When the Boy saw what had happened he was surprised and troubled,
but not frightened. He did not know what to do. He might hasten
after them, but he could not tell which way to go. He was not even
sure that they had gone home; for they had talked of paying a visit
to their relatives in the south before returning to Nazareth; and
some of the remaining pilgrims to whom he turned for news of his
people said that they had taken the southern road from the Mount
of Olives, going toward Bethlehem.
The Boy was at a loss, but he was not disheartened, nor even cast
down. He felt that somehow all would be well with him; he would be
taken care of. They would come back for him in good time. Meanwhile
there were kind people here who would give him food and shelter.
There were boys in the other camps with whom he could play. Best
of all, he could go again to the city and the Temple. He could see
more of the wonderful things there, and watch the way the people
lived, and find out why so many of them seemed sad or angry, and a
few proud and scornful, and almost all looked unsatisfied. Perhaps
he could listen to some of the famous rabbis who taught the people
in the courts of the Temple and learn from them about the things
which his Father had chosen him to do.
So he went down the hill and toward the Sheep Gate by which he had
always gone into the city. Outside the gate a few boys about his
own age, with a group of younger children, were playing games.
“Look there,” they cried--“a stranger! Let us have some fun with
him. Halloo, Country, where do you come from?”
“From Galilee,” answered the Boy.
“Galilee is where all the fools live,” cried the children. “Where
is your home? What is your name?”
He told them pleasantly, but they laughed at his country way of
speaking and mimicked his pronunciation.
“Yalilean! Yalilean!” they cried. “You can't task. Can you play?
Come and play with us.”
So they played together. First, they had a mimic wedding-procession.
Then they made believe that the bridegroom was killed by a robber,
and they had a mock funeral. The Boy took always the lowest part.
He was the hired mourner who followed the body, wailing; he was the
flute-player who made music for the wedding-guests to dance to.
So readily did he enter into the play that the children at first were
pleased with him. But they were not long contented with anything.
Some of them would dance no more for the wedding; others would
lament no more for the funeral. Their caprices made them quarrelsome.
“Yalilean fool,” they cried, “you play it all wrong. You spoil the
game. We are tired of it. Can you run? Can you throw stones?”
So they ran races; and the Boy, trained among the hills, outran
the others. But they said he did not keep to the course. Then they
threw stones; and the Boy threw farther and straighter than any of
the rest. This made them angry.
Whispering together, they suddenly hurled a shower of stones at
him. One struck his shoulder, another made a long cut on his cheek.
Wiping away the blood with his sleeve, he turned silently and ran
to the Sheep Gate, the other boys chasing him with loud shouts.
He darted lightly through the crowd of animals and people that
thronged the gateway, turning and dodging with a sure foot among
them and running up the narrow street that led to the sheep-market.
The cries of his pursuers grew fainter behind him. Among the stalls
of the market he wound this way and that way like a hare before
the hounds. At last he had left them out of sight and hearing.
Then he ceased running and wandered blindly on through the northern
quarter of the city. The sloping streets were lined with bazaars and
noisy workshops. The Roman soldiers from the castle were sauntering
to and fro. Women in rich attire, with ear-rings and gold chains,
passed by with their slaves. Open market-places were still busy,
though the afternoon trade was slackening.
But the Boy was too tired and faint with hunger and heavy at heart
to take an interest in these things. He turned back toward the
gate, and, missing his way a little, came to a great pool of water,
walled in wit, white stone, with five porticos around it. In some
of these porticos there were a few people lying upon mats. But one
of the porches was empty, and here the Boy sat down.
He was worn out. His cheek was bleeding again, and the drops
trickled down his neck. He went down the broad steps to the pool
to wash away the blood. But he could not do it very well. His head
ached too much. So he crept back to the porch, unwound his little
turban, curled himself in a corner on the hard stones, his head
upon his arm, and fell sound asleep.
He was awakened by a voice calling him, a hand laid upon his
shoulder. He looked up and saw the face of a young woman, dark-eyed,
red-lipped, only a few years older than himself. She was clad in
silk, with a veil of gauze over her head, gold coins in her hair,
and a phial of alabaster hanging by a gold chain around her neck.
A sweet perfume like the breath of roses came from it as she moved.
Her voice was soft and kind.
“Poor boy,” she said, “you are wounded; some one has hurt you. What
are you doing here? You look like a little brother that I had long
ago. Come with me. I will take care of you.”
