not astonished. When the Master but does in an\ninstant, what Nature takes months to do, we cry, 'a miracle!' 'Men are\nmore wont to be astonished at the sun's eclipse, than at its daily\nrising,'\" he quoted, remembering his conversation with the old\ntraveller, on his way to Nathan ben Obed's.\n\nA feeling of exaltation seized the people as they ate the mysterious\nbread; it seemed that the days of miraculous manna had come again. By\nthe time they had all satisfied their hunger, and twelve basketfuls of\nthe fragments had been gathered up, they were ready to make Him their\nking. The restlessness of the times had taken possession of them; the\nburning excitement must find vent in some way, and with one accord they\ndemanded Him as their leader.\n\nJoel wondered why He should refuse. Surely no other man he had ever\nknown could have resisted such an appeal.\n\nThe perplexed fisherman, at Jesus's command, turned their boat homeward\nwithout Him. To their simple minds it seemed that He had made a mistake\nin resisting the homage forced upon Him by the people; they longed for\nthe time to come when they should be recognized as the honored officials\nin the new kingdom. Many a dream of future power and magnificence must\nhave come to them in the still watches of the night, as they drifted\nhome in the white light of the Passover moon.\n\nMany a time in the weeks that followed, Joel slipped away to his\nfavorite spot on the beech, a flat rock half hidden by a clump of\noleander bushes. Here, with his feet idly dangling in the ripples, he\nlooked out over the water, and recalled the scenes he had witnessed\nthere.\n\nIt seemed so marvellous to him that the Master could have ever walked\non those shining waves; and yet he had seen Him that night after the\nfeeding of the multitudes. He had seen, with his own frightened eyes,\nthe Master walk calmly towards the boat across the unsteady water, and\ncatch up the sinking Peter, who had jumped overboard to meet Him. It\ngrieved and fretted the boy that this man, of God-given power and such\nsweet unselfish spirit, could be so persistently misunderstood by the\npeople. He could think of nothing else.\n\nHe had not been with the crowds that pressed into the synagogue the\nSabbath after the thousands had been fed; but Phineas came home with\ngrim lips and knitted brows, and told him about it.\n\n\"The Master knew they followed Him because of the loaves and fishes,\" he\nsaid. \"He told them so.\n\n\"When we came out of the door, I could not help looking up at the lintel\non which is carved the pot of manna; for when they asked Him for a sign\nthat they might believe Him, saying, 'Our fathers ate manna in the\nwilderness!' He answered: 'I am the bread of life! Ye have seen me, and\nyet believe not!'\n\n\"While He talked there was a murmuring all over the house against Him,\nbecause He said that He had come down from heaven. Your uncle Laban was\nthere. I heard him say scornfully: 'Is not this the son of Joseph, whose\nfather and mother we know? How doth He now say, \"I am come down out of\nheaven\"?' Then he laughed a mocking little laugh, and nudged the man who\nstood next to him. There are many like him; I could feel a spirit of\nprejudice and persecution in the very air. Many who have professed to be\nHis friends have turned against Him.\"\n\nWhile Phineas was pouring out his anxious forebodings to his wife and\nJoel, the Master was going homeward with His chosen twelve.\n\n\"Would ye also go away?\" He asked wistfully of His companions, as He\nnoted the cold, disapproving looks of many who had only the day before\nbeen fed by Him, and who now openly turned their backs on Him.\n\nSimon Peter gave a questioning glance into the faces of his companions;\nthen he pressed a step nearer. \"Lord, to whom shall we go?\" he answered\nimpulsively. \"Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed,\nand know that Thou art the Holy One of God.\"\n\nThe others nodded their assent, all but one. Judas Iscariot clutched the\nmoney bags he held, and looked off across the lake, to avoid the\nsearching eyes that were fixed upon him.\n\nThese honest Galileans were too simple to suspect others of dark\ndesigns, yet they had never felt altogether free with this stranger from\nJudea. He had never seemed entirely one of them. They did not see in his\ncrafty quiet manners, the sheep's clothing that hid his wolfish nature;\nbut they could feel his lack of sympathetic enthusiasm.\n\nHe had been one of those who followed only for the loaves and fishes of\na temporal kingdom, and now, in his secret soul, he was sorry he had\njoined a cause in whose final success he was beginning to lose faith.\n\nThe sun went down suddenly that night behind a heavy cloud, as a\ngathering storm began to lash the Galilee and rock the little boats\nanchored at the landings.\n\nThe year of popularity was at an end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n\nABIGAIL sat just inside the door, turning the noisy hand-mill that\nground out the next day's supply of flour. The rough mill-stones grated\nso harshly on each other that she did not hear the steps coming up the\npath. A shadow falling across the door-way made her look up.\n\n\"You are home early, my Phineas,\" she said, with a smile. \"Well, I shall\nsoon have your supper ready. Joel has gone to the market for some honey\nand--\"\n\n\"Nay! I have little wish to eat,\" he interrupted, \"but I have much to\nsay to you. Come! the work can wait.\"\n\nAbigail put the mill aside, and brushing the flour from her hands, sat\ndown on the step beside him, wondering much at his troubled face.\n\nHe plunged into his subject abruptly. \"The Master is soon going away,\"\nhe said, \"that those in the uttermost parts of Galilee may be taught of\nHim. And He would fain have others beside the twelve He has chosen to go\nwith Him on His journey.\"\n\n\"And you wish to go too?\" she questioned, as he paused.\n\n\"Yes! How can I do otherwise? And yet how can I leave you and the little\nones alone in these troubled times? You cannot think how great the\ndanger is. Remember how many horrors we have lately heard. The whole\ncountry is a smouldering volcano, ready to burst into an eruption at any\nmoment. A leader has only to arise, and all Israel will take up arms\nagainst the powers that trample us under foot.\"\n\n\"Is not this prophet, Jesus, He who is to save Israel?\" asked Abigail.\n\"Is He not even now making ready to establish His kingdom?\"\n\n\"I do not understand Him at all!\" said Phineas, sadly. \"He does talk of\na kingdom in which we are all to have a part; but He never seems to be\nworking to establish it. He spends all His time in healing diseases and\nforgiving penitent sinners, and telling us to love our neighbors.\n\n\"Then, again, why should He go down to the beach, and choose for His\nconfidential friends just simple fishermen. They have neither influence\nnor money. As for the choice of that publican Levi-Matthew, it has\nbrought disgrace on the whole movement. He does not seem to know how to\nsway the popular feeling. I believe He might have had the support of the\nforemost men of the nation, if He had approached them differently.\n\n\"He shocks them by setting aside laws they would lay down their lives\nrather than violate. He associates with those they consider unclean; and\nall His miracles cannot make them forget how boldly He has rebuked them\nfor hypocrisy and unrighteousness. They never will come to His support\nnow; and I do not see how a new government can be formed without their\nhelp.\"\n\nAbigail laid her hand on his, her dark eyes glowing with intense\nearnestness, as she answered: \"What need is there of armies and human\nhands to help?\n\n\"Where were the hosts of Pharaoh when our fathers passed through the Red\nSea? Was there bloodshed and fighting there?\n\n\"Who battled for us when the walls of Jericho fell down? Whose hand\nsmote the Assyrians at Sennacherib? Is the Lord's arm shortened that He\ncannot save?\n\n\"Why may not His prophet speak peace to Jerusalem as easily as He did\nthe other night to the stormy sea? Why may not His power be multiplied\neven as the loaves and fishes?\n\n\"Why may not the sins and backslidings of the people be healed as well\nas Joel's lameness; or the glory of the nation be quickened into a new\nlife, as speedily as He raised the daughter of Jairus?\n\n\"Isaiah called Him the Prince of Peace. What are all these lessons, if\nnot to teach us that the purposes of God do not depend on human hands to\nwork out their fulfilment?\"\n\nHer low voice thrilled him with its inspiring questions, and he looked\ndown into her rapt face with a feeling of awe.\n\n\"Abigail,\" he said softly, \"'my source of joy,'--you are rightly named.\nYou have led me out of the doubts that have been my daily torment. I see\nnow, why He never incites us to rebel against the yoke of Caesar. In the\nfulness of time He will free us with a breath.\n\n\"How strange it should have fallen to my lot to have been His playmate\nand companion. My wonder is not that He is the Messiah; but that I\nshould have called Him friend, all these years, unknowing.\"\n\n\"How long do you expect to be away?\" she asked, after a pause, suddenly\nreturning to the first subject.\n\n\"Several months, perhaps. There is no telling what insurrections and\nriots may arise, all through this part of the country. Since the murder\nof John Baptist, Herod has come back to his court in Tiberias. I dislike\nto leave you here alone.\"\n\nAbigail, too, looked grave, and neither spoke for a little while. \"I\nhave it!\" she exclaimed at length, with a pleased light in her eyes. \"I\nhave often wished I could make a long visit in the home of my girlhood.\nThe few days I have spent in my father's house, those few times I have\ngone with you to the feasts, have been so short and unsatisfactory. Can\nI not take Joel and the children to Bethany? Neither father nor mother\nhas ever seen little Ruth, and we could be so safe and happy there till\nyour return.\"\n\n\"Why did I not come to you before with my worries?\" asked Phineas. \"How\neasily you make the crooked places straight!\"\n\nJust then the children came running back from the market. Abigail went\ninto the house with the provisions they had brought, leaving their\nfather to tell them of the coming separation and the long journey they\nhad planned.\n\nA week later, Phineas stood at the city gate, watching a little company\nfile southward down the highway. He had hired two strong,\ngayly-caparisoned mules from the owner of the caravan. Abigail rode on\none, holding little Ruth in her arms; Joel mounted the other, with Jesse\nclinging close behind him.\n\nAbigail, thinking of the joyful welcome awaiting her in her old home,\nand the children happy in the novelty of the journey, set out gayly.\n\nBut Phineas, thinking of the dangers by the way, and filled with many\nforebodings, watched their departure with a heavy heart.\n\nAt the top of a little rise in the road, they turned to look back and\nwave their hands. In a moment more they were out of sight. Then Phineas,\ngrasping his staff more firmly, turned away, and started on foot in the\nother direction, to follow to the world's end, if need be, the friend\nwho had gone on before.\n\nIt was in the midst of the barley harvest. Jesse had never been in the\ncountry before. For the first time, Nature spread for him her great\npicture-book of field and forest and vineyard, while Abigail read to him\nthe stories.\n\nFirst on one side of the road, then the other, she pointed out some spot\nand told its history.\n\nHere was Dothan, where Joseph went out to see his brothers, dressed in\nhis coat of many colors. There was Mount Gilboa, where the arrows of the\nPhilistines wounded Saul, and he fell on his own sword and killed\nhimself. Shiloh, where Hannah brought little Samuel to give him to the\nLord; where the Prophet Eli, so old that his eyes were too dim to see,\nsat by the gate waiting for news from the army, and when word was\nbrought back that his two sons were dead, and the Ark of the Covenant\ntaken, here it was that he fell backward from his seat, and his neck was\nbroken.\n\nAll these she told, and many more. Then she pointed to the gleaners in\nthe fields, and told the children to notice how carefully Israel still\nkept the commandment given so many centuries before: \"When ye reap the\nharvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy\nfield, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou\nshalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of\nthy vineyard, thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger.\"\n\nAt Jacob's well, where they stopped to rest, Joel lifted Jesse up, and\nlet him look over the curb. The child almost lost his balance in\nastonishment, when his own wondering little face looked up at him from\nthe deep well. He backed away from it quickly, and looked carefully into\nthe cup of water Joel handed him, for more than a minute, before he\nventured to drink.\n\nThe home to which Abigail was going was a wealthy one. Her father,\nReuben, was a goldsmith, and for years had been known in Jerusalem not\nonly for the beautifully wrought ornaments and precious stones that he\nsold in his shop near the Temple, but for his rich gifts to the poor.\n\n\"Reuben the Charitable,\" he was called, and few better deserved the\nname. His business took him every day to the city; but his home was in\nthe little village of Bethany, two miles away. It was one of the largest\nin Bethany, and seemed like a palace to the children, when compared to\nthe humble little home in Capernaum.\n\nJoel only looked around with admiring eyes; but Jesse walked about,\nlaying curious little fingers on everything he passed. The bright\noriental curtains, the soft cushions and the costly hangings, he\nsmoothed and patted. Even the silver candlesticks and the jewelled cups\non the side table were picked up and examined, when his mother happened\nto have her back turned.\n\n[Illustration: \"'WE TALKED LATE'\"]\n\nThere were no pictures in the house; the Law forbade. But there were\nseveral mirrors of bright polished metal, and Jesse never tired of\nwatching his own reflection in them.\n\nRuth stayed close beside her mother. \"She is a ray of God's own\nsunshine,\" said her grandmother, as she took her in her arms for the\nfirst time. The child, usually afraid of strangers, saw in Rebecca's\nface a look so like her mother's that she patted the wrinkled cheeks\nwith her soft fingers. From that moment her grandmother was her devoted\nslave.\n\nJesse was not long in finding the place he held in his grandfather's\nheart. The old man, whose sons had all died years before, seemed to\ncentre all his hopes on this son of his only daughter. He kept Jesse\nwith him as much as possible; his happiest hours were when he had the\nchild on his knee, teaching him the prayers and precepts and proverbs\nthat he knew would be a lamp to his feet in later years.\n\n\"Nay! do not punish the child!\" he said, one morning when Jesse had been\nguilty of some disobedience. Abigail went on stripping the leaves\nfrom an almond switch she just had broken off.\n\n\"Why, father,\" she said, with a smile, \"I have often seen you punish my\nbrothers for such disobedience, and have as often heard you say that one\nof Solomon's wisest sayings is, 'Chasten thy son while there is hope,\nand let not thy soul spare for his crying.' Jesse misses his father's\nfirm rule, and is getting sadly spoiled.\"\n\n\"That is all true, my daughter,\" he acknowledged; \"still I shall not\nstay here to witness his punishment.\"\n\nAbigail used the switch as she had intended. The boy had overheard the\nconversation, and the cries that reached his grandfather as he rode off\nto the city were unusually loud and appealing. They may have had\nsomething to do with the package the good man carried home that\nnight,--cakes and figs and a gay little turban more befitting a young\nprince than the son of a carpenter.\n\n\"Who lives across the street?\" asked Joel, the morning after their\narrival.\n\n\"Two old friends of mine,\" answered Abigail. \"They came to see me last\nnight as soon as they heard I had arrived. You children were all asleep.\nWe talked late, for they wanted to hear all I could tell them of Rabbi\nJesus. He was here last year, and Martha said He and her brother Lazarus\nbecame fast friends. Ah, there is Lazarus now!--that young man just\ncoming out of the house. He is a scribe, and goes up to write in one of\nthe rooms of the Temple nearly every day.\n\n\"Mary says some of the copies of the Scriptures he has made are the most\nbeautifully written that she has ever seen.\"\n\n\"See!\" exclaimed Joel, \"he has dropped one of the rolls of parchment he\nwas carrying, and does not know it. I'll run after him with it.\"\n\nHe was hardly yet accustomed to the delight of being so fleet of foot;\nno halting step now to hinder him. He almost felt as if he were flying,\nand was by the young man's side nearly as soon as he had started.\n\n\"Ah, you are the guest of my good neighbor, Reuben,\" Lazarus said, after\nthanking him courteously. \"Are you not the lad whose lameness has just\nbeen healed by my best friend? My sisters were telling me of it. It must\nbe a strange experience to suddenly find yourself changed from a\nhelpless cripple to such a strong, straight lad as you are now. How did\nit make you feel?\"\n\n\"Oh, I can never begin to tell you, Rabbi Lazarus,\" answered Joel. \"I\ndid not even think of it that moment when He held my hand in His. I only\nthought how much I loved Him. I had been starving before, but that\nmoment He took the place of everything,--father, mother, the home love I\nhad missed,--and more than that, the love of God seemed to come down and\nfold me so close and safe, that I knew He was the Messiah. I did not\neven notice that I was no longer lame, until I was far down the beach.\nOh, you do not know how I wanted to follow Him! If I could only have\ngone with Him instead of coming here!\"\n\n\"Yes, my boy, I know!\" answered the young man, gently; \"for I, too, love\nHim.\"\n\nThis strong bond of sympathy between the two made them feel as if they\nhad known each other always.\n\n\"Come walk with me a little way,\" said Lazarus. \"I am going up to\nJerusalem to the Temple. Or rather, would you not like to come all the\nway? I have only to carry these rolls to one of the priests, then I will\nbe at liberty to show you some of the strange sights in the city.\"\n\nJoel ran back for permission. Only stopping to wind his white linen\nturban around his head, he soon regained his new-found friend.\n\nHis recollection of Jerusalem was a very dim, confused one. Time and\ntime again he had heard pilgrims returning from the feasts trying to\ndescribe their feelings when they had come in sight of the Holy City.\nNow as they turned with the road, the view that rose before him made him\nfeel how tame their descriptions had been.\n\nThe morning sun shone down on the white marble walls of the Temple and\nthe gold that glittered on the courts, as they rose one above the other;\ntower and turret and pinnacle shot back a dazzling light.\n\nIt did not seem possible to Joel that human hands could have wrought\nsuch magnificence. He caught his breath, and uttered an exclamation of\nastonishment.\n\nLazarus smiled at his pleasure. \"Come,\" he said, \"it is still more\nbeautiful inside.