Well, Dan, you must make up your mind whether you are going to look out
for one who will teach him better, or let him remain with Azariah, who
likes teaching him, for he is a clever but oft-times an idle boy. I
don't know that I should have said idle, she added, and sat thinking of
what word would describe Joseph's truancy better than idle, without,
however, finding the word she needed, and her thoughts floated away into
a long consideration of her son's anger, for she could see he was angry
with Azariah. But the cause of his anger she could not discover. It
could not be that he was annoyed with Azariah for coming to complain
that he was often kept waiting: and it was on her tongue to ask him why
he was so gloomy, why he knitted his brows and bit his lips. But she
held back the question, for it would not be long before Dan would let
out his secret: he could not keep one. And Dan, knowing well his own
weakness and his mother's shrewdness (she would soon be guessing what
was passing in his mind), began to animadvert on Azariah for his
residence in Tiberias, a pagan city--his plan for leading her on a false
trail. Others, he said, spoke more unfavourably than he did; and he
continued in this strain until Rachel, losing patience, interrupted him
suddenly saying that Azariah did not live in Tiberias. If not in
Tiberias, he answered, in a suburb, and within a stone's throw of the
city walls. But what has that got to do with Joseph? Rachel asked. What
has it got to do with Joseph! Dan growled, when to reach the scribe's
house he has to pass through lanes infested with the off-scourings of
the pagan world: mummers, zanies, jugglers, dancers, whores from
Babylon. Did ye not hear him, woman, describe these lanes, saying that
he had to change his course three times so that he might keep his
promise to Azariah, and are ye not mindful that he told me, and you
sitting there listening on that very stool, that the showmen he met in
Argob orchard put a spell upon him, and that it was the demon that had
obtained temporary lodgment in him that had bidden him to Tiberias to
see the cock-fight: Jews from Alexandria, heretics, adventurers,
beggars, aliens! Look ye here, Dan, Rachel said, he is a proud boy and
may thank thee little for--There are others to teach him, Dan
interrupted, and continued to walk up and down the room, for he wished
to make an end of this talk with his mother. But he hadn't crossed the
room twice when he was brought to a full stop, having remembered
suddenly that it is always by such acts as he was now meditating that
fathers lose the affections of their sons. If he were to drag Joseph
away from Azariah, from whom he was learning Hebrew and Greek, Joseph
might begin to look upon him as a tyrant. His mother was a sharp-witted
woman, and very little was needed to set her thinking. She had an
irritating way of looking as it were into his mind, and if she were to
suspect him of jealousy of Azariah he would never have a moment's peace
again.
But what in the world may we understand from all this bear-dancing up
and down the room? asked Rachel. Ye must know if you are going to
withdraw the boy from his schooling.
Dan cast an angry glance at his mother and hated her; and then his heart
misgave him, for he knew that he lacked courage to take Joseph out of
his present schooling, and dared not divide his house against himself,
or do anything that might lose him his son's love and little by little
cause himself to be looked upon as a tyrant. He knew himself to be a
weak man, except in the counting-house; he knew it, and must stifle his
jealousy of Azariah, who had forgiven Joseph his truancy and was the
only one that knew of the excursion into Tiberias. But Azariah's
indulgence did not altogether please him. He began to suspect it and to
doubt if he had acted wisely in not ordering Joseph away from Azariah:
for Azariah was robbing him, robbing him of all that he valued in this
world, his son! And it seemed to him a little later in the day, as he
closed his ledger, that he had come to be disregarded in his own house;
and he thought he would have liked much better to stay away, to dine in
the counting-house, urging a press of business. The first thing he would
hear would be "Azariah." The hated name was never off the boy's lips: he
talked of nothing else but Azariah and Hebrew and Greek and the learned
Jews whom he met at Azariah's house.
Dan sat looking into the dusk asking himself if his bargain were not
that his son should learn the Greek language but not Greek literature,
which is full of heresy, he said to himself; and he returned home
determined to raise the point; but Joseph told him, and he thought
rather abruptly, that it was only through Greek literature that one
could learn Greek in Tiberias--the spoken language was a dialect.