The Boy rose and tried to go with her. But he was stiff and sore; he
could hardly walk; his head was swimming. The young woman beckoned
to a Nubian slave who followed her. He took the Boy in his big
black arms and so carried him to a pleasant house with a garden.
There were couches and cushions there, in a marble court around
a fountain. There were servants who brought towels and ointments.
The young woman bathed the Boy's wound and his feet. The servants
came with food, and she made him eat of the best. His eyes grew
bright again, and the color came into his cheeks. He talked to her
of his life in Nazareth, of the adventures of his first journey,
and of the way he came to be lost.
She listened to him intently, as if there were some strange charm
in his simple talk. Her eyes rested upon him with pleasure. A new
look swept over her face. She leaned close to him.
“Stay with me, boy,” she murmured, “for I want you. Your people are
gone. You shall sleep here to-night--you shall live with me and I
will be good to you--I will teach you to love me.”
The Boy moved back a little and looked at her with wide eyes, as
if she were saying something that he could not understand.
“But you have already been good to me, sister,” he answered, “and
I love you already, even as your brother did. Is your husband here?
Will he come soon, so that we can all say the prayer of thanks-giving
together for the food?”
Her look changed again; her eyes filled with pain and sorrow; she
shrank back and turned away her face.
“I have no husband,” she said. “Ah, boy, innocent boy, you do
not understand. I eat the bread of shame and live in the house of
wickedness. I am a sinner, a sinner of the city. How could I pray?”
With that she fell a-sobbing, rocking herself to and fro, and the
tears ran through her fingers like rain. The Boy looked at her,
astonished and pitiful. He moved nearer to her, after a moment,
and spoke softly.
“I am very sorry, sister,” he said; and as he spoke he felt her
tears falling on his feet. “I am more sorry than I ever was in my
life. It must be dreadful to be a sinner. But sinners can pray, for
God is our Father, and fathers know how to forgive. I will stay
with you and teach you some of the things my mother has taught me.”
She looked up and caught his hand and kissed it. She wiped away
her tears, and rose, pushing back her hair.
“No, dear little master,” she said, “you shall not stay in this
house--not an hour. It is not fit for you. My Nubian shall lead you
back to the gate, and you will return to your friends outside of
the city, and you will forget one whom you comforted for a moment.”
The Boy turned back as he stood in the doorway. “No,” he said. “I
will not forget you. I will always remember your love and kindness.
Will you learn to pray, and give up being a sinner?”
“I will try,” she answered; “you have made me want to try. Go in
peace. God knows what will become of me.”
“God knows, sister,” replied the Boy gravely. “Abide in peace.”
So he went out into the dusk with the Nubian and found the camp on
the hillside and a shelter in one of the friendly tents, where he
slept soundly and woke refreshed in the morning.
This day he would not spend in playing and wandering. He would go
straight to the Temple, to find some of the learned teachers who
gave instruction there, and learn from them the wisdom that he
needed in order to do his work for his Father.
As he went he thought about the things that had befallen him
yesterday. Why had the man dressed in white despised him? Why had
the city children mocked him and chased him away with stones? Why
was the strange woman who had been so kind to him afterward so
unhappy and so hopeless?
There must be something in the world that he did not understand,
something evil and hateful and miserable that he had never felt in
himself. But he felt it in the others, and it made him so sorry, so
distressed for them, that it seemed like a heavy weight, a burden
on his own heart. It was like the work of those demons, of whom
his mother had told him, who entered into people and lived inside
of them, like worms eating away a fruit.
Only these people of whom he was thinking did not seem to have a
demon that took hold of them and drove them mad and made them foam
at the mouth and cut themselves with stones, like a man he once
saw in Galilee. This was something larger and more mysterious-like
the hot wind that sometimes blew from the south and made people
gloomy and angry--like the rank weeds that grew in certain fields,
and if the sheep fed there they dropped and died.
The Boy felt that he hated this unknown, wicked, unhappy thing more
than anything else in the world. He would like to save people from
it. He wanted to fight against it, to drive it away. It seemed as
if there were a spirit in his heart saying to him, “This is what
you must do, you must fight against this evil, you must drive out
the darkness, you must be a light, you must save the people--this
is your Father's work for you to do.”
But how? He did not know. That was what he wanted to find out. And
he went into the Temple hoping that the teachers there would tell
him.
He found the vast Court of the Gentiles, as it had been on his first
visit, swarming with people. Jews and Syrians and foreigners of
many nations were streaming into it through the eight open gates,
meeting and mingling and eddying round in confused currents,
bargaining and haggling with the merchants and money-changers,
crowding together around some group where argument had risen to a
violent dispute, drifting away again in search of some new excitement.