\"\n\nThey went very slowly through Solomon's Porch, for every one seemed to\nknow the young man, and many stopped to speak to him. Then they crossed\nthe Court of the Gentiles. It seemed like a market-place; for cages of\ndoves were kept there for sale, and lambs, calves, and oxen bleated and\nlowed in their stalls till Joel could scarcely hear what his friend was\nsaying, as they pushed their way through the crowd, and stood before the\nGate Beautiful that led into the Court of the Women.\n\nHere Lazarus left Joel for a few moments, while he went to give the\nrolls to the priest for whom he had copied them.\n\nJoel looked around. Then for the first time since his healing, he\nwondered if it would be possible for him to ever take his place among\nthe Levites, or become a priest as he had been destined.\n\nWhile he wondered, Lazarus came back and led him into the next court.\nHere he could look up and see the Holy Place, over which was trained a\ngolden vine, with clusters of grapes as large as a man's body, all of\npurest gold. Beyond that he knew was a heavy veil of Babylonian\ntapestry, hyacinth and scarlet and purple, that veiled in awful darkness\nthe Holy of Holies.\n\nAs he stood there thinking of the tinkling bells, the silver trumpets,\nthe clouds of incense, and the mighty songs, a great longing came over\nhim to be one of those white-robed priests, serving daily in the\nTemple.\n\nBut with the wish came the recollection of a quiet hillside, where only\nbird-calls and whirr of wings stirred the stillness; where a breeze from\nthe sparkling lake blew softly through the grass, and one Voice only was\nheard, proclaiming its glad new gospel under the open sky.\n\n\"No,\" he thought to himself; \"I'd rather be with Him than wear the High\nPriest's mitre.\"\n\nIt was almost sundown when they found themselves on the road homeward.\nThey had visited place after place of interest.\n\nLazarus found the boy an entertaining companion, and the friendship\nbegun that day grew deep and lasting.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n\n\"WHAT are you looking for, grandfather?\" called Jesse, as he pattered up\nthe outside stairs to the roof, where Reuben stood, scanning the sky\nintently.\n\n\"Come here, my son,\" he called. \"Stand right here in front of me, and\nlook just where I point. What do you see?\"\n\nThe child peered anxiously into the blue depths just now lit up by the\nsunset.\n\n\"Oh, the new moon!\" he cried. \"Where did it come from?\"\n\n\"Summer hath dropped her silver sickle there, that Night may go forth to\nharvest in her star-fields,\" answered the old man. Then seeing the look\nof inquiry on the boy's face, hastened to add, \"Nay, it is the censer\nthat God's hand set swinging in the sky, to remind us to keep the\nincense of our praises ever rising heavenward. Even now a messenger may\nbe running towards the Temple, to tell the Sanhedrin that it has\nappeared. Yea, other eyes have been sharper than mine, for see! Already\nthe beacon light has been kindled on the Mount of Olives!\"\n\nJesse watched the great bonfire a few minutes, then ran to call his\nsister. By the time they were both on the roof, answering fires were\nblazing on the distant hilltops throughout all Judea, till the whole\nland was alight with the announcement of the Feast of the New Moon.\n\n\"I wish it could be this way every night, don't you, Ruth?\" said Jesse.\n\"Are you not glad we are here?\"\n\nThe old man looked down at the children with a pleased smile. \"I'll show\nyou something prettier than this, before long,\" he said. \"Just wait till\nthe Feast of Weeks, when the people all come to bring the first fruits\nof the harvests. I am glad your visit is in this time of the year, for\nyou can see one festival after another.\"\n\nThe day the celebration of the Feast of Weeks commenced, Reuben left his\nshop in charge of the attendants, and gave up his entire time to Joel\nand Jesse.\n\n\"We must not miss the processions,\" he said. \"We will go outside the\ngates a little way, and watch the people come in.\"\n\nThey did not have long to wait till the stream of people from the upper\ncountries began to pour in; each company carried a banner bearing the\nname of the town from which it came. A white ox, intended for a\npeace-offering, was driven first; its horns were gilded, and its body\ntwined with olive wreaths.\n\nFlocks of sheep and oxen for the sacrifice, long strings of asses and\ncamels bearing free-will gifts to the Temple, or old and helpless\npilgrims that could not walk, came next.\n\nThere were wreaths of roses on the heads of the women and children;\nbands of lilies were tied around the sheaves of wheat. Piled high in the\nsilver vessels of the rich, or peeping from the willow baskets of the\npoor, were the choicest fruits of the harvest.\n\nGreat bunches of grapes from whose purple globes the bloom had not been\nbrushed, velvety nectarines, tempting pomegranates, mellow pears, juicy\nmelons,--these offerings of fruit and flowers gleamed all down the long\nline, for no one came empty-handed up this \"Hill of the Lord.\"\n\nAs they drew near the gates, a number of white-robed priests from the\nTemple met them. Reuben lifted Jesse in his arms that he might have a\nbetter view. \"Listen,\" he said. Joel climbed up on a large rock.\n\nA joyful sound of flutes commenced, and a mighty chorus went up: \"I was\nglad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our\nfeet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!\"\n\nVoice after voice took up the old psalm, and Reuben's deep tones joined\nwith the others, as they chanted, \"Peace be within thy walls, and\nprosperity within thy palaces!\"\n\nFollowing the singing pilgrims to the Temple, they saw the priests take\nthe doves that were to be for a burnt-offering, and the first fruits\nthat were to be laid on the altars.\n\nJesse held fast to his grandfather's hand as they passed through the\nouter courts of the Temple. He was half frightened by the din of voices,\nthe stamping and bellowing and bleating of the animals as they were\ndriven into the pens.\n\nHe had seen one sacrificial service; the great stream of blood pouring\nover the marble steps of the altar, and the smoke of the burnt-offering\nwere still in his mind. It made him look pityingly now at the\ngentle-eyed calves and the frightened lambs. He was glad to get away\nfrom them.\n\nSoon after the time of this rejoicing was over, came ten solemn days\nthat to Joel were full of interest and mystery. They were the days of\npreparation for the Fast of the Atonement. Disputes between neighbors\nwere settled, and sins confessed.\n\nThe last great day, the most solemn of all, was the only time in the\nwhole year when the High Priest might draw aside the veil, and enter\ninto the Holy of Holies.\n\nWith all his rich robes and jewels laid aside, clad only in simple\nwhite, with bare feet and covered head, he had to go four times into the\nawful Presence. Once to offer incense, once to pray, to sprinkle the\nblood of a goat towards the mercy-seat, and then to bring out the\ncenser.\n\nThat was the day when two goats were taken; by casting lots one was\nchosen for a sacrifice. On the other the High Priest laid the sins of\nthe people, and it was driven out into the wilderness, to be dashed to\npieces from some high cliff.\n\nTears came into Joel's eyes, as he watched the scape-goat driven away\ninto the dreary desert. He pitied the poor beast doomed to such a death\nbecause of his nation's sins.\n\nThen came the closing ceremonies, when the great congregation bowed\nthemselves three times to the ground, with the High Priest shouting\nsolemnly, \"Ye are clean! Ye are clean! Ye are clean!\"\n\nJoel was glad when the last rite was over, and the people started to\ntheir homes, as gay now as they had been serious before.\n\n\"When are we going back to our other home?\" asked Ruth, one day.\n\n\"Why, are you not happy here, little daughter?\" said Abigail. \"I thought\nyou had forgotten all about the old place.\"\n\n\"I want my white pigeons,\" she said, with a quivering lip, as if she had\nsuddenly remembered them. \"I don't want my father not to be here!\" she\nsobbed; \"and I want my white pigeons!\"\n\nAbigail picked her up and comforted her. \"Wait just a little while. I\nthink father will surely come soon. I will get my embroidery, and you\nmay go with me across the street.\"\n\nRuth had been shy at first about going to see her mother's friends; but\nMartha coaxed her in with honey cakes she baked for that express\npurpose, and Mary told her stories and taught her little games.\n\nAfter a while she began to flit in and out of the house as fearlessly as\na bright-winged butterfly.\n\nOne day her mother was sitting with the sisters in a shady corner of\ntheir court-yard, where a climbing honeysuckle made a cool sweet arbor.\nRuth was going from one to the other, watching the bright embroidery\nthreads take the shape of flowers under their skilful fingers. Suddenly\nshe heard the faint tinkle of a silver bell. While she stood with one\nfinger on her lip to listen, Lazarus came into the court-yard.\n\n\"See what I have brought you, little one,\" he said. \"It is to take the\nplace of the pigeons you are always mourning for.\"\n\nIt was a snow-white lamb, around which he had twined a garland of many\ncolored flowers, and from whose neck hung the little silver bell she had\nheard.\n\nAt first the child was so delighted she could only bury her dimpled\nfingers in the soft fleece, and look at it in speechless wonder. Then\nshe caught his hand, and left a shy little kiss on it, as she lisped,\n\"Oh, you're so good! You're so good!\"\n\nAfter that day Ruth followed Lazarus as the white lamb followed Ruth;\nand the sisters hardly knew which sounded sweeter in their quiet home,\nthe tinkling of the silver bell, or the happy prattle of the baby\nvoice.\n\nAbigail spent many happy hours with her friends. One day as they sat in\nthe honeysuckle arbor, busily sewing, Ruth and Jesse came running\ntowards them.\n\n\"I see my father coming, and another man,\" cried the boy. \"I'm going to\nmeet them.\"\n\nThey all hastened to the door, just as the tired, dusty travellers\nreached it.\n\n\"Peace be to this house, and all who dwell therein,\" said the stranger,\nbefore Phineas could give his wife and friends a warmer greeting.\n\n\"We went first to your father's house, but, finding no one at home, came\nhere,\" said Phineas.\n\n\"Come in!\" insisted Martha. \"You look sorely in need of rest and\nrefreshment.\"\n\nBut they had a message to deliver before they could be persuaded to eat\nor wash.\n\n\"The Master is coming,\" said Phineas. \"He has sent out seventy of His\nfollowers, to go by twos into every town, and herald His approach, and\nproclaim that the day of the Lord is at hand. We have gone even into\nSamaria to carry the tidings there.\"\n\n\"At last, at last!\" cried Mary, clasping her hands. \"Oh, to think that I\nhave lived to see this day of Israel's glory!\"\n\n\"Tell us what the Master has been doing,\" urged Abigail, after the men\nhad been refreshed by food and water.\n\nFirst one and then the other told of miracles they had seen, and\nrepeated what He had taught. Even the children crept close to listen,\nleaning against their father's knees.\n\n\"There has been much discussion about the kingdom that is to be formed.\nWhile we were in Peter's house in Capernaum, some of the disciples came\nquarrelling around Him, to ask who should have the highest positions. I\nsuppose those who have followed Him longest think they have claim to the\nbest offices.\"\n\n\"What did He say?\" asked Abigail, eagerly.\n\nPhineas laid his hand on Ruth's soft curls. \"He took a little child like\nthis, and set it in our midst, and said that he who would be greatest in\nHis kingdom, must become even like unto it!\"\n\n\"Faith and love and purity on the throne of the Herods,\" cried Martha.\n\"Ah, only Jehovah can bring such a thing as that to pass!\"\n\n\"Are you going to stay at home now, father?\" asked Jesse, anxiously.\n\n\"No, my son. I must go on the morrow to carry my report to the Master,\nof the reception we have had in every town. But I will soon be back\nagain to the Feast of Tabernacles.\"\n\n\"Carry with you our earnest prayer that the Master will abide with us\nwhen He comes again to Bethany,\" said Martha, as her guests departed.\n\"No one is so welcome in our home, as the friend of our brother\nLazarus.\"\n\nThe preparation for the Feast of the Tabernacles had begun. \"I am going\nto take the children to the city with me to-day!\" said Reuben, one\nmorning, \"to see the big booth I am having built. It will hold all our\nfamily, and as many friends as may care to share it with us.\"\n\nJesse was charmed with the great tent of green boughs.\n\n\"I wish I could have been one of the children that Moses led up out of\nEgypt,\" he said, with a sigh.\n\n\"Why, my son?\" asked Reuben.\n\n\"So's I could have wandered around for forty years, living in a tent\nlike this. How good it smells, and how pretty it is! I wish you and\ngrandmother would live here all the time!\"\n\nThe next day Phineas joined them. It was a happy family that gathered in\nthe leafy booth for a week of out-door rejoicing in the cool autumn\ntime.\n\n\"Where is the Master?\" asked Abigail.\n\n\"I know not,\" answered her husband. \"He sent us on before.\"\n\n\"Will He be here, I wonder?\" she asked, and that question was on nearly\nevery lip in Jerusalem.\n\n\"Will He be here?\" asked the throngs of pilgrims who had heard of His\nmiracles, and longed to see the man who could do such marvellous things.\n\n\"Will He be here?\" whispered the scribes to the Pharisees. \"Let Him\nbeware!\"\n\n\"Will He be here?\" muttered Caiaphas the High Priest. \"Then better one\nman should die, than that the whole community perish.\"\n\nThe sight that dazzled the eyes of the children that first evening of\nthe week, was like fairyland; a blaze of lanterns and torches lit up the\nwhole city.\n\nIn the Court of the Women, in the Temple, all the golden lamps were lit,\ntwinkling and burning like countless stars.\n\nOn the steps that separated this court from the next one, stood three\nthousand singers, the sons and daughters of the tribe of Levi. Two\npriests stood at the top of the steps, and as each gave the signal on a\ngreat silver trumpet, the burst of song that went up from the vast choir\nseemed to shake the very heavens. Harps and psalters and flutes swelled\nwith the rolling waves of the organ's melody. To the sound of this\nmusic, men marched with flaming torches in their hands, and the marching\nand a weird torch-dance were kept up until the gates of the Temple\nclosed.\n\nIn the midst of all the feasting and the gayeties that followed, the\nlong-expected Voice was heard in the arcades of the Temple.\n\nThe Child of Nazareth was once more in His Father's house about His\nFather's business.\n\nOn the last great day of the feast, Joel was up at day-break, ready to\nfollow the older members of the family as soon as the first\ntrumpet-blast should sound.\n\nIn his right hand he carried a citron, as did all the others; in his\nleft was a palm-branch, the emblem of joy. An immense multitude gathered\nat the spring of Siloam. Water was drawn in a golden pitcher, and\ncarried back to be poured on the great altar, while the choir sang with\nits thousands of voices, and all the people shouted, Amen and Amen!\n\nWhen the days had gone by in which the seventy bullocks had been\nsacrificed, and when the ceremonies were all over, then the leaves were\nstripped from the green booths, and the people scattered to their\nhomes.\n\nLong afterward, Jesse remembered only the torch-light dances, the silver\ntrumpets and the crowds, and the faint ringing of the fringe of bells on\nthe priest's robes as he carried the fire on the golden shovel to burn\nthe sweet-smelling incense.\n\nJoel's memory rang often with two cries that had startled the people.\nOne when the water was poured from the golden pitcher. It was the\nMaster's voice: \"_If any man thirst, let him come unto me_.\" The other\nwas when all eyes were turned on the blazing lamps. \"_I am the Light of\nthe World!_\"\n\nReuben thought oftenest of the blind man to whom he had seen sight\nrestored. But Lazarus was filled with anxiety and foreboding; through\nhis office of scribe, he had come in close contact with the men who were\nplotting against his friend. Dark rumors were afloat. The air was hot\nwith whisperings of hate.\n\nHe had overheard a conversation between the Temple police, and some of\nthe chief priests and Pharisees.\n\n\"Why did ye not take Him, as ye were ordered?\" they demanded angrily.\n\n\"We could not,\" was the response; \"for never man spake like this man.\"\n\nHe had seen the mob searching for stones to throw at Him. Though He had\ndisappeared out of their midst unhurt, still Lazarus felt that some\nterrible disaster was hanging threateningly over the head of his beloved\nfriend.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n\nIT was with a deep feeling of relief that the two families watched the\nMaster go away into Perea. Phineas still kept with Him. As the little\nband disappeared down the street, Ruth hid her face in her mother's\ndress and began to cry.\n\n\"I don't want my father to go away again!\" she sobbed. Abigail took her\nin her lap and tried to comfort her, although there were tears in her\nown eyes.\n\n\"We will go home soon, little daughter, and then father will be with us\nall the time. But we must wait first, till after the cold, rainy season,\nand the Feast of Dedication.\"\n\n\"What! another feast?\" asked Jesse, to whom the summer had seemed one\nlong confusion of festivals. \"Don't they have lots of them down in this\ncountry! What's this one for?\"\n\n\"Grandfather will tell you,\" answered his mother. \"Run out and ask him\nfor the story. I know you will like it.\"\n\nSeated on his grandfather's knee, Jesse doubled up his little fists, as\nhe heard how a heathen altar had once been set up on the great altar of\nburnt-offering, and a heathen general had driven a herd of swine through\nthe holy Temple, making it unclean. But his breath came quick, and his\neyes shone, as the proud old Israelite told him of Judas the Maccabee,\nJudas the lion-hearted, who had whipped the Syrian soldiers, purified\nthe Temple, and dedicated it anew to the worship of Jehovah.\n\n\"Our people never forget their heroes,\" ended the old man. \"Every year,\nin every home, no matter how humble, one candle is lighted at the\nbeginning of the feast; the next night, two, and the next night, three,\nand so on, till eight candles shine out into the winter darkness.\n\n\"For so the brave deeds of the Maccabees burn in the memory of every\nchild of Abraham!\"\n\nThe feast came and went. While the candles burned in every home, and the\ngolden lamps in the great Temple blazed a welcome, the Nazarene came\nback to His Father's house, to be once more about His Father's business.\n\nJoel caught a glimpse of Him walking up and down the covered porches in\nfront of the Gate Beautiful. The next moment he was pushing and\nelbowing his way through the jostling crowds, till he stood close beside\nHim.