It may have been that Joseph perceived that praise of Azariah caused his
father to writhe a little, and--curious to observe the effect--he spoke
more of Azariah than he would have done otherwise, and laid an accent on
his master's learning, and related incidents in which his master
appeared to great advantage, causing his father much perplexity and pain
of mind, till at last, unable to bear the torture any longer, he
said--the words slipped from him incontinently--you're no better than a
little Azariah! and, unable to contain himself, he rushed from the room,
leaving Joseph and Rachel to discuss his vehemence and discover motives
which he hoped would not include the right one. But afraid that he had
betrayed his jealousy of Azariah he returned, and to mislead his mother
and son he began to speak of the duty of the pupil to the master,
telling Joseph he must submit himself to Azariah in everything: by
representing Azariah as one in full authority he hoped to overcome his
influence and before many months had passed over a different accent was
notable in Joseph's voice when he spoke of Azariah; but he continued
with him for two more years. And it was then that Dan set himself to
devise plans to end his son's studies in Hebrew and Greek.
Joseph knows now all that Azariah can teach him, and it is high time
that I took him in hand and taught him his trade. But though determined
to rid himself of Azariah he felt he must proceed gently (if possible,
in conjunction with his mother); he must wait for an occasion; and while
he was watching for one it fell out that Joseph wearied of Azariah and
went to his father saying that he had learnt Hebrew and could speak
Greek, so there was no use in his returning to Azariah any more. At
first his parents could only think that he had; quarrelled with Azariah,
but it was not so, they soon discovered that he had merely become tired
of him--a change that betokened a capricious mind. A growing boy is full
of fancies, Rachel said: an explanation that Dan deemed sufficient, and
he was careful not to speak against Azariah lest he should turn his
son's thoughts back on Greek literature, or Greek philosophy, which is
more pernicious even than the literature. He did not dare to ask Joseph
to come down to the counting-house, afraid lest by trying to influence
him in one direction he might influence him in the opposite direction.
He deemed it better to leave everything to fate, and while putting his
trust in God Dan applied himself to meditate on the young man's
character and his tastes, which seemed to have taken a sudden turn; for,
to his father's surprise, Joseph had begun to put questions to him about
the sale of fish, and to speak of visiting Tyre and Sidon with a view to
establishing branch houses--extensions of their business. His father,
while approving of this plan, pointed out that Tyre and Sidon being
themselves on the coast of the sea could never be as good customers as
inland cities, sea fish being considered, he thought mistakenly,
preferable to lake. He had been doing, it is true, a fair trade with
Damascus, but whereas it was impossible to reckon on Damascus it seemed
to him that their industry might be extended in many other directions.
And delighted with the change that had come over his son he said that he
would have tried long ago to extend his business, if he had had
knowledge of the Greek language.
He spoke of Heliopolis, and proposed to Joseph that he should go there
and establish a mart for salt fish as soon as he had mastered all the
details of the trade, which would be soon: a very little application in
the counting-house would be enough for a clever fellow like Joseph.
As he said these words his eyes met Rachel's, and as soon as Joseph left
the room she asked him if he believed that Joseph would settle down to
the selling of salt fish: a question which was not agreeable to Dan, who
was at that moment settling himself into the conviction that Joseph had
begun to evince an aptitude for trade that he himself did not acquire
till many years older, causing him to flame up as might be expected
against his mother, telling her that her remarks were most mischievous,
whether she meant them or not. He hoped Joseph was not the young man
that she saw in him. Before he could say any more Joseph returned, and
linked his arm into his father's, and the twain went away together to
the counting-house, Dan enamoured of his son but just a little afraid
all the same that Joseph might weary of trade in the end, just as he had
wearied of learning. He was moved to speak his fear to Joseph, but on
consideration he resolved that no good could come of such confidences,
and on the evening of the first day in the counting-house he whispered
to Rachel that Joseph had taken to trade as a duck to the water, as the
saying is.
