A very good guessing of his father's wonts and thoughts was that of
Joseph while riding from Tiberias, for as the horsemen came up the lane
at a canter the old man was wending homeward from his counting-house,
wishing Peter and Andrew, James and John and the rest good fortune with
their nets, or else, he had begun to think, the order from Damascus
cannot----- The completed sentence would probably have run: cannot be
executed, but the sound of the hooves of Joseph's horse checked the
words on his lips and he had to squeeze himself against the ditch, to
escape being trodden upon. Joseph sprang from the saddle. Father, I
haven't hurt you, I hope? I was dreaming. Why, Joseph, it is you! You
haven't hurt me, and I was dreaming too. But what a beautiful horse you
are riding! Aren't you afraid he will run away? Up and down these lanes
he would give us a fine chase. No, Joseph replied, he'll follow me. And
the horse followed them, pushing his head against Joseph's shoulder from
time to time; but Joseph was too much engaged with his father to do more
than whistle to Xerxes when he lingered to browse.
As we rode past Tiberias, I had imagined you, Father, sitting in the
verandah drinking sherbet. We will have some presently, Dan answered. I
was detained at my business. Tell me, Father, how are the monkeys and
the parrots? Much the same as you left them, Dan answered, as he laid
his hand on the latch of the large wooden gate. A servant came forward
to conduct them, and Joseph threw his reins to him.
A monkey came hopping across the sward and jumped on to Joseph's
shoulder. Another came, and then a third. Dan would have been annoyed if
the monkeys had not recognised Joseph, for it seemed to him quite
natural that all things should love Joseph. You see, he continued, the
parrots are screaming and dancing on their perches, waiting for you to
scratch their polls. Joseph complied, and then Dan wearied of the
monkeys, which were absorbing Joseph's attention, and drove them away.
You haven't told me that you're glad to be back in Galilee in front of
that beautiful lake. Jerusalem has its temple but God made the lake
himself. But you don't seem as pleased to be back as I'd like. Father,
it is of thee I'm thinking and not of temples or lakes, Joseph answered,
and for a moment Dan could not speak, so deep was his happiness, and so
intense. Overcome by it, they walked a little way and Joseph followed
his father up the tall stairs on to the verandahed balcony, and when
they had drunk some sherbet and Joseph had vowed he had not tasted any
like it, Dan interposed suddenly: but thou hast not told me, Joseph, how
thou camest by thy beautiful horse. He came from Egypt, Joseph answered
casually, and was about to add that he was an Egyptian horse, but on
second thoughts it seemed to him that it would be well not to speak the
word "Egypt" again: to do so might put another question into his
father's mouth; he would not commit himself to a rank lie, and to tell
that he had gone to Egypt could not do else than lead him into an
intricate story which would indispose his father to listen to Pilate's
projects, or at least estrange Dan's mind from a calm judgment of them;
so he resolved to omit all mention of Banu, Jesus and Egypt and to begin
his narrative with an account of his meeting with the camel-driver
Gaddi. But the camel-driver seemed to be the last person that Dan was
interested in. But he's my partner! Joseph exclaimed, and it was he who
sent me to Pilate. I'll tell thee about the Essenes afterwards. And
feeling that he had at last succeeded in fixing his father's attention
on that part of the story which he wished to tell him, Joseph said: an
excellent governor, one who is ready to listen to all schemes for the
furtherance of commercial enterprise in Judea: he has ridded the hills
of the robbers; and his account of the summer in the desert with the
Roman soldiers, smoking out nest after nest and putting on crosses those
that were taken alive interested the old man. I wish he would start on
Samaria, Dan mentioned casually; and Joseph replied, and he will as soon
as he is certain that he can rely on the help of men like thee. Pilate's
favour is worth winning, Father, and it can be won. I doubt thee not,
but wilt tell how it may be won, my boy? By falling in with his
projects, Joseph answered, and began his relation. And when he had
finished, Dan sat meditating, casting up the account: Pilate's good will
is desirable, he said, but a large sum of money will have to be
advanced. But, Father, the carrying trade has been a great success.
Well, let us go into figures, Joseph. And they balanced the profits
against the losses. Without doubt thou hast done well this last half
year, Dan said, and if business don't fall away---- But, Father, Joseph
interrupted, think of the profit my account would have shown if we had
not lost two convoys. The loss has already been very nearly paid off.