\n\nAfter that, the services that followed were a blank. He saw only one\nface,--the face that had looked into his beside the Galilee, and drawn\nfrom his heart its intensest love. He heard only one voice,--the voice\nhe had longed for all these weeks and days. Just to be near Him! To be\nable to reach out reverent fingers and only touch the clothes He wore;\nto look up in His face, and look and look with a love that never\nwearied,--that was such happiness that Joel was lost to everything else!\n\nBut after a while he began to realize that it was for no friendly\npurpose that the chief priests came pressing around with questions.\n\n\"If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly,\" they demanded. Then up and\ndown through the long Porch of Solomon, among all its white marble\npillars, they repeated His answer:--\n\n\"The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. I and\nmy Father are one!\"\n\n\"Blasphemy!\" shouted a mocking voice behind Him. \"Blasphemy!\" echoed\nPharisee and Sadducee for once agreed. The crowds pushed and shoved\nbetween the pillars; some ran out for stones. In the confusion of the\nuproar, as they turned to lay violent hands on Him, He slipped out of\ntheir midst, and went quietly away.\n\nJoel hunted around awhile for the party he had come with, but seeing\nneither Phineas nor Lazarus, started back to Bethany on the run. A cold\nwinter rain had begun to fall.\n\nNone of Reuben's family had gone into Jerusalem that day on account of\nthe weather, but were keeping the feast at home.\n\nThey were startled when the usually quiet boy burst excitedly into the\nhouse, and told them what he had just seen.\n\n\"O mother Abigail!\" he cried, throwing himself on his knees beside her.\n\"If He goes away again may I not go with Him? I cannot go back to\nGalilee and leave Him, unknowing what is to happen. If He is to be\npersecuted and driven out, and maybe killed, let me at least share His\nsuffering, and be with Him at the last!\"\n\n\"You forget that He has all power, and that His enemies can do Him no\nharm,\" said Abigail, gently. \"Has He not twice walked out unharmed,\nbefore their very eyes, when they would have taken Him? And besides what\ngood could you do, my boy? You forget you are only a child, and might\nnot be able to stand the hardships of such a journey.\"\n\n\"I am almost fourteen,\" said Joel, stretching himself up proudly. \"And I\nam as strong now as some of the men who go with Him. _He_ gave me back\nmy strength, you know. Oh, you do not know how I love Him!\" he cried.\n\"When I am away from Him, I feel as you would were you separated from\nJesse and Ruth and father Phineas. My heart is always going out after\nHim!\"\n\n\"Child, have you no care for us?\" she responded reproachfully.\n\n\"Oh, do not speak so!\" he cried, catching up her hand and kissing it. \"I\n_do_ love you; I can never be grateful enough for all you have done for\nme. But, O mother Abigail, you could never understand! You were never\nlame and felt the power of His healing. You were never burning with a\nwicked hatred, and felt the balm of His forgiveness! You cannot\nunderstand how He draws me to Him!\"\n\n\"Let the boy have his way,\" spoke up Reuben. \"I, too, have felt that\nwonderful power that draws all men to Him. Gladly would I part with\nevery shekel I possess, if I thereby might win Him the favor of the\nauthorities.\"\n\nWhen once more a little band of fugitives followed their Master across\nthe Jordan, Joel was with them.\n\nThe winter wore away, and they still tarried. Day by day, they were\nlistening to the simple words that dropped like seeds into their\nmemories, to spring up in after months and bear great truths. Now they\nheard them as half understood parables,--the good Samaritan, the barren\nfig-tree, the prodigal son, the unjust steward.\n\nThere was one story that thrilled Joel deeply,--the story of the lost\nsheep. For he recalled that stormy night in the sheepfold of Nathan ben\nObed, and the shepherd who searched till dawn for the straying lamb.\n\nIt was only long afterwards that he realized it was the Good Shepherd\nHimself who told the story, when He was about to lay down His own life\nfor the lost sheep of Israel.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMeanwhile in Bethany, Rabbi Reuben and his wife rejoiced that their\ndaughter's visit stretched out indefinitely.\n\nJesse openly declared that he intended to stay there always, and learn\nto be a goldsmith like his grandfather.\n\nRuth, too, was happy and contented, and seemed to have forgotten that\nshe ever had any other home. As the early spring days came on, she lived\nalmost entirely out in the sunshine. She had fallen into the habit of\nstanding at the gate to watch for Lazarus every evening when he came\nback from the Temple. As soon as she saw him turn the corner into their\nstreet, she ran to meet him, her fair curls and white dress fluttering\nin the wind.\n\nNo matter how tired he was, or what cares rested heavily on his mind,\nthe pale face always lighted up, and his dark eyes smiled at her coming.\n\n\"Lazarus does not seem well, lately,\" she heard Martha say to her mother\none day. \"I have been trying to persuade him to rest a few days; but he\ninsists he cannot until he has finished the scroll he is illuminating.\"\n\nA few days after that he did not go to the city as usual. Ruth peeped\ninto the darkened room where he was resting on a couch; his eyes were\nclosed, and he was so pale it almost frightened her.\n\nHe did not hear her when she tiptoed into the room and out again; but\nthe fragrance of the little stemless rose she laid on his pillow aroused\nhim. He opened his eyes and smiled languidly, as he caught sight of her\nslipping noiselessly through the door.\n\nHer mother, sewing by the window, looked out and saw her running across\nthe street. Jesse was out in front of the house, playing with a ball.\n\n\"Who is that boy talking to Jesse?\" asked Abigail of Rebecca, who stood\nin the doorway, holding out her arms as Ruth came up.\n\n\"Why, that is little Joseph, the only son of Simon the leper. Poor\nchild!\"\n\n\"Simon the leper,\" repeated Abigail. \"A stranger to me.\"\n\n\"Surely not. Have you forgotten the wealthy young oil-seller who lived\nnext the synagogue? He has the richest olive groves in this part of the\ncountry.\"\n\n\"Not the husband of my little playmate Esther!\" cried Abigail. \"Surely\nhe has not been stricken with leprosy!\"\n\n\"Yes; it is one of the saddest cases I ever heard of. It seems so\nterrible for a man honored as he has been, and accustomed to every\nluxury, to be such a despised outcast.\"\n\n\"Poor Esther!\" sighed Abigail. \"Does she ever see him?\"\n\n\"Not now. The disease is fast destroying him; and he is such a hideous\nsight that he has forbidden her to ever try to see him again. Even his\nvoice is changed. Of course he would be stoned if he were to come back.\nHe never seeks the company of other lepers. She has had a room built for\nhim away from the sight of men. Every day a servant carries him food and\ntidings. It is well that they have money, or he would be obliged to live\namong the tombs with others as repulsive-looking as himself, and such\ncompany must certainly be worse than none. Sometimes little Joseph is\ntaken near enough to speak to him, that he may have the poor comfort of\nseeing his only child at a distance.\"\n\n\"What if it were my Phineas!\" exclaimed Abigail, her tears dropping fast\non the needlework she held. \"Oh, it is a thousand times worse than\ndeath!\"\n\nOut in the street the boys were making each other's acquaintance in the\noff-hand way boys of that age have.\n\n\"My name is Jesse. What's yours?\"\n\n\"Joseph.\"\n\n\"Where do you live?\"\n\n\"Around the corner, next to the synagogue.\"\n\n\"My father is a carpenter. What's yours?\"\n\nJoseph hesitated. \"He used to be an oil-seller,\" he said finally. \"He\ndoesn't do anything now.\"\n\n\"Why?\" persisted Jesse.\n\n\"He is a leper now,\" was the reluctant answer.\n\nA look of distress came over Jesse's face. He had seen some lepers once,\nand the sight was still fresh in his mind. As they were riding down from\nGalilee, Joel had pointed them out to him. A group of beggars with\nhorrible scaly sores that had eaten away their flesh, till some were\nleft without lips or eyelids; one held out a deathly white hand from\nwhich nearly all the fingers had dropped. Their hair looked like white\nwire, and they called out, in shrill, cracked voices, \"Unclean! Unclean!\nCome not near us!\"\n\n\"How terrible to have one's father like that,\" thought Jesse. A lump\nseemed to come up in his throat; his eyes filled with tears at the bare\nidea. Then, boy-like, he tossed up his ball, and forgot all about it in\nthe game that followed.\n\nSeveral days after he met Joseph and a servant who was carrying a large,\ncovered basket and a water-bottle made of skin.\n\n\"I'm going to see my father, now,\" said Joseph. \"Ask your mother if you\ncan come with me.\"\n\nJesse started towards his home, then turned suddenly. \"No, I'm not going\nto ask her, for she'll be sure to say no. I am just going anyhow.\"\n\n\"You'll catch it when you get home!\" exclaimed Joseph.\n\n\"Well, it cannot last long,\" reasoned Jesse, whose curiosity had gotten\nthe better of him. \"I believe I'd rather take a whipping than not to\ngo.\"\n\nJoseph looked at him in utter astonishment.\n\n\"Yes, I would,\" he insisted; \"so come on!\"\n\nA short walk down an unfrequented road, in the direction of Jericho,\ntook them to a lonely place among the bare cliffs. A little cabin stood\nclose against the rocks, with a great sycamore-tree bending over it.\nNear by was the entrance to a deep cave, always as cool as a cellar,\neven in the hottest summer days.\n\nAt the mouth of the cave sat Simon the leper. He stood up when he saw\nthem coming, and wrapped himself closely in a white linen mantle that\ncovered him from head to foot. It was a ghostly sight to Jesse; but to\nJoseph, so long accustomed to it, there seemed nothing strange.\n\nAt a safe distance the servant emptied his basket on a large flat rock,\nand poured the water into a stone jar standing near. Last of all, he\nlaid a piece of parchment on the stone. It was Esther's daily letter to\nher exiled husband.\n\nNo matter what storms swept the valley, or what duties pressed at home,\nthat little missive was always sent. She had learned to write for his\nsake. By all his friends he was accounted dead; but her love, stronger\nthan death, bridged the gulf that separated them. She lived only to\nminister to his comfort as best she could.\n\nSimon did not send as long a message in return as this trusted messenger\nusually carried. He had much to say to his boy, and the sun was already\nhigh.\n\nJesse, lagging behind in the shelter of the rock, heard the tender words\nof counsel and blessing that came from the white-sheeted figure with a\nfeeling of awe.\n\nAs the father urged his boy to be faithful to every little duty, careful\nin learning the prayers, and above all obedient to his mother, Jesse's\nconscience began to prick him sorely.\n\n\"I believe I know somebody that could cure him,\" he said, as they picked\ntheir way over the rocks, going home. \"'Cause He made Joel well.\"\n\n\"Who's Joel?\" asked Joseph.\n\n\"A boy that lives with us. He was just as lame, and limped way over when\nhe walked. Now he is as straight as I am. All the sick people where I\nlived went to Him, and they got well.\"\n\nJoseph shook his head. \"Lepers can't be cured. Can they, Seth?\" he\nasked, appealing to the servant.\n\n\"No, lepers are just the same as dead,\" answered Seth. \"There's no help\nfor them.\"\n\nJesse was in a very uncomfortable frame of mind, as, hot and dusty, he\nleft his companion and dragged home at a snail's pace.\n\nNext morning Joseph was waiting for him out in front. \"Well, did she\nwhip you?\" he asked, with embarrassing frankness.\n\n\"No,\" said Jesse, a little sheepishly. \"She put me to bed just as soon\nas I had eaten my dinner, and made me stay there till this morning.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n\nRUTH went every day to ask for her sick friend, sometimes with a bunch\nof grapes, sometimes with only a flower in her warm little hand.\n\nBut there came a time when Martha met her, with eyes all swollen and red\nfrom crying, and told her they had sent to the city for a skilful\nphysician.\n\nIn the night there came a loud knocking at the door, and a call for\nRabbi Reuben to come quickly, that Lazarus was worse. At day-break a\nmessenger was sent clattering away to hurry over the Jordan in hot\nhaste, and bring back from Perea the only One who could help them.\n\nThe noise awakened Ruth; she sat up in surprise to see her mother\ndressed so early. The outer door was ajar, and she heard the message\nthat the anxious Martha bade the man deliver: \"Lord, he whom Thou lovest\nis sick.\"\n\n\"He will come right away and make him well, won't He, mother?\" she asked\nanxiously.\n\n\"Surely, my child,\" answered Abigail. \"He loves him too well to let him\nsuffer so.\"\n\nBut the day wore on, and the next; still another, and He did not come.\n\nRuth stole around like a frightened shadow, because of the anxious looks\non every face.\n\n\"Why doesn't He come?\" she wondered; and on many another lip was the\nsame question.\n\nShe was so quiet, no one noticed when she stole into the room where her\nfriend lay dying. Mary knelt on one side of the bed, Martha on the\nother, watching the breath come slower and slower, and clinging to the\nunresponsive hands as if their love could draw him back to life.\n\nNeither shed a tear, but seemed to watch with their souls in their eyes,\nfor one more word, one more look of recognition.\n\nAbigail sat by the window, weeping softly. Ruth had never seen her\nmother cry before, and it frightened her. She glanced at her\ngrandfather, standing by the foot of the bed; two great tears rolled\nslowly down his cheeks, and dropped on his long beard.\n\nA sudden cry from Mary, as she fell fainting to the floor, called her\nattention to the bed again. Martha was silently rocking herself to and\nfro, in an agony of grief.\n\nStill the child did not understand. Those in the room were so busy\ntrying to bring Mary back to consciousness, that no one noticed Ruth.\n\nDrawn by some impulse she could not understand, the child drew nearer\nand nearer. Then she laid her soft little hand on his, thinking the\ntouch would surely make him open his eyes and smile at her again; it had\noften done so before.\n\nBut what was it that made her start back terrified, and shrink away\ntrembling? It was not Lazarus she had touched, but the awful mystery of\ndeath.\n\n\"I did not know that a little child could feel so deeply,\" said Abigail\nto her mother, when she found that Ruth neither ate nor played, but\nwandered aimlessly around.\n\n\"I shall keep her away from the funeral.\"\n\nBut all her care could not keep from the little one's ears the mournful\nmusic of the funeral dirge, or the wailing of the mourners, who gathered\nto do honor to the young man whom all Bethany knew and loved.\n\nMany friends came out from Jerusalem to follow the long procession to\nthe tomb. There was a long eulogy at the grave; but the most impressive\nceremony was over at last, and the great stone had to be rolled into the\nopening that formed the doorway.\n\nThen the two desolate sisters went back to their lonely home and empty\nlife, wondering how they could go on without the presence that had been\nsuch a daily benediction.\n\nThe fourth day after his death, as Martha sat listlessly looking out of\nthe green arbor with unseeing eyes, Ruth ran in with a radiant face.\n\n\"He's come!\" she cried. \"He's come, and so has my father. Hurry! He is\nwaiting for you!\"\n\nMartha drew her veil about her, and mechanically followed the eager\nchild to the gate, where Phineas met her with the same message.\n\n\"Oh, why did He not come sooner?\" she thought bitterly, as she pressed\non after her guide.\n\nOnce outside of the village, she drew aside her veil. There stood the\nMaster, with such a look of untold sympathy on His worn face, that\nMartha cried out, \"Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not\ndied!\"\n\n\"Thy brother shall rise again,\" He said gently.\n\n\"Yes, I know he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day,\"\nshe said brokenly. \"That brings hope for the future; but what comfort is\nthere for the lonely years we must live without him?\" The tears streamed\ndown her face again.\n\nThen for the first time came those words that have brought balm into\nthousands of broken hearts, and hope into countless tear-blind eyes.\n\n\"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me shall never\ndie. Believest thou this?\"\n\nMartha looked up reverently. \"Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the\nChrist, the Son of God which should come into the world.\"\n\nA great peace came over her troubled spirit as she hurried to her home,\nwhere the many friends still sat who had come to comfort them. A number\nof them were from Jerusalem, and she knew that among them were some who\nwere unfriendly to her brother's friend.\n\nSo she quietly called her sister from the room, whispering, \"The Master\nis come, and calleth for thee!\"\n\nThose who sat there thought they were going to the grave to weep, as was\nthe custom. So they rose also, and followed at a little distance.\n\nMary met Him with the same exclamation that her sister had uttered, and\nfell at His feet.\n\nHe, seeing in her white face the marks of the deep grief she had\nsuffered, was thrilled to the depths of His humanity by the keenest\nsympathy. His tears fell too, at the sight of hers.\n\n\"Behold how He loved Lazarus!\" said a man to the one who stood beside\nhim.\n\n\"Why did He not save him then?\" was the mocking answer.\n\n\"They say He has the power to open the eyes of the blind, and even to\nraise the dead. Let Him show it in this case!\"\n\nIt was a curious crowd that followed Him to the door of the tomb: men\nwho hated Him for the scorching fire-brands of rebuke He had thrown into\ntheir corrupt lives; men who feared Him as a dangerous teacher of false\ndoctrines; men who knew His good works, but hesitated either to accept\nor refuse; and men who loved Him better than life,--all waiting,\nwondering what He would do.\n\n\"Roll the stone away!\" He commanded; a dozen strong shoulders bent to do\nHis bidding. Then He looked up and spoke in a low tone, but so\ndistinctly that no one lost a word.\n\n\"Father,\" He said,--He seemed to be speaking to some one just beside\nHim,--\"I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou\nhearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it,\nthat they may believe that Thou hast sent me.\"\n\nA cold shiver of expectancy ran over those who heard. Then He cried, in\na loud voice, \"_Lazarus, come forth!_\" There was a dreadful pause. Some\nof the women clutched each other with frightened shrieks; even strong\nmen fell back, as out of the dark grave walked a tall figure wrapped in\nwhite grave-clothes.\n\nHis face was hidden in a napkin. \"Loose him, and let him go,\" said the\nMaster, calmly.\n\nPhineas stepped forward and loosened the outer bands. When the napkin\nfell from his face, they saw he was deathly white; but in an instant a\nwarm, healthful glow took the place of the corpse-like pallor.