Day after day he watched his son's progress in administration, saying
nothing, waiting for the head clerk to endorse his opinion that there
were the makings of a first-rate man in Joseph. He was careful not to
ask any leading questions, but he could not refrain from letting the
conversation drop, so that the clerk might have an opportunity of
expressing his opinion of Master Joseph's business capacities. But the
clerk made no remark: it might as well have been that Joseph was not in
the counting-house; Dan had begun to hate his clerk, who had been with
him for thirty years. He had brought him from Arimathea and couldn't
dismiss him; he could only look into his eyes appealingly. At last the
clerk spoke, and his words were like manna in the desert; and,
overjoyed, Dan wondered how it was that he could have refrained so long.
It was concerning a certain falling off in an order: if Master Joseph
were to go on a circuit through the Greek cities--Dan could have thrown
his arms about his clerk for these words, but it were better to
dissimulate. You think then that Joseph understands the business
sufficiently? The clerk acquiesced, and it was a great day, of course,
the day Joseph went forth; and in a few weeks Dan had proof that his
confidence in his son's business aptitudes was not misplaced. Joseph
showed himself to be suited to the enterprise by his engaging manner as
well as by his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, the two languages
procuring him an admission into the confidences of Jew and Gentile
alike.
The length of these excursions was from three to four weeks, and when
Joseph returned home for an interval his parents disputed as to whether
he should spend his holiday in the counting-house or the dwelling-house.
So to avoid giving offence to either, and for his own pleasure Joseph
often spent these days on the boats with the fishers, learning their
craft from them, losing himself often in meditations how the draught of
fishes might be increased by a superior kind of net: interested in his
trade far too much, Rachel said. His mind seemed bent on it always;
whereas she would have liked to have heard him tell of all the countries
he had been to and of all the people he had seen, but it was always
about salt fish that he was talking: how many barrels had gone to this
town, and how many barrels to another, and the new opening he had
discovered for salt fish in a village the name of which he had never
heard before.
Rachel's patience with Joseph was long but at last she lost patience and
said she would be glad when the last barrel of salt fish came out of the
lake, for it would not be till then that they would have time to live
their lives in peace and comfort. She gathered up her knitting and was
going to bed, but Joseph would not suffer her to go. He said he had
stories to tell her, and he fell to telling of the several preachers he
had heard in the synagogues, and his voice beguiled the evening away so
pleasantly that Rachel let her knitting drop into her lap and sat
looking at her grandson, stupefied and transported with love.
Dan's love for his son was more tender in these days than it had ever
been before, but Rachel looked back, thinking the old days were better,
when Joseph used to come from Azariah's talking about his studies. It
may be that Dan, forgetful of his jealousy, looked back to those days
gone over with a certain wistfulness. A boy is, if not more interesting,
at least more unexpected, than a young man. In the old days Dan did not
know what sort of son God had given him, but now he knew that God had
given him the son he always desired, and that Azariah's tending of the
boy's character had been kind, wise and salutary, as the flower and
fruit showed. But in the deepest peace there is disquiet, and in the
relation of his adventures Joseph had begun to display interest in
various interpretations of Scripture which he had heard in the
synagogues--true that he laughed at these, but he had met learned
heretics from Alexandria in Azariah's house. Dan often wondered if these
had not tried to impregnate his mind with their religious theories and
doctrines, for being without religious interests, Dan was strictly
orthodox.