The morning sacrifice was ended, but the sound of music floated
out from the enclosed courts in front of the altar, where the more
devout worshippers were gathered. The Roman soldiers of the guard
paced up and down, or leaned tranquilly upoa their spears, looking
with indifference or amused contempt upon the turbulent scenes of
the holy place where they were set to keep the peace and prevent
the worshippers from attacking one another.
The Boy turned into the long, cool cloisters, their lofty marble
columns and carved roofs, which ran around the inside of the walls.
Here he found many groups of people, walking in the broad aisles
between the pillars, or seated in the alcoves of Solomon's Porch
around the teachers who were instructing them. From one to another
of these open schools he wandered, listening eagerly to the different
rabbis and doctors of the law.
Here one was reading from the Torah and explaining the laws about
the food which a Jew must not eat, and the things which he must not
do on the Sabbath. Here another was expounding the doctrine of the
Pharisees about the purifying of the sacred vessels in the Temple;
while another, a Sadducee, was disputing with him scornfully and
claiming that the purification of the priests was the only important
thing. “You would wash that which needs no washing,” he cried,
“the Golden Candlestick, one day in every week! Next you will want
to wash the sun for fear an unclean ray of light may fall on the
altar!”
Other teachers were reciting from the six books of the Talmud which
the Pharisees were making to expound the law. Others repeated the
histories of Israel, recounted the brave deeds of the Maccabees,
or read from the prophecies of Enoch and Daniel. Others still were
engaged in political debate: the Zealots talking fiercely of the
misdeeds of the house of Herod and the outrages committed by the
Romans; the Sadducees contemptuously mocking at the hopes of the
revolutionists and showing that the dream of freedom for Judea
was foolish. “Freedom,” they said, “belongs to those who are well
protected. We have the Temple and priesthood because Rome takes care
of us.” To this the Zealots answered angrily: “Yes, the priesthood
belongs to you unbelieving Sadducees; that is why you are content
with it. Look, now, at the place where you let Herod hang an accursed
eagle of gold on the front of Jehovah's House.”
So from group to group the Boy passed, listening intently, but
hearing little to his purpose. All day long he listened, now to
one, now to another, completely absorbed by what he heard, yet not
satisfied. Late in the afternoon he came into the quietest part
of Solomon's Porch, where two large companies were seated around
their respective teachers, separated from each other by a distance
of four or five columns.
As he stood on the edge of the first company, whose rabbi was a
lean, dark-bearded, stern little man, the Boy was spoken to by a
stranger at his side, who asked him what he sought in the Temple.
“Wisdom,” answered the Boy. “I am looking for some one to give a
light to my path.”
“That is what I am seeking, too,” said the stranger, smiling. “I
am a Greek, and I desire wisdom. Let us see if we can get it from
this teacher. Listen.”
He made his way to the centre of the circle and stood before the
stern little man.
“Master,” said the Greek, “I am willing to become thy disciple if
thou wilt teach me the whole law while I stand before thee thus--on
one foot.”
The rabbi looked at him angrily, and, lifting up his stick, smote
him sharply across the leg. “That is the whole law for mockers,”
he cried. The stranger limped away amid the laughter of the crowd.
“But the little man was too angry; he did not see that I was in
earnest,” said he, as he came back to the Boy. “Now let us go to
the next school and see if the master there is any better.”
So they went to the second company, which was gathered around a
very old man, with long, snowy beard and a gentle face. The stranger
took his place as before, standing on one foot, and made the same
request. The rabbi's eyes twinkled and his lips were smiling as he
answered promptly:
“Do nothing to thy neighbor that thou wouldst not have him do to
thee, this is the whole law; all the rest follows from this.”
“Well,” said the stranger, returning, “what think you of this
teacher and his wisdom? Is it better?”
“It is far better,” replied the Boy eagerly: “it is the best of
all I have heard to-day. I am coming back to hear him to-morrow.
Do you know his name?”
“I think it is Hillel,” answered the Greek, “and he is a learned
man, the master of the Sanhedrim. You will do well, young Jew, to
listen to such a man. Socrates could not have answered me better.
But now the sun is near setting. We must go our ways. Farewell.”
In the tent of his friends the Boy found welcome and a supper, but
no news of his parents. He told his experiences in the Temple, and
the friends heard him, wondering at his discernment. They were in
doubt whether to let him go again the next day; but he begged so
earnestly, arguing that they could tell his parents where he was
if they should come to the camp seeking him, that finally he won
consent.