\n\nNot till he spoke, however, could the frightened people believe that it\nwas Lazarus, and not a ghost they saw.\n\nNever had there been such a sight since the world began: the man who had\nlain four days in the tomb, walking side by side with the man who had\ncalled him back to life.\n\nThe streets were full of people, laughing, shouting, crying, fairly\nbeside themselves with astonishment.\n\nSmiths left their irons to cool on the anvils; bakers left their bread\nto burn in the ovens; the girl at the fountain dropped her half-filled\npitcher; and a woman making cakes ran into the street with the dough in\nher hands.\n\nEvery house in the village stood empty, save one where a sick man moaned\nfor water all unheeded, and another where a baby wakened in its cradle\nand began to cry.\n\nLong after the reunited family had gone into their home with their\nnearest friends, and shut the door on their overwhelming joy, the crowds\nstill stood outside, talking among themselves.\n\nMany who had taken part against the Master before, now believed on\naccount of what they had seen. But some still said, more openly than\nbefore, \"He is in league with the evil one, or He could not do such\nthings.\" These hurried back to Jerusalem, to spread the report that this\ndangerous man had again appeared, almost at the very gates of the great\nCapital.\n\nThat night there was a secret council of the chief priests and the\nPharisees. \"What shall we do,\" was the anxious question. \"If we let Him\nalone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans shall come and take\naway both our place and our nation.\"\n\nEvery heart beat with the same thought, but only Caiaphas put it in\nwords. At last he dared repeat what he had only muttered to himself\nbefore: \"It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people,\nand that the whole nation perish not.\"\n\nWhile the streets were still full of people, Jesse crept up to Joel, as\nthey sat together in the court-yard. \"Don't you think it would be just\nas easy to cure a leper as to raise Rabbi Lazarus from the dead?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed!\" answered Joel, positively, \"I've seen it done.\"\n\n\"Oh, have you?\" cried the boy, in delight. \"Then Joseph can have his\nfather back again.\"\n\nHe told him the story of Simon the leper, and of his visit to the lonely\ncave.\n\nJoel's sympathies were aroused at once. Ever since his own cure, he had\nfelt that he must bring every afflicted one in the wide world to the\ngreat source of healing.\n\nJust then a man stopped at the gate to ask for Phineas. Joel had learned\nto know him well in the weeks they had been travelling together; it was\nThomas.\n\nThe boy sprang up eagerly. \"Do you know when the Master is going to\nleave Bethany?\" he asked.\n\n\"In the morning,\" answered Thomas, \"and right glad I am that it is to be\nso soon. For when we came down here, I thought it was but to die with\nHim. He is beset on all sides by secret enemies.\"\n\n\"And will He go out by the same road that we came?\"\n\n\"It is most probable.\"\n\nJoel waited for no more information from him, but went back to Jesse to\nlearn the way to the cave.\n\nJesse was a little fellow, but a keen-eyed one, and was able to give\nJoel the few simple directions that would lead him the right way.\n\n\"Oh, I'm so glad you are going!\" he exclaimed. \"Shall I run and tell\nJoseph what you are going to do?\"\n\n\"No, do not say a word to any one,\" answered Joel. \"I shall be back in a\nvery short time.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n\nSIMON the leper sat at the door of his cave. He held a roll of vellum in\nhis unsightly fingers; it was a copy of the Psalms that Lazarus had once\nmade for him in happier days.\n\nMany a time he had found comfort in these hope-inspiring songs of David;\nbut to-day he was reading a wail that seemed to come from the depths of\nhis own soul:\n\n\"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy\nwaves. Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an\nabomination unto them. I am shut up and I cannot come forth. Lord, I\nhave called daily upon Thee. I have stretched out my hands unto Thee.\nWilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise again and\npraise Thee? Lord, why casteth Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou Thy\nface from me?\"\n\nThe roll dropped to the ground, and he hid his face in his hands,\ncrying, \"How long must I endure this? Oh, why was I not taken instead of\nLazarus?\"\n\nThe sound of some one scrambling over the rocks made him look up\nquickly.\n\nSeth never made his visits at this time of the day, and strangers had\nnever before found the path to this out-of-the-way place.\n\nJoel came on, and stopped by the rock where the water-jar stood.\n\nSimon stood up, covering himself with his mantle, and crying out,\nwarningly, \"Beware! Unclean! Come no further!\"\n\n\"I bring you news from the village,\" said Joel. The man threw out his\nhand with a gesture of alarm.\n\n\"Oh, not of my wife Esther,\" he cried, imploringly, \"or of my little\nJoseph! I could not bear to hear aught of ill from them. My heart is\nstill sore for the death of my friend Lazarus. I went as near the\nvillage as I dared, and heard the dirge of the flutes and the wailing of\nthe women, when they laid him in the tomb. I have sat here ever since in\nsackcloth and ashes.\"\n\n\"But Lazarus lives again!\" exclaimed Joel, simply. He had seen so many\nmiracles lately, that he forgot the startling effect such an\nannouncement would have on one not accustomed to them.\n\n[Illustration: \"'YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY'\"]\n\nThe man stood petrified with astonishment. At last he said bitterly,\n\"You but mock me, boy; at least leave me to my sorrow in peace.\"\n\n\"No!\" cried Joel. \"As the Lord liveth, I swear it is the truth. Have you\nnot heard that Messiah has come? I have followed Him up and down the\ncountry, and know whereof I speak. At a word from Him the dumb sing, the\nblind see, and the lame walk. I was lame myself, and He made me as you\nsee me now.\"\n\nJoel drew himself up to his fullest height. Simon looked at him,\ncompletely puzzled.\n\n\"Why did you take the trouble to come and tell me that,--a poor despised\nleper?\" he finally asked.\n\n\"Because I want everybody else to be as happy as I am. He cured me. He\ngave me back my strength. Then why should not my feet be always swift to\nbring others to Him for the same happy healing? He Himself goes about\nall the time doing good. I know there is hope for you, for I have seen\nHim cleanse lepers.\"\n\nSimon trembled, as the full meaning of the hope held out to him began to\nmake itself clear to his confused mind: health, home, Esther,\nchild,--all restored to him. It was joy too great to be possible.\n\n\"Oh, if I could only believe it!\" he cried.\n\n\"Lazarus was raised when he had been four days dead. All Bethany can\nbear witness to that,\" persisted Joel. The words poured out with such\nforce and earnestness, as he described the scene, that Simon felt\nimpelled to believe him.\n\n\"Where can I find this man?\" he asked.\n\nJoel pointed down the rocky slope. \"Take that road that leads into\nBethany. Come early in the morning, and as we all pass that way, call to\nHim. He never refuses any who have faith to believe that He can grant\nwhat they ask.\"\n\nWhen Joel was half-way down the hill, he turned back. \"If He should not\npass on the morrow,\" he said, \"do not fail to be there on the second\nday. We will surely leave here soon.\"\n\nSimon stood in bewilderment till the boy had passed down the hill; he\nbegan to fear that this messenger had been only the creation of a dream.\nHe climbed upon the cliff and peered down into the valley. No, he had\nnot been deceived; the boy was no mirage of his thirsty soul, for there,\nhe came out into full sight again, and now, he was climbing the opposite\nhillside.\n\n\"How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who bringeth good\ntidings!\" he murmured. \"Oh, what a heaven opens out before me, if this\nlad's words are only true!\"\n\nNext morning, after they left Bethany, Joel looked anxiously behind\nevery rock and tree that they passed; but Simon was not to be seen.\n\nPresently Joel saw him waiting farther down the road; he was kneeling in\nthe dust. The white mantle, that in his sensitiveness was always used to\nhide himself from view, was cast aside, that the Great Healer might see\nhis great need.\n\nHe scanned the approaching figures with imploring eyes. He was looking\nfor the Messiah,--some one in kingly garments, whose jewelled sceptre's\nlightest touch would lay upon him the royal accolade of health.\n\nThese were evidently not the ones he was waiting for. These were only\nsimple wayfarers; most of them looked like Galileans.\n\nHe was about to rise up with his old warning cry of unclean, when he\ncaught sight of Joel. But where was the princely Redeemer of prophecy?\n\nNearer and nearer they came, till he could look full in their faces. No\nneed now to ask on which one he should call for help; indeed, he seemed\nto see but one face, it was so full of loving pity.\n\n\"O Thou Messiah of Israel!\" he prayed. \"Thou didst call my friend\nLazarus from the dead, O pass me not by! Call me from this living death!\nMake me clean!\"\n\nThe eyes that looked down into his seemed to search his soul. \"Believest\nthou that I can do this?\"\n\nThe pleading faith in Simon's eyes could not be refused. \"Yea, Lord,\" he\ncried, \"Thou hast but to speak the word!\"\n\nHe waited, trembling, for the answer that meant life or death to him.\n\n\"I will. Be thou clean!\" He put out His hand to raise the kneeling man\nto his feet. \"Go and show thyself to the priests,\" He added.\n\nThe party passed on, and Simon stood looking after them. _Was_ it the\nChrist who had passed by? Where were His dyed garments from Bozrah? The\nprophet foretold Him as glorious in apparel, travelling in the greatness\nof His strength. No sceptre of divine power had touched him; it was only\nthe clasp of a warm human hand he had felt. He looked down at himself.\nStill a leper! His faith wavered; but he remembered he had not obeyed\nthe command to show himself to the priests. Immediately he started\nacross the fields on a run, towards the road leading into Jerusalem.\n\nFar down the highway Joel heard a mighty shout; he turned and looked\nback. There on the brow of a hill, sharply outlined against the sky,\nstood Simon. His arms were lifted high up towards heaven; for as he ran,\nin obedience to the command, the leprosy had gone from him. He was\npouring out a flood of praise and thanksgiving, in the first ecstasy of\nhis recovery, at the top of his voice.\n\nJoel thought of the tiresome ceremonies to be observed before the man\ncould go home, and wished that the eight days of purification were over,\nthat the little family might be immediately reunited.\n\nMeanwhile, Seth, with his basket and water-bottle, was climbing the hill\ntoward the cave. For the first time in seven years since he had\ncommenced these daily visits, no expectant voice greeted him. He went\nquite close up to the little room under the cliff; he could see through\nthe half-open door that it was empty. Then he cautiously approached the\nmouth of the cave, and called his master. A hundred echoes answered him,\nbut no human voice responded. Call after call was sent ringing into the\nhollow darkness. The deep stillness weighed heavily upon him; he began\nto be afraid that somewhere in its mysterious depths lay a dead body.\n\nThe fear mastered him. Only stopping to put down the food and pour out\nthe water, he started home at the top of his speed.\n\nAs he reached the road, a traveller going to Bethany hailed him. \"What\nthink you that I saw just now?\" asked the stranger. \"A man running with\nall his might towards Jerusalem. Tears of joy were streaming down his\ncheeks, and he was shouting as he ran, 'Cleansed! Cleansed! Cleansed!'\nHe stopped me, and bade me say, if I met a man carrying a basket and\nwater-skin, that Simon the leper has just been healed of the leprosy. He\nwill be home as soon as the days of purification are over.\"\n\nSeth gazed at him stupidly, feeling that he must be in a dream. Esther,\ntoo, heard the message unbelievingly. Yet she walked the floor in a\nfever of excitement, at the bare possibility of such a thing being true.\n\nThe next morning, she sent Seth, as usual, with the provisions. But he\nbrought them back, saying the place was still deserted.\n\nThen she began to dare to hope; although she tried to steel herself\nagainst disappointment, by whispering over and over that she could never\nsee him again, she waited impatiently for the days to pass. At last they\nhad all dragged by.\n\nThe new day would begin at sunset, the very earliest time that she might\nexpect him. The house was swept and garnished as if a king were coming.\nThe table was set with the choicest delicacies Seth could find in the\nJerusalem markets.\n\nThe earliest roses, his favorite red ones, were put in every room. In\nher restless excitement nothing in her wardrobe seemed rich enough to\nwear. She tried on one ornament after another before she was suited.\nThen, all in white, with jewels blazing in her ears, on her throat, on\nher little white hands, and her eyes shining like two glad stars, she\nsat down to wait for him.\n\nBut she could not keep still. This rug was turned up at the corner; that\nrose had dropped its petals on the floor. She would have another kind of\nwine on the table.\n\nAt last she stepped out of the door in her little silken-bound sandals,\nand climbed the outside stairs to the roof, to watch for him.\n\nThe sun was entirely out of sight, but the west was glorious with the\nred gold of its afterglow. Looking up the Mount of Olives, she could see\nthe smoke of the evening sacrifice rising as the clouds of incense\nfilled the Temple. Surely he must be far on the way by this time.\n\nHer heart almost stopped beating as she saw a figure coming up the road,\nbetween the rows of palm-trees. She strained her eyes for a nearer view,\nthen drew a long tremulous breath. It was Lazarus; there went the two\nchildren and the lamb to meet him. All along the street, people were\nstanding in the doors to see him go past; he was still a wonder to them.\n\nShe shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked again. But while her gaze\nsearched the distant road, some one was passing just below, under the\navenue of leafy trees, with quick impatient tread; some one paused at\nthe vine-covered door; some one was leaping up the stairs three steps at\na time; some one was coming towards her with out-stretched arms, crying,\n\"Esther, little Esther, O my wife! My God-given one!\"\n\nFor the first time in seven years, she turned to find herself in her\nhusband's arms. Strong and well, with the old light in his eyes, the old\nthrill in his voice, the glow of perfect health tingling through all his\nveins, he could only whisper tremulously, as he held her close, \"Praise\nGod! Praise God!\"\n\nNo wonder he seemed like a stranger to Joseph. But the clasp of the\nstrong arms, and the deep voice saying \"my son,\" so tenderly, were\ninexpressibly dear to the little fellow kept so long from his birthright\nof a father's love.\n\nHe was the first to break the happy silence that fell upon them. \"What a\ngood man Rabbi Jesus must be, to go about making people glad like this\nall the time!\"\n\n\"It is He who shall redeem Israel!\" exclaimed Simon. \"To God be the\nglory, who hath sent Him into this sin-cursed world! Henceforth all that\nI have, and all that I am, shall be dedicated to His service!\"\n\nKneeling there in the dying daylight, with his arms around the wife and\nchild so unexpectedly given back to him, such a heart-felt prayer of\ngratitude went upward to the good Father that even the happiest angels\nmust have paused to listen, more glad because of this great\nearth-gladness below.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n\n\"I THINK there will be an unusual gathering of strangers at the Passover\nthis year,\" said Rabbi Reuben to Lazarus, as they came out together from\nthe city, one afternoon. \"The number may even reach three millions. A\ntravelling man from Rome was in my shop to-day. He says that in the\nremotest parts of the earth, wherever the Hebrew tongue is found, one\nmay hear the name of the Messiah.\n\n\"People pacing the decks of the ships, crossing the deserts, or trading\nin the shops, talk only of Him and His miracles; they have aroused the\ngreatest interest even in Athens and the cities of the Nile. The very\nair seems full of expectancy. I cannot but think great things are about\nto come to pass. Surely the time is now ripe for Jesus to proclaim\nHimself king. I cannot understand why He should hide Himself away in the\nwilderness as if He feared for His safety.\"\n\nLazarus smiled at the old man, with a confident expression. \"Be sure, my\nfriend, it is only because the hour has not yet come. What a sight it\nwill be when He does stand before the tomb of our long dead power, to\ncall back the nation to its old-time life and grandeur. I can well\nbelieve that with Him all things are possible.\"\n\n\"Would that this next Passover were the time!\" responded Reuben. \"How I\nwould rejoice to see His enemies laid low in the dust!\"\n\nAlready, on the borders of Galilee, the expected king had started toward\nHis coronation. Many of the old friends and neighbors from Capernaum had\njoined their band, to go on to the Paschal feast.\n\nThey made slow progress, however, for at every turn in the road they\nwere stopped by outstretched hands and cries for help. Nearly every step\nwas taken to the sound of some rejoicing cry from some one who had been\nblessed.\n\nJoel could not crowd all the scenes into his memory; but some stood with\nclear-cut distinctness. There were the ten lepers who met them at the\nvery outset; and there was blind Bartimeus begging by the wayside. He\ncould never forget the expression of that man's face, when his eyes\nwere opened, and for the first time he looked out on the glory of the\nmorning sunshine.\n\nJoel quivered all over with a thrill of sympathy, remembering his own\nhealing, and realizing more than the others what had been done for the\nblind beggar.\n\nThen there was Zaccheus, climbing up to look down through the sycamore\nboughs that he might see the Master passing into Jericho, and Zaccheus\nscrambling down again in haste to provide entertainment for his honored\nguest.\n\nThere was the young ruler going away sorrowful because the sacrifice\nasked of him was more than he was willing to make. But there was one\nscene that his memory held in unfading colors:--\n\nRoses and wild honeysuckle climbing over a bank by the road-side.\nOrange-trees dropping a heavy fragrance with the falling petals of their\nwhite blossoms. In the midst of the shade and the bloom the mothers from\nthe village near by, gathering with their children, all freshly washed\nand dressed to find favor in the eyes of the passing Prophet.\n\nBabies cooed in their mother's arms. Bright little faces smiled out from\nbehind protecting skirts, to which timid fingers clung. As they waited\nfor the coming procession, and little bare feet chased each other up and\ndown the bank, the happy laughter of the older children filled all the\nsunny air.