He did not suspect Azariah, whom he knew to be withal orthodox, as much
as Azariah's friend, Apollonius, the Alexandrian Jew. But though he kept
his ears open for the slightest word he could not discover any trace of
his influence. If his discourse had had any effect, it was to make
Joseph more than ever a Pharisee. He was sometimes even inclined to
think that Joseph was a little too particular, laying too much stress
upon the practice of minute observances, and he began to apprehend that
there was something of the Scribe in Joseph after all. The significance
of his mother's words becoming suddenly clear to Dan, he asked himself
if it were not yet within the width of a finger that Joseph would tire
of trade and retire to Jerusalem and expound the law and the traditions
in the Temple. His vocation, Dan was of opinion, could not yet be
predicted with any certainty: he might go either way--to trade or to
religious learning--and in the midst of these meditations on his son's
character Dan remembered that some friends had come to see Joseph at the
counting-house yesterday. Joseph had taken them out into the yard and
they had talked together, but it was not of the export of salt fish they
had spoken, but of the observances of the Sabbath. Dan had listened, pen
in hand, his thoughts suspended, and had heard them devote many minutes
to the question whether a man should dip himself in the nearest brook if
he had accidentally touched a pig. He had heard them discuss at length
the grace that should be used before eating fruit from a tree, and
whether it were necessary to say three graces after eating three kinds
of fruit at one meal. He had heard one ask if a sheep that had been
killed with a Greek knife could be eaten, and he had heard Joseph ask
him if he knew the sheep had been killed with a Greek knife and the man
confess that he had not made inquiry. If he had known--
Dan did not hear the end of the sentence, but imagined that it ended in
a gesture of abhorrence. In his day religion was limited to the law of
Moses, a skein well combed out, but the Scribes in Jerusalem had knotted
and twisted the skein. He had heard Joseph maintain, and stiffly too,
that an egg laid on the day after the Sabbath could not be eaten,
because it had been prepared by the hen on the Sabbath. But one can't
always be watching hens, he said to himself, and the discussion of such
points seeming to him unmanly, he drew back the window-curtain and fell
into admiration of his son's slim loins and great shoulders. Joseph was
laughing with his companions at that moment and his teeth glistened,
every one white and shapely. Why do such discussions interest him? Dan
asked, for his eyes are soft as flowers; and he envied the woman that
Joseph would resort unto in the night. But very often men like Joseph
did not marry, and a new disquietude arose in his mind: he wanted
children, grandchildren. In a few years Joseph should begin to look
round.... Meanwhile it might be well to tell him that men like Hillel
had always held that it is after the spirit rather than the letter we
should strive, and that in running after the latter we are apt to lose
the former, and he accepted the first opportunity to admonish Joseph,
who listened in amazement, wondering what had befallen his father, whom
he had never heard speak like this before. All the same he hearkened to
these warnings and laid them in his memory, and fell to considering his
father as one who had just jogged along the road that he and his
ancestors had come by, without much question. But if his father had set
himself to consider religions, and with that seriousness they deserved,
he would not keep back any longer the matter on which he had long
desired to speak to him.
The young men to whom he had just bidden good-bye were all going to
Jerusalem, whither Dan was accustomed to go every year for the Feast of
the Passover, but last year the journey thither had fatigued him unduly,
and it seemed to Joseph that this year he should go to Jerusalem in his
father's place; and when he broached the subject, Dan, who had been
thinking for some time that he was not feeling strong enough for this
journey, welcomed Joseph's proposal--a most proper presence Joseph's
would be at the Feast. Joseph had come to the age when he should visit
Jerusalem, but he did not readily understand this sudden enthusiasm. If
he wanted to go to Jerusalem to the Feast of the Passover, why had he
not said so before? And Dan, whose thoughts reached back to the
discussion overheard in the yard, was compelled to ask Joseph if it were
for the purpose of discussing the value of certain minute points of law
that he wished to go to Jerusalem. At which Joseph was astonished that
his father should have asked him such a thing.... Yet why not? For
awhile back he was discussing such very points with some young gossips.
His tongue wagged as was its wont on all occasions, though his mind was
away and he suddenly stopped speaking; and when the stirring of his
father's feet on the floor awakened him, he saw his father sitting pen
in hand watching him and no doubt asking himself of what great and
wonderful thing his son was thinking.
Once again actuality disappeared. He stood engulfed in memories of
things heard in Azariah's house: or things only half heard, for he had
never thought of them since. The words of the Jews he met there had
fallen dead at the time, but now he remembered things that had passed
over his mind. The heresies of the Jews in Alexandria awoke in him, and
a marvellous longing awoke to see the world. First of all he must begin
with Jerusalem, and he bade his father good-bye with an eagerness not
too pleasant to the old man.