\n\nAs the travellers came on, the women caught up their children and\ncrowded forward. It was a sight that would have made almost any one\npause,--those innocent-eyed little ones waiting for the touch that would\nkeep them always pure in heart,--that blessing their mothers coveted for\nthem.\n\nBut some of the disciples, impatient at the many delays, seeing in the\nrosy faces and dimpled limbs nothing that seemed to claim help or\nattention, spoke to the women impatiently. \"Why trouble ye the Master?\"\nthey said. \"Would ye stop the great work He has come to do for matters\nof such little importance?\"\n\nRepelled by the rebuke, they fell back. But there was a look of\ndispleasure on His face, such as they had never seen before, as Jesus\nturned toward them.\n\n\"Suffer the little children to come unto me,\" He said, sternly, \"and\nforbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven!\"\n\nThen holding out His hands He took them up in His arms and blessed\nthem, every one, even the youngest baby, that blinked up at Him\nunknowingly with its big dark eyes, received its separate blessing.\n\nSo fearlessly they came to Him, so lovingly they nestled in His arms,\nand with such perfect confidence they clung to Him, that He turned again\nto His disciples. \"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive\nthe kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.\"\n\nMet at all points as He had been by loathsome sights, ragged beggars,\nand diseases of all kinds, this group of happy-faced children must have\nremained long in His memory, as sweet as the unexpected blossoming of a\nrose in a dreary desert.\n\nAt last the slow journey drew towards a close. The Friday afternoon\nbefore the Passover found the tired travellers once more in Bethany.\nNews of their coming had been brought several hours before by a man\nriding down from Jericho. His swift-footed beast had overtaken and\npassed the slow procession far back on the road.\n\nThere was a joyful welcome for the Master in the home of Lazarus. The\ncool, vine-covered arbor was a refreshing change from the dusty road.\nHere were no curious throngs and constant demands for help.\n\nAway from the sights that oppressed Him, away from the clamor and the\ncriticism, here was a place where heart and body might find rest. The\npeace of the place, and the atmosphere of sympathy surrounding Him, must\nhave fallen like dew on His thirsty soul. Here, for a few short days, He\nwho had been so long a houseless wanderer was to know the blessedness of\na home.\n\nSeveral hours before the first trumpet blast from the roof of the\nsynagogue proclaimed the approaching Sabbath, Simon hurried to his home.\n\n\"Esther,\" he called in great excitement, \"I have seen Him! The Christ! I\nhave knelt at His feet. I have looked in His face. And, oh, only\nthink!--He has promised to sit at our table! To-morrow night, such a\nfeast as has never been known in the place shall be spread before Him.\nHelp me to think of something we may do to show him especial honor.\"\n\nEsther sprang up at the news. \"We have very little time to prepare,\" she\nsaid. \"Seth must go at once into the city to make purchases. To-morrow\nnight, no hireling hand shall serve him. I myself shall take that lowly\nplace, with Martha and Mary to aid me. Abigail, too, shall help us, for\nit is a labor of love that she will delight to take part in. I shall go\nat once to ask them.\"\n\nThe long, still Sabbath went by. The worshippers in the synagogue looked\nin vain for other miracles, listened in vain for the Voice that wrought\nsuch wonders.\n\nThrough the unbroken rest of that day He was gathering up His strength\nfor a coming trial. Something of the approaching shadow may have been\nseen in His tender eyes; some word of the awaiting doom may have been\nspoken to the brother and sisters sitting reverently at his feet,--for\nthey seemed to feel that a parting was at hand, and that they must crowd\nthe flying hours with all the loving service they could render Him.\n\nThat night at the feast, as Esther's little white hands brought the\nwater for the reclining guests to wash, and Martha and Abigail placed\nsumptuously filled dishes before them, Mary paused in her busy passing\nto and fro; she longed to do some especial thing to show her love for\nthe honored guest.\n\nNever had His face worn such a look of royalty; never had He seemed so\nmuch the Christ. The soft light of many candles falling on His worn\nface seemed to reveal as never before the divine soul soon to leave the\nworn body where it now tarried.\n\nAn old Jewish custom suddenly occurred to her. She seemed to see two\npictures: one was Aaron, standing up in the rich garments of the\npriesthood, with his head bowed to receive the sacred anointing; the\nother was Israel's first king, on whom the hoary Samuel was bestowing\nthe anointing that proclaimed his royalty. Token of both priesthood and\nkingship,--oh, if she dared but offer it!\n\nNo one noticed when she stepped out after awhile, and hurried swiftly\nhomeward. Hidden away in a chest in her room, was a little alabaster\nflask, carefully sealed. It held a rare sweet perfume, worth almost its\nweight in gold.\n\nShe took it out with trembling fingers, and hid it in the folds of her\nlong flowing white dress. Her breath came quick, and her heart beat\nfast, as she slipped in behind the guests again. The color glowed and\npaled in her cheeks, as she stood there in the shadow of the curtains,\nhesitating, half afraid to venture.\n\nAt last, when the banquet was almost over, she stepped noiselessly\nforward. There was a hush of surprise at this unusual interruption,\nalthough every one there was familiar with the custom, and recognized\nits deep meaning and symbolism.\n\nFirst on His head, then on His feet, she poured the costly perfume.\nBending low in the deepest humility, she swept her long soft hair across\nthem to wipe away the crystal drops. The whole house was filled with the\nsweet, delicate odor.\n\nSome of those who saw it, remembered a similar scene in the house of\nanother Simon, in far away Galilee; but only the Anointed One could feel\nthe deep contrast between the two.\n\nThat Simon, the proud Pharisee, condescending and critical and scant in\nhospitality; this Simon, the cleansed leper, ready to lay down his life,\nin his boundless love and gratitude. That woman, a penitent sinner,\nkneeling with tears before His mercy; this woman, so pure in heart that\nshe could see God though hidden in the human body of the Nazarene. That\nanointing, to His priesthood at the beginning of His ministry; this\nanointing, to His kingdom, now almost at hand. No one spoke as the\nfragrance rose and spread itself like the incense of a benediction. It\nseemed a fitting close to this hour of communion with the Master.\n\nAcross this eloquent silence that the softest sound would have jarred\nupon, a cold, unfeeling voice broke harshly.\n\n[Illustration: \"A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE NIGHT\"]\n\nIt was Judas Iscariot who spoke. \"Why was all this ointment wasted?\" he\nasked. \"It would have been better to have sold it and given it to the\npoor.\"\n\nSimon frowned indignantly at this low-browed guest, who was so lacking\nin courtesy, and Mary looked up distressed.\n\n\"Let her alone!\" said the Master, gently. \"Ye have the poor with you\nalways, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good: but me ye have not\nalways. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my\nbody to the burying.\"\n\nA dark look gleamed in the eyes of Judas,--there was that reference\nagain to His burial. There seemed to be no use of making any further\npretence to follow Him any longer. His kingdom was a delusion,--a vague,\nshadowy, spiritual thing that the others might believe in if they chose.\nBut if there was no longer any hope of gaining by His service, he would\nturn to the other side.\n\nThat night there was another secret council of some of the Sanhedrin,\nand Judas Iscariot was in their midst.\n\nWhen the lights were out, and the Temple police were making their final\nrounds, a dark figure went skulking out into the night, and wound its\nway through the narrow streets,--the dark figure that still goes\nskulking through the night of history,--the man who covenanted for\nthirty pieces of silver to betray his Lord.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n\n\"WHO is that talking in the house?\" asked Joel of Abigail the morning\nafter the feast. He had been playing in the garden with Jesse, and\npaused just outside the door as he heard voices.\n\n\"Only father and Phineas, now,\" answered Abigail. \"Simon the oil-seller\nhas just been here, and I am sure you could not guess his errand. It was\nabout you.\"\n\n\"About me?\" echoed Joel, in surprise.\n\n\"Yes, I never knew until this morning that you were the one who\npersuaded him to go to the Master for healing. He says if it had not\nbeen for you, he would still be an outcast from home. During these weeks\nyou have been away, he has been hoping to find some trace of you, for he\nlongs to express his gratitude. Last night at the feast, he learned your\nname, and now he has just been here to talk to Phineas and father about\nyou. His olive groves yield him a large fortune every year, and he is in\na position to do a great deal for you, if you will only let him.\"\n\n\"What does he want to do?\" asked Joel.\n\n\"He has offered a great deal: to send you to the best schools in the\ncountry; to let you travel in foreign lands, and see life as it is in\nRome and Athens and the cities of Egypt. Then when you are grown, he\noffers to take you in business with himself, and give you the portion of\na son. It is a rare chance for you, my boy.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Joel, flushing with pleasure at the thought of all he\nmight be able to see and learn. He seemed lost for a few minutes in the\nbright anticipation of such a tempting future; then his face clouded.\n\n\"But I would have to leave everybody I love,\" he cried, \"and the home\nwhere I have been so happy! I cannot do it, mother Abigail; it is too\nmuch to ask.\"\n\n\"Now you talk like a child,\" she answered, half impatiently; but there\nwas a suspicion of tears in her eyes as she added, \"Joel, you have grown\nvery dear to us. It will be hard to give you up, for you seem almost\nlike an own son. But consider, my boy; it would not be right to turn\naway from such advantages. Jesse and Ruth will be well provided for. All\nthat my father has will be theirs some day. But Phineas is only a poor\ncarpenter, and cannot give you much beyond food and clothing. I heard\nhim say just now that he clearly thought it to be your duty to accept,\nand he had no doubt but that you would.\"\n\n\"But I cannot be with the Master!\" cried Joel, as the thought suddenly\noccurred to him that he could no longer follow Him as he had been doing,\nif he was to be sent away to study and travel.\n\n\"No; but think what you may be able to do for His cause, if you have\nmoney and education and influence. It seems to me that for His sake\nalone, you ought to consent to such an arrangement.\"\n\nThat was the argument that Phineas used when he came out; and the boy\nwas sadly bewildered between the desire to be constantly with his\nbeloved Master, and his wish to serve Him as they suggested.\n\nIt was in this perplexed state of mind that he started up to Jerusalem\nwith Jesse and his grandfather.\n\nThe streets were rapidly filling with people, coming up to the Feast of\nthe Passover, and Joel recognized many old friends from Galilee.\n\n\"There is Rabbi Amos!\" he exclaimed, as he caught sight of an old man in\nthe door of a house across the street. \"May I run and speak to him?\"\n\n\"Certainly!\" answered Reuben. \"You know your way so well about the\nstreets that it makes no difference if we do get separated. Jesse and I\nwill walk on down to the shop. You can meet us there.\"\n\nRabbi Amos gave Joel a cordial greeting. \"I am about to go back to the\nDamascus gate,\" he said. \"I have just been told that the Nazarene will\nsoon make His entrance into the city, and a procession of pilgrims are\ngoing out to meet Him. I have heard much of the man since He left\nCapernaum, and I have a desire to see Him again. Will you come?\"\n\nThe old man hobbled along so painfully, leaning on his staff, that they\nwere a long time in reaching the gate. The outgoing procession had\nalready met the coming pilgrims, and were starting to return. The way\nwas strewn with palm branches and the clothes they had taken off to lay\nalong the road in front of the man they wished to honor. Every hand\ncarried a palm branch, and every voice cried a Hosannah.\n\nAt first Joel saw only a confused waving of the green branches, and\nheard an indistinct murmur of voices; but as they came nearer, he caught\nthe words, \"Hosannah to the Son of David!\"\n\n\"Look!\" cried Rabbi Amos, laying his wrinkled, shaking hand heavily on\nJoel's shoulder. \"Look ye, boy, the voice of prophecy! No Roman\nwar-horse bears the coming victor! It is as Zechariah foretold! That the\nking should come riding upon the colt of an ass,--the symbol of peace.\nSo David rode, and so the Judges of Israel came and went!\"\n\nJoel's eyes followed the gesture of the tremulous, pointing finger.\nThere came the Master, right in the face of His enemies, boldly riding\nin to take possession of His kingdom.\n\nAt last! No wandering now in lonely wildernesses! No fear of the jealous\nscribe or Pharisee! The time had fully come. With garments strewn in the\nway, with palms of victory waving before Him, with psalm and song and\nthe shouting of the multitude, He rode triumphantly into the city.\n\nJoel was roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, to see His best\nbeloved friend so honored. People understood Him now; they appreciated\nHim. The demonstrations of the multitude proved it. He was so happy and\nexcited, he scarcely knew what he was doing. He had no palm branch to\nwave, but as the head of the procession came abreast with him, and he\nsaw the face of the rider, he was almost beside himself.\n\nHe waved his empty hands wildly up and down, cheering at the top of his\nvoice; but his shrillest Hosannahs were heard only by himself. They were\nonly a drop in that mighty surf-beat of sound.\n\nScarcely knowing what to expect, yet prepared for almost anything, they\nfollowed the procession into the city. When they reached the porch of\nthe Temple, the Master had disappeared.\n\n\"I wonder where He has gone,\" said Joel, in a disappointed tone. \"I\nthought they would surely crown Him.\"\n\n\"He evidently did not wish it to be,\" answered Rabbi Amos. \"It would be\nmore fitting that the coronation take place at the great feast. Wait\nuntil the day of the Passover.\"\n\nAs they sat in the Court of the Gentiles, resting, Joel told Rabbi Amos\nof the offer made him by the wealthy oil-dealer Simon.\n\n\"Accept it, by all means!\" was the old man's advice. \"We have seen\nenough just now to know that a new day is about to dawn for Israel. In\nBethany, you will be much nearer the Master than in Capernaum; for\nsurely, after to-day's demonstration, He will take up His residence in\nthe capital. In time you may rise to great influence in the new\ngovernment soon to be established.\"\n\nThe old rabbi's opinion weighed heavily with Joel, and he determined to\naccept Simon's offer. Then for awhile he was so full of his new plans\nand ambitions, he could think of nothing else.\n\nAll that busy week he was separated from the Master and His disciples;\nfor it was the first Passover he had ever taken part in. After it was\nover, he was to break the ties that bound him to the carpenter's family\nand the simple life in Galilee, and go to live in Simon's luxurious home\nin Bethany.\n\nSo he stayed closely with Phineas and Abigail, taking a great interest\nin all the great preparations for the feast.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nReuben chose, from the countless pens, a male lamb a year old, without\nblemish. About two o'clock the blast of two horns announced that the\npriests and Levites in the Temple were ready, and the gates of the inner\ncourts were opened, that all might bring the lambs for examination.\n\nThe priests, in two long rows, caught the blood in great gold and silver\nvessels, as the animals were killed, and passed it to others behind,\ntill it reached the altar, at the foot of which it was poured out.\n\nThen the lamb was taken up and roasted in an earthen oven, and the feast\ncommenced at sunset on Thursday. The skin of the lamb, and the earthen\ndishes used, were generally given to the host, when different families\nlodged together.\n\nAs many as twenty were allowed to gather at one table. Reuben had\ninvited Nathan ben Obed, and those who came with him, to partake of his\nhospitality. Much to Joel's delight, a familiar shock of sunburned hair\nwas poked in at the door, and he recognized Buz's freckled face,\nround-eyed and open mouthed at this first glimpse of the great city.\n\nDuring the first hour they were together, Buz kept his squinting eyes\ncontinually on Joel. He found it hard to believe that this straight,\nsinewy boy could be the same pitiful little cripple who had gone with\nhim to the sheepfolds of Nathan ben Obed.\n\n\"Say,\" he drawled, after awhile, \"I know where that fellow is who made\nyou lame. I was so upset at seeing you this way that I forgot to tell\nyou. He had a dreadful accident, and you have already had your wish, for\nhe is as blind as that stone.\"\n\n\"Oh, how? Who told you?\" cried Joel, eagerly.\n\n\"I saw him myself, as we came through Jericho. He had been nearly beaten\nto death by robbers a few weeks before. It gave him a fever, and both\neyes were so inflamed and bruised that he lost his sight.\"\n\n\"Poor Rehum!\" exclaimed Joel.\n\n\"Poor Rehum!\" echoed Buz, in astonishment. \"What do you mean by poor\nRehum? Aren't you glad? Isn't that just exactly what you planned; or did\nyou want the pleasure of punching them out yourself?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered Joel, simply; \"I forgave him a year ago, the night before\nI was healed.\"\n\n\"You forgave him!\" gasped Buz,--\"you forgave him! A dog of a Samaritan!\nWhy, how could you?\"\n\nBuz looked at him with such a wondering, puzzled gaze that Joel did not\nattempt to explain. Buz might be ignorant of a great many things, but he\nknew enough to hate the Samaritans, and look down on them with the\nutmost contempt.\n\n\"I don't really believe you could understand it,\" said Joel, \"so it is\nof no use to try to tell you how or why. But I did forgive him, fully\nand freely. And if you will tell me just where to find him, I will go\nafter him early in the morning and bring him back with me. The Hand\nthat straightened my back can open his eyes; for I have seen it done\nmany times.\"\n\nAll during the feast, Buz kept stealing searching glances at Joel. He\ncould hardly tell which surprised him most, the straightened body or the\nforgiving spirit. It was so wonderful to him that he sat speechless.\n\nAt the same time, in an upper chamber in another street, the Master and\nHis disciples were keeping the feast together. It was their last supper\nwith Him, although they knew it not. Afterwards they recalled every word\nand every incident, with loving memory that lingered over each detail;\nbut at the time they could not understand its full import.\n\nThe gates were left open on Passover night. While the Master and His\nfollowers walked out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where they had often\ngone together, Joel was questioning Buz as to the exact place where he\nwas to find his old enemy.\n\n\"I'll go out very early in the morning,\" said Joel, as his head touched\nthe pillow. \"Very early in the morning, for I want Rehum's eyes to be\nopen just as soon as possible, so that he can see the Master's face.\nLord help me to find him to-morrow,\" he whispered, and with a blessing\non his lips for the one he had so long ago forgiven, his eyes closed\nsoftly.\n\nSleep came quickly to him after the fatigue and excitement of the day.\nIn his dreams he saw again the Master's face as He made His triumphal\nentrance into the city; he heard again the acclamations of the crowd.\nThen he saw Rabbi Amos and Simon and little Ruth. There was a confused\nblending of kindly faces; there was a shadow-like shifting of indistinct\nbut pleasant scenes. In the fair dreamland where he wandered, fortune\nsmiled on him, and all his paths were peace.\n\nSleep on, little disciple, happy in thy dreaming; out in Gethsemane's\ndark garden steals one to betray thy Lord! By the light of glimmering\nlanterns and fitful torches they take Him now. Armed with swords and\nstaves, they lead Him out from the leafy darkness into the moon-flooded\nhighroad.\n\nNow He stands before the High Priest,--alone, unfriended. Sleep, and\nwake not at the cock's shrill crowing, for there is none to make answer\nfor Him, and one who loved Him hath thrice denied!\n\nDream on! In the hall of Pilate now, thorn-crowned and purple-clad, Him\nwhom thou lovest; scourged now, and spat upon. This day, indeed, shall\nHe come into His kingdom, but well for thee, that thou seest not the\ncoronation.\n\nSleep on, little disciple, be happy whilst thou can!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n\nIT was so much later than he had intended, when Joel awoke next morning,\nthat without stopping for anything to eat, he hurried out of the city,\nand took the road by which the Master had made such a triumphal entry a\nfew days before.\n\nFaded branches of palms still lay scattered by the wayside, thickly\ncovered with dust.\n\nAll unconscious of what had happened the night before, and what was even\nat that very moment taking place, Joel trudged on to Bethany at a rapid\npace, light-hearted and happy.\n\nFor six days he had been among enthusiastic Galileans who firmly\nbelieved that before the end of Passover week they should see the\noverthrow of Rome, and all nations lying at the feet of a Jewish king.\nHow long they had dreamed of this hour!\n\nHe turned to look back at the city. The white and gold of the Temple\ndazzled his eyes, as it threw back the rays of the morning sun. He\nthought of himself as he had stood that day on the roof of the\ncarpenter's house, stretching out longing arms to this holy place, and\ncalling down curses on the head of his enemy, Rehum.\n\nCould he be the same boy? It seemed to him now that that poor, crippled\nbody, that bitter hatred, that burning thirst for revenge, must have\nbelonged to some one else, he felt so well, so strong, so full of love\nto God and all mankind.\n\nA little broken-winged sparrow fluttered feebly under a hedgerow. He\nstopped to gather a handful of ripe berries for it, and even retraced\nhis steps to a tiny spring he had noticed farther back, to bring it\nwater in the hollow of a smooth stone.\n\nHe did not find Rehum at the place where Buz had told him to inquire.\nHis father had taken him to his home, somewhere in Samaria.\n\nJoel turned back, tired and disappointed. He was glad to lie down, when\nhe reached Bethany again, and rest awhile. A peculiar darkness began to\nsettle down over the earth. Joel was perplexed and frightened; he knew\nit could not be an eclipse, for it was the time of the full moon.\nFinally he started back to Jerusalem, although it was like travelling in\nthe night, for the darkness had deepened and deepened for nearly three\nhours, and the mysterious gloom made him long to be with his friends.\n\nHis first thought was to find the Master, and he naturally turned toward\nthe Temple. Just as he started across the Porch of Solomon, the darkness\nwas lifted, and everything seemed to dance before his eyes. He had never\nexperienced an earthquake shock before, but he felt sure that this was\none.\n\nHe braced himself against one of the pillars. How the massive columns\nquivered! How the hot air throbbed! The darkness had been awful, but\nthis was doubly terrifying.\n\nThe earth had scarcely stopped trembling, when an old white-bearded\npriest ran across the Court of the Gentiles; his wrinkled hands, raised\nabove his head, shook as with palsy. The scream that he uttered seemed\nto transfix Joel with horror.\n\n\"_The veil of the Temple is rent in twain!_\" he cried,--\"_The veil of\nthe Temple is rent in twain!_\"\n\nThen with a convulsive shudder he fell forward on his face. Joel's knees\nshook. The darkness, the earthquake, and now this mighty force that had\nlaid bare the Holy of Holies, filled him with an undefined dread.\n\nHe ran past the prostrate priest into the inner court, and saw for\nhimself. There hung the heavy curtain of Babylonian tapestry, in all its\nglory of hyacinth and scarlet and purple, torn asunder from top to\nbottom. No earthquake shock could have made that ragged gash. The wrath\nof God must have come down and laid mighty fingers upon it.\n\nHe ran out of the Temple, and towards the house where he had slept the\nnight before.\n\nThe earthquake seemed to have shaken all Jerusalem into the streets.\nStrange words were afloat. A question overheard in passing one excited\ngroup, an exclamation in another, made him run the faster.\n\nAt Reuben's shop he found Jesse and Ruth both crying from fright. The\nattendant who had them in charge told him that his friends had been gone\nnearly all day.\n\n\"Where?\" demanded Joel.\n\n\"I do not know exactly. They went out with one of the greatest\nmultitudes that ever passed through the gates of the city. Not only\nJews, but Greeks and Romans and Egyptians. You should have seen the\ncamels and the chariots, the chairs and the litters!\" exclaimed the man.\n\nA sudden fear fell upon the boy that this was the day that the One he\nloved best had been made king, and he had missed it,--had missed the\ngreatest opportunity of his life.\n\n\"Was it to follow Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth?\" he demanded eagerly.\n\nThe man nodded.\n\n\"To crown Him?\" was the next breathless question.\n\n\"No; to crucify Him.\"\n\nThe unexpected answer was almost a death-thrust. Joel stood a moment,\ndumb with horror. The blood seemed to stand still in his veins; there\nwas a roaring in his ears; then everything grew black before him. He\nclutched blindly at the air, then staggered back against the wall.\n\n\"No, _no_, _no_, NO!\" he cried; each word was louder than the last. \"I\nwill not believe it! You do not speak truth!\"\n\nHe ran madly from the shop, down the street, and through the city gate.\nOut on the highway he met the returning multitude, most of them in as\ngreat haste as he.\n\nEverything he saw seemed to confirm the truth of what he had just heard,\nbut he could not believe it.\n\n\"No, no, no!\" he gasped, in a breathless whisper, as he ran. \"No, no,\nno! It cannot be! He is the Christ! The Son of God! They could not be\nable to do it, no matter how much they hated Him!\"\n\nBut even as he ran he saw the hill where three crosses rose. He turned\nsick and cold, and so weak he could scarcely stand. Still he stumbled\nresolutely on, but with his face turned away from the sight he dared not\nlook upon, lest seeing should be knowing what he feared.\n\nAt last he reached the place, and, shrinking back as if from an expected\nblow, he slowly raised his eyes till they rested on the face of the dead\nbody hanging there.\n\nThe agonized shriek on his lips died half uttered, as he fell\nunconscious at the foot of the cross.\n\nA long time after, one of the soldiers happening to notice him, turned\nhim over with his foot, and prodded him sharply with his spear. It\npartially aroused him, and in a few moments he sat up. Then he looked up\nagain into the white face above him; but this time the bowed head awed\nhim into a deep calm.\n\nThe veil of the Temple was rent indeed, and through this pierced body\nthere shone out from its Holy of Holies the Shekinah of God's love for a\ndying world. It uplifted Joel, and drew him, and drew him, till he\nseemed to catch a faint glimpse of the Father's face; to feel himself\nfolded in boundless pardon, in pity so deep, and a love so unfathomed,\nthat the lowest sinner could find a share. But while he gazed and gazed\ninto the white face, so glorified in its marble stillness, Joseph of\nArimathea stood between him and the cross, giving directions, in a low\ntone, for the removal of the body.\n\nIt seemed to waken Joel out of his trance; and when the bloodstained\nform was stretched gently on the ground, he forgot his glimpse of\nheavenly mysteries, he saw no longer the uplifted Christ. He saw\ninstead, the tortured body of the man he loved; the friend for whom he\nwould gladly have given his life.\n\nAlmost blinded by the rush of tears, he groped his way on his knees\ntoward it. A mantle of fine white linen had been laid over the lifeless\nbody; but one hand lay stretched out beside Him with a great bloody\nnail-hole through the palm,--it was the hand that had healed him; the\nhand that had fed the hungry multitudes; the hand that had been laid in\nblessing on the heads of little children, waiting by the roadside! With\nthe thought of all it had done for him, with the thought of all it had\ndone for all the countless ones its warm, loving touch had comforted,\ncame the remembrance of the torture it had just suffered. Joel lay down\nbeside it with a heart-broken moan.\n\nMen came and lifted the body in its spotless covering. Joel did not look\nup to see who bore it away.\n\nThe lifeless hand still hung down uncovered at His side. With his eyes\nfixed on that, Joel followed, longing to press it to his lips with\nburning kisses; but he dared not so much as touch it with trembling\nfingers,--a sense of his unworthiness forbade.\n\nAs the silent procession went onward, Joel found himself walking beside\nAbigail. She had pushed her veil aside that she might better see the\nstill form borne before them; she had stood near by through all those\nhours of suffering. Her wan face and swollen eyes showed how the force\nof her sympathy and grief had worn upon her.\n\nJoel glanced around for Phineas. He was one of those who walked before\nwith the motionless burden, his strong brown hands tenderly supporting\nthe Master's pierced feet; his face was as rigid as stone, and seemed to\nJoel to have grown years older since the night before.\n\nAnother swift rush of tears blinded Joel, as he looked at the set,\ndespairing face, and then at what he carried.\n\nO friend of Phineas! O feet that often ran to meet him on the grassy\nhillsides of Nazareth, that walked beside him at his daily toil, and led\nhim to a nobler living!--Thou hast climbed the mountain of Beatitudes!\nThou hast walked the wind-swept waters of the Galilee! But not of this\nis he thinking now. It is of Thy life's unselfish pilgrimage; of the\ndust and travel stains of the feet he bears; of the many steps, taken\nnever for self, always for others; of the cure and the comfort they have\ndaily carried; of the great love that hath made their very passing by to\nbe a benediction.\n\nIt seemed strange to Joel that, in the midst of such overpowering\nsorrow, trivial little things could claim his attention. Years afterward\nhe remembered just how the long streaks of yellow sunshine stole under\nthe trees of the garden; he could hear the whirr of grasshoppers,\njumping up in the path ahead of them; he could smell the heavy odor of\nlilies growing beside an old tomb.\n\nThe sorrowful little group wound its way to a part of the garden where a\nnew tomb had been hewn out of the rock; here Joseph of Arimathea\nmotioned them to stop. They laid the open bier gently on the ground, and\nJoel watched them with dry eyes but trembling lips, as they noiselessly\nprepared the body for its hurried burial.\n\nFrom time to time as they wound the bands of white linen, powdered with\nmyrrh and aloes, they glanced up nervously at the sinking sun. The\nSabbath eve was almost upon them, and the old slavish fear of the Law\nmade them hasten. A low stifled moaning rose from the lips of the women,\nas the One they had followed so long was lifted up, and borne forever\nout of their sight, through the low doorway of the tomb.\n\nStrong hands rolled the massive stone in place that barred the narrow\nopening. Then all was over; there was nothing more that could be done.\n\nThe desolate mourners sat down on the grass outside the tomb, to watch\nand weep and wait over a dead hope and a lost cause.\n\nA deep stillness settled over the garden as they lingered there in the\ngathering twilight. They grew calm after awhile, and began to talk in\nlow tones of the awful events of the day just dying.\n\nGradually, Joel learned all that had taken place. As he heard the story\nof the shame and abuse and torture that had been heaped upon the One he\nloved better than all the world, his face grew white with horror and\nindignation.\n\n\"Oh, wasn't there _one_ to stand up for Him?\" he cried, with clasped\nhands and streaming eyes. \"Wasn't there _one_ to speak a word in His\ndefence? O my Beloved!\" he moaned. \"Out of all the thousands Thou didst\nheal, out of all the multitudes Thou didst bless, not one to bear\nwitness!\"\n\nHe rocked himself to and fro on his knees, wringing his hands as if the\nthought brought him unspeakable anguish.\n\n\"Oh, if I had only been there!\" he moaned. \"If I could only have stood\nup beside Him and told what He had done for me! O my God! My God! How\ncan I bear it? To think He went to His death without a friend and\nwithout a follower, when I loved Him so! All alone! Not one to speak for\nHim, not one!\"\n\nGroping with tear-blinded eyes towards the tomb, the boy stretched his\narms lovingly around the great stone that stopped its entrance; then\nsuddenly realizing that he could never go any closer to the One inside,\nnever see Him again, he leaned his head hopelessly against the rock, and\ngave way to his feeling of utter loneliness and despair.\n\nHow long he stood there, he did not know. When he looked up again, the\nwomen had gone, and it was nearly dark. Phineas and several other men\nlingered in the black shadows of the trees, and Joel joined them.\n\nRoman guards came presently. A stout cord was stretched across the\nstone, its ends firmly fastened, and sealed with the seal of Caesar. A\nwatch-fire was kindled near by; then the Roman sentinels began their\nsteady tramp! tramp! as they paced back and forth.\n\nHigh overhead the stars began to set their countless watch-fires in the\nheavens; then the white full moon of the Passover looked down, and all\nnight long kept its silent vigil over the forsaken tomb of the sleeping\nChrist.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAbigail had found shelter for the night with friends, in a tent just\noutside the city; but Joel and Phineas took their way back to Bethany.\n\nLittle was said as they trudged along in the moonlight. Joel thought\nonly of one thing,--his great loss, the love of which he had been\nbereft. But to Phineas this death meant much more than the separation\nfrom the best of friends; it meant the death of a cause on which he had\nstaked his all. He must go back to Galilee to be the laughing-stock of\nhis old neighbors. He who they trusted would have saved Israel had been\nput to death as a felon,--crucified between two thieves! The cause was\nlost; he was left to face an utter failure.\n\nWhen the moon went down that morning over the hills of Judea, there were\nmany hearts that mourned the Man of Nazareth, but not a soul in all the\nuniverse believed on Him as the Son of God.\n\nHope lay dead in the tomb of Joseph, with a great stone forever walling\nit in.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n\n\"WAKE up, Joel! Wake up! I bring you good tidings, my lad!\" It was\nAbigail's voice ringing cheerily through the court-yard, as she bent\nover the boy, fast asleep on the hard stones.\n\nAll the long Sabbath day after the burial, he had sat listlessly in the\nshady court-yard, his blank gaze fixed on the opposite wall. No one\nseemed able to arouse him from his apathy. He turned away from the food\nthey brought him, and refused to enter the house when night came.\n\nTowards morning he had gone over to the fountain for a long draught of\nits cool water; then overcome by weakness from his continued fast, and\nexhausted by grief, he fell asleep on the pavement.\n\nAbigail came in and found him there, with the red morning sun beating\nfull in his face. She had to shake him several times before she could\nmake him open his eyes.\n\nHe sat up dizzily, and tried to collect his thoughts. Then he\nremembered, and laid his head wearily down again, with a groan.\n\n\"Wake up! Wake up!\" she insisted, with such eager gladness in her voice\nthat Joel opened his eyes again, now fully aroused.\n\n\"What is it?\" he asked indifferently.\n\n\"_He is risen!_\" she exclaimed joyfully, clasping her hands as she\nalways did when much excited. \"I went to His tomb very early in the\nmorning, while it was yet dark, with Mary and Salome and some other\nwomen. The stone had been rolled aside; and while we wondered and wept,\nfearing His enemies had stolen Him away, He stood before us, with His\nold greeting on His lips,--'All hail!'\"\n\nJoel rubbed his eyes and looked at her. \"No, no!\" he said wearily, \"I am\ndreaming again!\"\n\nHe would have thrown himself on the ground as before, his head pillowed\non his arm, but she would not let him. She shook his hands with a\npersistence that could not be refused, talking to him all the while in\nsuch a glad eager voice that he slowly began to realize that something\nhad made her very happy.\n\n\"What is it, Mother Abigail?\" he asked, much puzzled.\n\n\"I do not wonder you are bewildered,\" she cried. \"It is such blessed,\nsuch wonderful news. Why He is _alive_, Joel, He whom Thou lovest! Try\nto understand it, my boy! I have just now come from the empty tomb. I\nsaw Him! I spoke with Him! I knelt at His feet and worshipped!\"\n\nBy this time all the family had come out. Reuben looked at his daughter\npityingly, as she repeated her news; then he turned to Phineas.\n\n\"Poor thing!\" he said, in a low tone. \"She has witnessed such terrible\nscenes lately, and received such a severe shock, that her mind is\naffected by it. She does not know what she is saying. Did not you\nyourself help prepare the body for burial, and put it in the tomb?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Phineas, \"and helped close it with a great stone, which\nno one man could possibly move by himself. And I saw it sealed with the\nseal of Caesar; and when I left it was guarded by Roman sentinels in\narmor. No man could have opened it.\"\n\n\"But Abigail talks of angels who sat in the empty tomb, and who told\nthem He had risen,\" replied her father.\n\nJoel, who had overheard this low-toned conversation, got up and stood\nclose beside them. He had begun to tremble from weakness and\nexcitement.\n\n[Illustration: \"'THE STONE IS GONE!'\"]\n\n\"Father Phineas,\" he asked, \"do you remember the story we heard from the\nold shepherd, Heber? The angels told of His birth; maybe she _did_ see\nthem in His tomb.\"\n\n\"How can such things be?\" queried Reuben, stroking his beard in\nperplexity.\n\n\"That's just what you said when Rabbi Lazarus was brought back to life,\"\npiped Jesse's shrill voice, quite unexpectedly, at his grandfather's\nelbow. He had not lost a word of the conversation. \"Why don't you go and\nsee for yourself if the tomb is empty?\"\n\nAbigail had gone into the house with her mother, and now the summons to\nbreakfast greeted them. She saw she could not convince them of the truth\nof her story, so she said no more about it; but her happy face was more\neloquent than words.\n\nAll day snatches of song kept rising to her lips,--old psalms of\nthanksgiving, and half whispered hallelujahs. At last Joel and Phineas\nwere both so much affected by her continued cheerfulness, that they\nbegan to believe there must be some great cause for it.\n\nFinally, in the waning afternoon, they took the road that led from\nBethany to the garden where they firmly believed that the Master still\nlay buried.\n\nAs they came in sight of the tomb, Joel clutched Phineas by the arm, and\npointed, with a shaking finger, to the dark opening ahead of of them.\n\n\"See!\" he said, pointing into its yawning darkness. \"She was right! The\nstone is gone!\"\n\nIt was some time before they could muster up courage to go nearer and\nlook into the sepulchre. When at last they did so, neither spoke a word,\nbut, after one startled look into each other's eyes, turned and left the\ngarden.\n\nIt was growing dark as they hurried along the highway homeward. Two men\ncame half running towards the city, in great haste to reach the gates\nbefore they should be closed for the night. They were two disciples well\nknown to Phineas.\n\nHe stopped them with the question that was uppermost in his mind.\n\n\"Yes, He is risen,\" answered one of the men, breathlessly. \"We have seen\nHim. Hosanna to the Highest! He walked along this road with us as we\nwent to Emmaus.\"\n\n\"Ah, how our hearts burned as He talked with us by the way!\"\ninterrupted the other man.\n\n\"Only this hour He sat at meat with us,\" cried the first speaker. \"He\nbroke bread with us, and blessed it as He always used to do. We are\nrunning back to the city now to tell the other disciples.\"\n\nPhineas would have laid a detaining hand on them, but they hurried on,\nand left him standing in the road, looking wistfully after them.\n\n\"It must be true,\" said Joel, \"or they could not have been so nearly\nwild with joy.\"\n\nPhineas sadly shook his head. \"I wish I could think so,\" he sighed.\n\n\"Let us go home,\" urged Abigail, the next day, \"the Master has bidden\nHis brethren meet Him in Galilee. Let us go. There is hope of seeing Him\nagain in our old home!\"\n\nJoel, now nearly convinced of the truth of her belief, was also anxious\nto go. But Phineas lingered; his plodding mind was slower to grasp such\nthoughts than the sensitive woman's or the imaginative boy's. One after\nanother he sought out Peter and James and John, and the other disciples\nwho had seen the risen Master, and questioned them closely. Still he\ntarried for another week.\n\nOne morning he met Thomas, whose doubts all along had strengthened his\nown. He ran against him in the crowded street in Jerusalem. Thomas\nseized his arm, and, turning, walked beside him a few paces.\n\n\"_It is true!_\" he said, in a low intense tone, with his lips close to\nhis ear. \"I saw Him myself last night; I held His hands in mine! I\ntouched the side the spear had pierced! He called me by name; and I know\nnow beyond all doubt that the Master has risen from the dead, and that\nHe is the Son of God!\"\n\nAfter that, Phineas no longer objected when it was proposed that they\nshould go back to Galilee. The story of the resurrection was too great\nfor him to grasp entirely, still he could not put aside such a weight of\nevidence that came to him from friends whose word he had always\nimplicitly trusted.\n\nThe roads were still full of pilgrims returning from the Passover. As\nPhineas journeyed on with his little family, he fell in with the sons of\nJonah and Zebedee, going back to their nets and their fishing-boats.\n\nThe order of procession was constantly shifting, and one morning Joel\nfound himself walking beside John, one of the chosen twelve, who seemed\nto have understood his Master better than any of the others.\n\nThe man seemed wrapped in deep thought, and took no notice of his\ncompanion, till Joel timidly touched his sleeve.\n\n\"Do _you_ believe it is true?\" the boy asked.\n\nThere was no surprise in the man's face at the abrupt question, he felt,\nwithout asking, what Joel meant. A reassuring smile lighted up his face\nas he laid his hand kindly on Joel's shoulder.\n\n\"I know it, my lad; I have been with Him.\" The quiet positiveness with\nwhich he spoke seemed to destroy Joel's last doubt.\n\n\"Many things that He said to us come back to me very clearly; and I see\nnow He was trying to prepare us for this.\"\n\n\"Tell me about them,\" begged Joel, \"and about those last hours He was\nwith you. Oh, if I could only have been with Him, too!\"\n\nJohn saw the tears gathering in the boy's eyes, heard the tremble in his\nvoice, and felt a thrill of sympathy as he recognized a kindred love in\nthe little fellow's heart.\n\nSo he told Joel of the last supper they had taken together, of the hymn\nthey had sung, and of the watch they had failed to keep, when He took\nthem with Him into the garden of Gethsemane. All the little incidents\nconnected with those last solemn hours, he repeated carefully to the\nlistening boy.\n\nFrom time to time Joel brushed his hand across his eyes; but a deep calm\nfell over him as John's voice went on, slowly repeating the words the\nMaster had comforted them with.\n\n\"Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.\nIn my Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for\nyou. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,\nthere ye may be also.... If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I\nsaid, I go unto the Father.... These things I have spoken unto you, that\nin me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but\nbe of good cheer; I have overcome the world.\"\n\nJoel made an exclamation as if about to speak, and then stopped. \"What\nis it?\" asked John.\n\n\"How could He mean that He has overcome the world? Caesar still rules,\nand Jerusalem is full of His enemies. I can't forget that they killed\nHim, even if He has risen.\"\n\nJohn stooped to tie his sandal before he answered.\n\n\"I have been fitting together different things He told us; and I begin\nto see how blind we were. Once He called Himself the Good Shepherd who\nwould give his life for his sheep, and said, 'Therefore doth my Father\nlove me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man\ntaketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it\ndown, and I have power to take it again.'\"\n\nThey walked on in silence a few paces, then John asked abruptly, \"Do you\nremember about the children of Israel being so badly bitten by serpents\nin the wilderness, and how Moses was commanded to set up a brazen\nserpent in their midst?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed!\" answered Joel. \"All who looked up at it were saved; but\nthose who would not died from the poisonous bites.\"\n\n\"One night,\" continued John, \"a learned man by the name of Nicodemus,\none of the rulers, came to the Master with many questions. And I\nremember one of the answers He gave him. 'As Moses lifted up the serpent\nin the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that\nwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.' We did not understand Him then at all. Not till I saw Him lifted\nup on the cruel cross, did I begin to dimly see what He meant.\"\n\nA light broke over Joel's face as he remembered the vision he had had\nthat day, kneeling at the foot of the cross; then he stopped still in\nthe road, with his hands clasped in dismay. There suddenly seemed to\nrise before him the scenes of daily sacrifice in the Temple, when the\nblood of innocent lambs flowed over the altar; then he thought of the\ngreat Day of Atonement, when the poor scape-goat was driven away to its\ndeath, laden with the sins of the people.\n\n\"Oh, that must be what Isaiah meant!\" he cried in distress. \"'He was\nbrought as a lamb to the slaughter!' Oh, can it be possible that 'the\nLord hath laid on _Him_ the iniquity of us all'? What an awful\nsacrifice!\"\n\nThe tears streamed down his face as the thought came over him with\noverwhelming conviction, that it was for _him_ that the man he loved so\nhad endured all the horrible suffering of death by crucifixion.\n\n\"Why did such a thing have to be?\" he asked, looking up appealingly at\nhis companion.\n\nJohn looked out and up, as if he saw far beyond the narrow, hill-bound\nhorizon, and quoted softly: \"_For God so loved the world, that He gave\nHis only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not\nperish, but have everlasting life._\"\n\nJust as the feeling had come to him that morning by the Galilee, and\nagain as he gazed and gazed into the white face on the cross, Joel\nseemed to feel again the love of the Father, as it took him close into\nits infinite keeping.\n\n\"'Greater love hath no man than this,'\" quoted John again, \"'that a man\nlay down his life for his friends.' He is the propitiation for our sins;\nand not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.\"\n\nIt was hard for the child to understand this at first; but this gentle\ndisciple who walked beside him had walked long beside the Master, and in\nthe Master's own way and words taught Joel life's greatest lesson.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n\nTHEY went back to their simple lives again,--those hardy fishermen, the\nbusy carpenter, and the boy. Phineas was silent and grave. For him, hope\nstill lay dead in that garden tomb near Golgotha; but Joel sang as he\nworked.\n\nThe appointed time was nearing when the Master was to meet them on the\nmountain. As often as he could, Joel stole away from the moody man at\nthe work-bench, and went down to the beach for more cheerful\ncompanionship.\n\nOne morning, seeing a fishing-boat that he recognized pulling in quickly\nto shore, he ran down to see what luck his friends had had during the\nnight.\n\nHe held up his hands in astonishment at the great haul of fish the boat\nheld.\n\n\"We have been with the Master,\" explained one of the men. \"We toiled all\nnight, and took nothing till we met Him.\"\n\nJoel listened eagerly while they told him of that meeting in the early\ndawn, and of the meal they ate together, while the sun came up over the\nGalilee, and the blue waves whispered their gladness to the beach, as\nthey heard the Master's voice once more.\n\n\"Oh, to think that He is in Galilee again!\" exclaimed Joel. That thought\nadded purpose and meaning to each new day. Every morning he woke with\nthe feeling, \"Maybe I shall see Him before the sun goes down.\" Every\nnight he went to sleep saying, \"He is somewhere near! No telling how\nsoon I may be with Him!\"\n\nWhen the day came on which they were to go to the mountain, Joel was up\nvery early in the morning. He bathed and dressed himself with the care\nof a priest about to enter the inner courts on some holy errand.\n\nWhen he started to the mountain, Abigail noticed that he wore his finest\nheaddress of white linen. His tunic was spotless, and, from the corners\nof his brown and white striped mantle, the blue fringes that the Law\nprescribed hung smooth as silk.\n\nHe did not wait for Phineas or any of his friends. Long before the time,\nhe had climbed the rocky path, and was sitting all alone in the deep\nshadowed stillness.\n\nThe snapping of a twig startled him; the falling of a leaf made him\nlook up hopefully. Any minute the Master might come.\n\nHis heart beat so loud it seemed to him that the wood-birds overhead\nmust surely hear it, and be frightened away.\n\nImagine that scene, you who can,--you who have just seen the earth close\nover your best-beloved; who have awakened in the lonely night, with that\nsudden sickening remembrance of loss; who have longed, with a longing\nlike a constant ache, for the voice and the smile and the footstep that\nhave slipped hopelessly beyond recall.\n\nThink of what it would mean, if you knew now, beyond doubt, that all\nthat you had loved and lost would be given back to you before the\npassing of another hour!\n\nSo Joel waited, restless, burning, all in a quiver of expectancy.\n\nSteps began to wind around the base of the mountain. One familiar face\nafter another came in sight, then strange ones, until, by and by, five\nhundred people had gathered there, and were sitting in reverent,\nunbroken silence. The soft summer wind barely stirred the leaves; even\nthe twitter of nestlings overhead was hushed.\n\nAfter awhile, thrilled by some unseen influence, as a field of grain is\nswayed by the passing wind, they bowed their heads. The Master stood\nbefore them, His hands outspread in blessing.\n\nJoel started forward with a wild desire to throw himself at His feet,\nand put his arms around them; but a majesty he had never seen before in\nthat gentle face restrained him.\n\nHe listened to the voice as it rose and fell with all its old winning\ntenderness. As you would listen could the dead lips you love move again;\nas you would greedily snatch up every word, and hide it in your heart of\nhearts, so Joel listened.\n\n\"I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto\nmyself, that where I am there ye may be also.... Peace I leave with\nyou.... Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be\ntroubled, neither let it be afraid.\"\n\nAs the beloved voice went on, promising the Comforter that should come\nwhen He was gone, all the dread and pain of the coming separation seemed\nto be lost.\n\nBoy though he was, Joel looked down the years of his life feeling it was\nonly a fleeting shadow, compared with the eternal companionship just\npromised him.\n\nHe would make no moan; he would utter no complaint: but he would take up\nhis life's little day, and bear it after the Master,--a cup of loving\nservice,--into that upper kingdom where there was a place prepared for\nhim.\n\nIt was all over so soon. They were left alone on the mountain-side\nagain, with only the sunshine flickering through the leaves, and the\nwood-birds just beginning to trill to each other once more. But the warm\nair seemed to still throb with the last words He had spoken: \"Lo, I am\nwith you alway, even unto the end of the world.\"\n\nPhineas came down the mountain with his face all ashine; at last his\neyes had been opened.\n\n\"He and the Father are one!\" he exclaimed to the man walking beside him.\n\"That voice is the same that spake from the midst of the burning bush,\nand from the summit of Sinai. All these years I have followed the\nMaster, I believed Him to be a perfect man and a great prophet; I\nbelieved Him to be 'the rod out of the stem of Jesse' who through\nJehovah's hand was to redeem Israel, even as the rod in Aaron's hand\nsmote the floods and made a pathway for our people.\n\n\"When I saw Him put to death as a felon, all hope died within me; even\nto-day I came out here unbelieving. I could not think that I should see\nHim. How blind we have been all these years! God with us in the flesh,\nand we did not know Him!\"\n\nJoel walked on behind the two, sharing their feeling of exaltation. As\nthey came down into the valley and entered Capernaum, the work-a-day\nsights and noises seemed to jar on their senses, in this uplifted mood.\n\nA man standing in an open doorway accosted Phineas, and asked when he\ncould commence work on the house he had talked to him about building.\n\nPhineas hesitated, and looked down at the ground, as if studying some\ndifficult problem. In a few minutes he raised his eyes with a look of\ndecision.\n\n\"I cannot build it for you at all,\" he answered.\n\n\"Not build it!\" echoed the man. \"I thought you were anxious for the\njob.\"\n\n\"So I was,\" answered the carpenter; \"but when I asked for it, I had no\nbelief that the Master could rise from the dead. Just now, on the\nmountain yonder, I have been with Him. His command is still ringing in\nmy ears: 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every\ncreature!'\n\n\"Henceforth I give my life to Him, even as He gave His to me. My days\nare now half spent, but every remaining one shall be used to proclaim,\nas far and wide as possible, that the risen Christ is the Son of God!\"\n\nThe man was startled as he looked at Phineas; such a fire of love and\npurpose seemed to illuminate his earnest face that it was completely\ntransformed.\n\n\"Even now,\" exclaimed Phineas, \"will I commence my mission. You are the\nfirst one I have met, and I must tell to you this glad new gospel. He\ndied for you! 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten\nSon, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have\neverlasting life!' O my friend, if you could only believe that as I\nbelieve it!\"\n\nThe man shrank back into the doorway, strangely moved by the passionate\nforce of his earnestness.\n\n\"I must go up to Jerusalem,\" continued Phineas, \"and wait till power is\ngiven us from on high; then I can more clearly see my way. I do not know\nwhether I shall be directed to go into other lands, or to come back here\nto carry the news to my old neighbors. But it matters not which path is\npointed out, the mission has been already given,--to tell the message\nto every creature my voice can reach.\"\n\n\"And you?\" asked the man, pointing to the companion of Phineas.\n\n\"I, too, received the command,\" was the answer, \"and I, too, am ready to\ngo to the world's end, if need be!\"\n\n\"Surely there must be truth in what you say,\" muttered the man. Then his\nglance fell on Joel. \"You, too?\" he questioned.\n\n\"Nay, he is but a lad,\" answered Phineas, before Joel could find words\nto answer him. \"Come! we must hasten home.\"\n\nJoel talked little during the next few days, and stole away often to\nthink by himself, in the quiet little upper chamber on the roof.\n\nPhineas was making his preparations to go back to Jerusalem; and he\nurged the boy to go back with him, and accept Simon's offer. Abigail,\ntoo, added her persuasions to his; and even old Rabbi Amos came down one\nday, and sat for an hour under the fig-trees, painting in glowing colors\nthe life that might be his for the choosing.\n\nIt was a very alluring prospect; it had been the dream of his life to\ntravel in far countries. He pictured himself surrounded by wealth and\nculture; he would be able to do so much for his old friends. He could\ngive back to Jesse and Ruth a hundred fold, what had been bestowed on\nhim; and the poor--how much he could help them, when he received a son's\nportion from the wealthy Simon! O the hearts he could make glad, all up\nand down the land!\n\nThe old day-dreams he used to delight in danced temptingly before him.\nAs he stood idly beside the work-bench one afternoon, thinking of such a\nfuture, a soft step behind him made him turn. The hammer fell from his\nhand to the grass, as he saw the woman who came timidly to meet him.\n\n\"Why, Aunt Leah!\" he cried. \"What brought _you_ here?\"\n\nHe had not seen her since the night his Uncle Laban had driven him from\nhome.\n\nShe drew aside her veil, and looked at him. \"I heard you had been\nhealed,\" she said, \"and I have always wanted to come and see you, and\ntell you how glad I am; but my husband forbade it. Child!\" she cried\nabruptly, \"how much you look like your father! The likeness is\nstartling!\"\n\nThe discovery seemed to make her forget what she had come to say, and\nshe stood and stared at him; then she remembered. \"Rabbi Amos told me of\nthe offer you have had from a rich merchant in Bethany, and I came down\nhere, secretly, to beg you to accept it. In your father's name I beg\nyou!\"\n\nJoel looked perplexed. \"I hardly know what to do,\" he said. \"Every one\nadvises me just as you do; but I feel that they are all wrong. Surely\nthe Master meant me as well as father Phineas and the others, when He\ncharged us to go and preach the gospel to every creature.\"\n\nA sudden interest came into the woman's face; she took a step forward.\n\"Joel, did _you_ see Him after He was risen?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" he answered.\n\n\"Oh, I believe then that He is the Christ!\" she cried. \"I have thought\nall the time that it might be so, and the children are so sure of it.\"\n\n\"And Uncle Laban?\" questioned Joel.\n\nShe shook her head sadly. \"He grows more bitterly opposed every day.\"\n\n\"Aunt Leah,\" he asked, coming back to the first question, \"don't you\nthink He must have meant me as well as those men?\"\n\n\"Oh, hardly,\" she said, hesitatingly, \"you are so young, and there are\nso many others to do it; it would surely be better for you to go to\nBethany.\"\n\nAfter she had gone home, he put away his tools, and, like one in a\ndream, started slowly towards the mountain.\n\nThe same summer stillness reigned on its shady slopes as when the five\nhundred had gathered there. He climbed up near the summit, and sat down\non a high stone.\n\nTo the eastward the Galilee glittered like a sapphire in the sun;\nCapernaum seemed like a great ant-hill in commotion. No wonder he could\nnot think among all those conflicting voices; he was glad he had come up\nwhere it was so still.\n\nPhineas was going away in the morning. If Joel went also, maybe he would\nnever look down on that scene again.\n\nThen almost as if some living voice broke the stillness, he heard the\nwords: \"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every\ncreature!\" It was the echo of the words that had fallen from the\nMaster's lips. Nothing once uttered by that voice can ever die; it lives\non and on in the ever-widening circles of the centuries, as a ripple,\nonce started, rings shoreward through the seas.\n\nIn that instant all the things he had been considering seemed so small\nand worthless. He had been planning to give Simon's gold and silver to\nthe poor; but the Master had given them His life, Himself! Could he do\nless?\n\n\"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it\nunto me,\" something seemed to say to him. Yes; he could do it for the\nMaster's sake, for the One who had healed him, for the One who had died\nfor him.\n\nThen and there, high up in the mountain's solitudes, he found the path\nhe was to follow; and then he wondered how he could have thought for an\ninstant of making any other choice. It was the path the Master's own\nfeet had trod, and the boy who had followed, knew well what a weary way\nit led.\n\nFor his great love's sake, he gave up the old ambitions, the\nself-centred hopes, saying, in a low tone, as if he felt the beloved\nPresence very near, \"Oh, I want to serve Thee truly! If I am too young\nnow to go out into all the world, let me be Thy little cup-bearer here\nat home, to carry the story of Thy life and love to those around me!\"\n\nThe west was all alight with the glory of the sunset; somewhere beyond\nits burnished portals lay the City of the King. Joel turned from its\ndazzling depths to look downward into the valley. He had chosen\npersecution and sacrifice and suffering, he knew, but the light on his\nface was more than the halo of the summer sunset.\n\nAs he went down the mountain to his life of lowly service, a deep peace\nfell warm across his heart; for the promise went with him, a staff to\nbear him up through all his after life's long pilgrimage: \"LO, I AM WITH\nYOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD!\"\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nSelections from The Page Company's Books for Young People\n\nTHE BLUE BONNET SERIES\n\n    _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated,\n    per volume_                          $1.50\n\n\nA TEXAS BLUE BONNET\n\nBy CAROLINE E. JACOBS.\n\n\"The book's heroine, Blue Bonnet, has the very finest kind of wholesome,\nhonest, lively girlishness.\"--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._\n\n\nBLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY\n\nBy CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND EDYTH ELLERBECK READ.\n\n\"A healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every chapter.\"--_Boston\nTranscript._\n\n\nBLUE BONNET IN BOSTON; OR, BOARDING-SCHOOL DAYS AT MISS NORTH'S.\n\nBy CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND LELA HORN RICHARDS.\n\n\"It is bound to become popular because of its wholesomeness and its many\nhuman touches.\"--_Boston Globe._\n\n\nBLUE BONNET KEEPS HOUSE; OR, THE NEW HOME IN THE EAST.\n\nBy CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND LELA HORN RICHARDS.\n\n\"It cannot fail to prove fascinating to girls in their teens.\"--_New\nYork Sun._\n\n\nBLUE BONNET--DEBUTANTE\n\nBy LELA HORN RICHARDS.\n\nAn interesting picture of the unfolding of life for Blue Bonnet.\n\n\n\n\nTHE YOUNG PIONEER SERIES\n\nBy HARRISON ADAMS\n\n    _Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_      $1.25\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO; OR, CLEARING THE WILDERNESS.\n\n\"Such books as this are an admirable means of stimulating among the\nyoung Americans of to-day interest in the story of their pioneer\nancestors and the early days of the Republic.\"--_Boston Globe._\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES; OR, ON THE TRAIL OF THE IROQUOIS.\n\n\"The recital of the daring deeds of the frontier is not only interesting\nbut instructive as well and shows the sterling type of character which\nthese days of self-reliance and trial produced.\"--_American Tourist,\nChicago._\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSISSIPPI; OR, THE HOMESTEAD IN THE\nWILDERNESS..\n\n\"The story is told with spirit, and is full of adventure.\"--_New York\nSun._\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSOURI; OR, IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX.\n\n\"Vivid in style, vigorous in movement, full of dramatic situations, true\nto historic perspective, this story is a capital one for\nboys.\"--_Watchman Examiner, New York City._\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS OF THE YELLOWSTONE; OR, LOST IN THE LAND OF WONDERS.\n\n\"There is plenty of lively adventure and action and the story is well\ntold.\"--_Duluth Herald, Duluth, Minn._\n\n\nTHE PIONEER BOYS OF THE COLUMBIA; OR, IN THE WILDERNESS OF THE GREAT\nNORTHWEST.\n\n\"The story is full of spirited action and contains much valuable\nhistorical information.\"--_Boston Herald._\n\n\n\n\nTHE HADLEY HALL SERIES\n\nBy LOUISE M. BREITENBACH\n\n  _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_   $1.50\n\n\nALMA AT HADLEY HALL\n\n\"The author is to be congratulated on having written such an appealing\nbook for girls.\"--_Detroit Free Press._\n\n\nALMA'S SOPHOMORE YEAR\n\n\"It cannot fail to appeal to the lovers of good things in girls'\nbooks.\"--_Boston Herald._\n\n\nALMA'S JUNIOR YEAR\n\n\"The diverse characters in the boarding-school are strongly drawn, the\nincidents are well developed and the action is never dull.\"--_The Boston\nHerald._\n\n\nALMA'S SENIOR YEAR\n\n\"Incident abounds in all of Miss Breitenbach's stories and a healthy,\nnatural atmosphere breathes from every Chapter.\"--_Boston Transcript._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE SERIES\n\nBy HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH\n\n    _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated; per volume_      $1.50\n\n\nTHE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE\n\n\"A book sure to please girl readers, for the author seems to understand\nperfectly the girl character.\"--_Boston Globe._\n\n\nPEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION\n\n\"It is a wholesome, hearty story.\"--_Utica Observer._\n\n\nPEGGY RAYMOND'S SCHOOL DAYS\n\nThe book is delightfully written, and contains lots of exciting\nincidents.\n\n\n\n\nFAMOUS LEADERS SERIES\n\nBy CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON\n\n    _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_      $1.50\n\n\nFAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS\n\n\"More of such books should be written, books that acquaint young readers\nwith historical personages in a pleasant, informal way.\"--_New York\nSun._\n\n\"It is a book that will stir the heart of every boy and will prove\ninteresting as well to the adults.\"--_Lawrence Daily World._\n\n\nFAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS\n\n\"Mr. Johnston has done faithful work in this volume, and his relation of\nbattles, sieges and struggles of these famous Indians with the whites\nfor the possession of America is a worthy addition to United States\nHistory.\"--_New York Marine Journal._\n\n\nFAMOUS SCOUTS\n\n\"It is the kind of a book that will have a great fascination for boys\nand young men, and while it entertains them it will also present\nvaluable information in regard to those who have left their impress upon\nthe history of the country.\"--_The New London Day._\n\n\nFAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN AND ADVENTURERS OF THE SEA\n\n\"The tales are more than merely interesting; they are entrancing,\nstirring the blood with thrilling force and bringing new zest to the\nnever-ending interest in the dramas of the sea.\"--_The Pittsburgh Post._\n\n\nFAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN AND HEROES OF THE BORDER\n\nThis book is devoted to a description of the adventurous lives and\nstirring experiences of many pioneer heroes who were prominently\nidentified with the opening of the Great West.\n\n\"The accounts are not only authentic, but distinctly readable, making a\nbook of wide appeal to all who love the history of actual\nadventure.\"--_Cleveland Leader._\n\n\n\n\nHILDEGARDE-MARGARET SERIES\n\nBy LAURA E. RICHARDS\n\nEleven Volumes\n\nThe Hildegarde-Margaret Series, beginning with \"Queen Hildegarde\" and\nending with \"The Merryweathers,\" make one of the best and most popular\nseries of books for girls ever written.\n\n    _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_      $1.25\n\n    _The eleven volumes boxed as a set_      $13.75\n\n\nLIST OF TITLES\n\n    QUEEN HILDEGARDE\n    HILDEGARDE'S HOLIDAY\n    HILDEGARDE'S HOME\n    HILDEGARDE'S NEIGHBORS\n    HILDEGARDE'S HARVEST\n    THREE MARGARETS\n    MARGARET MONTFORT\n    PEGGY\n    RITA\n    FERNLEY HOUSE\n    THE MERRYWEATHERS\n\n\n\n\nTHE CAPTAIN JANUARY SERIES\n\nBy LAURA E. RICHARDS\n\n  _Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume._\n                           _Net_, 50 cents; carriage paid, 60 cents\n\n\nCAPTAIN JANUARY\n\nA charming idyl of New England coast life, whose success has been very\nremarkable.\n\n    SAME. _Illustrated Holiday Edition_      $1.25\n\n    SAME, FRENCH TEXT. _Illustrated Holiday Edition_      $1.25\n\n\nMELODY: THE STORY OF A CHILD.\n\n    SAME. _Illustrated Holiday Edition_      $1.25\n\n\nMARIE\n\nA companion to \"Melody\" and \"Captain January.\"\n\n\nROSIN THE BEAU\n\nA sequel to \"Melody\" and \"Marie.\"\n\n\nSNOW-WHITE; OR, THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD.\n\n\nJIM OF HELLAS; OR, IN DURANCE VILE, and a companion story, BETHESDA\nPOOL.\n\n\nNARCISSA\n\nAnd a companion story, IN VERONA, being two delightful short stories of\nNew England life.\n\n\n\"SOME SAY\"\n\nAnd a companion story, NEIGHBORS IN CYRUS.\n\n\nNAUTILUS\n\n\"'Nautilus' is by far the best product of the author's powers, and is\ncertain to achieve the wide success it so richly merits.\"\n\n\nISLA HERON\n\nThis interesting story is written in the author's usual charming manner.\n\n\nTHE LITTLE MASTER\n\n\"A well told, interesting tale of a high character.\"--_California\nGateway Gazette._\n\n\n\n\nDELIGHTFUL BOOKS FOR LITTLE FOLKS\n\nBy LAURA E. RICHARDS\n\n\nTHREE MINUTE STORIES\n\nCloth decorative, 12mo, with eight plates in full color and many text\nillustrations by Josephine Bruce.\n\n    _Net_ $1.25; carriage paid $1.40\n\n\"Little ones will understand and delight in the stories and\npoems.\"--_Indianapolis News._\n\n\nFIVE MINUTE STORIES\n\n    Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated         $1.25\n\nA charming collection of short stories and clever poems for children.\n\n\nMORE FIVE MINUTE STORIES\n\n    Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated            $1.25\n\nA noteworthy collection of short stories and poems for children, which\nwill prove as popular with mothers as with boys and girls.\n\n\nFIVE MICE IN A MOUSE TRAP\n\n    Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated         $1.25\n\nThe story of their lives and other wonderful things related by the Man\nin the Moon, done in the vernacular from the lunacular form by Laura E.\nRichards.\n\n\nWHEN I WAS YOUR AGE\n\n    Cloth, 8vo, illustrated         $1.25\n\nThe title most happily introduces the reader to the charming home life\nof Doctor Howe and Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, during the childhood of the\nauthor.\n\n\nA HAPPY LITTLE TIME\n\n    Cloth, 8vo, illustrated            $1.25\n\nLittle Betty and the happy time she had will appeal strongly to mothers\nas well as to the little ones who will have this story read to them, and\nappeal all the more on account of its being such a \"real\" story.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOYS' STORY OF THE RAILROAD SERIES\n\nBy BURTON E. STEVENSON\n\n  _Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume_    $1.50\n\n\nTHE YOUNG SECTION-HAND; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF ALLAN WEST.\n\n\"A thrilling story, well told, clean and bright. The whole range of\nsection railroading is covered in the story, and it contains information\nas well as interest.\"--_Chicago Post._\n\n\nTHE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER\n\n\"A vivacious account of the varied and often hazardous nature of\nrailroad life, full of incident and adventure, in which the author has\nwoven admirable advice about honesty, manliness, self-culture, good\nreading, and the secrets of success.\"--_Congregationalist._\n\n\nTHE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER\n\n\"It is a book that can be unreservedly commended to anyone who loves a\ngood, wholesome, thrilling, informing yarn.\"--_Passaic News._\n\n\nTHE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, ALLAN WEST'S CHUM.\n\n\"The story is intensely interesting, and one gains an intimate knowledge\nof the methods and works in the great car shops not easily gained\nelsewhere.\"--_Baltimore Sun._\n\n\"It appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at the same\ntime teaches him some valuable lessons in honor, pluck, and\nperseverance.\"--_Cleveland Plain Dealer._\n\n\"The lessons that the books teach in development of uprightness, honesty\nand true manly character are sure to appeal to the reader.\"--_The\nAmerican Boy._\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS\n\n(Trade Mark)\n\nBy ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON\n\n    _Each large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume_      $1.50\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES\n    (Trade Mark)\n\nBeing three \"Little Colonel\" stories in the Cosy Corner Series, \"The\nLittle Colonel,\" \"Two Little Knights of Kentucky,\" and \"The Giant\nScissors,\" in a single volume.\n\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOUSE PARTY\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOLIDAYS\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING-SCHOOL\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHUM\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    MARY WARE IN TEXAS\n\n    MARY WARE'S PROMISED LAND\n\n    _These twelve volumes, boxed as a set_, $18.00.\n\n\nSPECIAL HOLIDAY EDITIONS\n\n    _Each small quarto, cloth decorative, per volume_      $1.25\n\nNew plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page drawings in\ncolor, and many marginal sketches.\n\n\n    THE LITTLE COLONEL\n    (Trade Mark)\n\n    TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY\n\n    THE GIANT SCISSORS\n\n    BIG BROTHER\n\n\nTHE JOHNSTON JEWEL SERIES\n\n  _Each small 16mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece and decorative\n    text borders, per volume_                             _Net_ $0.50\n\n\n      IN THE DESERT OF WAITING: THE LEGEND OF CAMELBACK\n      MOUNTAIN.\n\n      THE THREE WEAVERS: A FAIRY TALE FOR FATHERS AND\n      MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR THEIR DAUGHTERS.\n\n      KEEPING TRYST: A TALE OF KING ARTHUR'S TIME.\n\n      THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART\n\n      THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME: A FAIRY PLAY FOR OLD\n      AND YOUNG.\n\n      THE JESTER'S SWORD\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      THE LITTLE COLONEL'S GOOD TIMES BOOK\n\n    Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series       $1.50\n    Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold           _Net_ 3.00\n\nCover design and decorations by Peter Verberg.\n\n\"A mighty attractive volume in which the owner may record the good times\nshe has on decorated pages, and under the directions as it were of Annie\nFellows Johnston.\"--_Buffalo Express._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nObvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation as in\n\"head-dress\" and \"headdress\" was retained.\n\nPage 11, word \"an\" removed from text. Original read (never be an any\nbetter)\n\nPage 32, \"a good\" changed to \"good a\" (too good a man to)\n\nPage 68, \"persistance\" changed to \"persistence\" (persistence with which\nthe)\n\nPage 68, \"coin\" changed to \"coins\" (small bag of coins)\n\nPage 90, \"acknowleged\" changed to \"acknowledged\" (he acknowledged\nproudly)\n\nPage 101, \"That\" changed to \"that\" (unto you that)\n\nPage 114, \"Was\" changed to \"was\" (was Joel's constant)\n\nPage 116, \"kness\" changed to \"knees\" (his knees in readiness)","title":"Joel: A Boy of Galilee","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":52797}