There are no more robbers and the demand for figs is steady in
Jerusalem. Figs ripen much earlier---- Say no more, Joseph. My money is
thy money, and if fifty camels be wanted, thou shalt have them. 'Tis the
least I can do for thee, for thou hast ever been a frugal son, Joseph,
and art deserving of all I have. So Pilate has heard of my fish-salting
and maybe that was why he met thee on such fair terms. That has much to
do with it, Joseph replied, and he watched the look of satisfaction that
came into his father's face. But tell me, Joseph, has all this long time
been spent smoking out robbers? Tell me again of their caves. Well,
Father, the caves often opened on to ledges, and we had to lower the
soldiers in baskets.
And the tale how one great cavern was besieged amused the old man till
he was nigh to clapping his hands with delight and to reminding Joseph
of the time when he used to ask his grandmother to tell him stories.
Were she here she'd like to hear thee telling thy stories. Thou wast in
her thoughts to the last and now we shall never see her any more,
however great our trouble may be; and in the midst of a great silence
they fell to thinking how the same black curtain would drop between them
and the world. She has gone away to Arimathea, Joseph, whence we came
and whither I shall follow her. We go forward a little way but to go
back again. But I can't talk of deaths and graves. Go on telling me
about Pilate and the robbers, for I've been busy all day in the
counting-house adding up figures, and to listen to a good tale is a rare
distraction. Yet I wouldn't talk of them either, Joseph, but of thyself
and thy horse that all the country will be talking about the day after
to-morrow, when thou'lt ride him into the town. And now say it, Joseph:
ye are a wee bit tired, isn't that so? Nay, Father, not a bit. We have
come but twenty miles from the last halt, and as for the telling of my
story, maybe the loose ends which I've forgotten for the moment will
unravel themselves while we're talking of fish-salting--of the many
extra barrels you've sent out. Now, Father, say how many? At it, Joseph,
as beforetimes, rallying thy old father! Well, I've not done so badly,
but a drop in the year's trading is never a pleasant thought, though it
be but a barrel. And he began again his complaint against the government
of Antipas, who had never encouraged trade as he should have done. Now,
if we had a man here such as thy friend Pilate, I'd not be saying too
much were I to say that my trade could be doubled. But Pilate has no
authority in Galilee. Joseph thought that Pilate's authority should be
extended. But how can that be done? Dan inquired, and being embarrassed
for an answer, Joseph pressed Dan to confide in him, a thing which Dan
showed no wish to do; but at last his reluctance was overcome, and shyly
he admitted that his despondency had nothing to do with Antipas nor with
a casual drop in the order from Damascus, but with a prophet that was
troubling the neighbourhood. A very dangerous prophet, too, is this one;
but I am afraid, Joseph, we don't view prophets in exactly the same
light. Joseph was about to laugh, but seeing the smile coming into his
eyes, his father begged him to wait till he heard the whole story.
He called up all his attention into his face, and the story he heard was
that the new prophet, who came up from Jordan about a year ago, was
preaching that the Lord was so outraged at the conduct of his chosen
people that he had determined to destroy the world, and might begin the
wrecking of it any day of the week. But before the world ends there'll
be wars. Joseph said: but there has been none, nor have I heard rumours
of any. We don't hear much what's going on up here in Galilee, Dan
answered, and he continued his story: the new prophet had persuaded many
of the fishers to lay down their nets. Simon Peter, thou rememberest
him? Well, he's the prophet's right-hand man, and now casts a net but
seldom. And thou hast not forgotten James and John, sons of Zebedee?
They come next in the prophet's favour, and there are plenty of others
walking about the village, neglecting their work and telling of the
judgment and the great share of the world that'll come to them when the
prophet returns from heaven in a chariot. Among them is Matthew, a
publican, the only one that can read or write. You don't remember him?
Now I come to think on it, he was appointed soon after thou wentest to
Jerusalem. Soon after I went to Jerusalem? Joseph asked; was the prophet
preaching then? No. It all began soon after thy departure for Jerusalem
about a year ago; a more ignorant lot of fellows thou'st be puzzled to
find, if thou wert to travel the world over in search of them. The
prophet himself comes from the most ignorant village in
Galilee--Nazareth. But why look like that, Joseph? What ails thee? Go
on, Father, with thy telling of the prophet from Nazareth. He started in
Nazareth, Dan answered, but none paid any heed to him but made a mock of
him, for he'd have us believe that he is the Messiah that the Jews have
been expecting for many a year. But it was predicted that the Messiah
will be born in Bethlehem; and everybody knows that Jesus was born in
Nazareth. There's some talk, too, that he comes from the line of David,
but everybody knows that Jesus is the son of Joseph the Carpenter. His
mother and his brothers tried all they could do to dissuade him from
preaching about the judgment, which he knows no more about than the
next one, but he wouldn't listen to them. A good quiet woman, his
mother; I know her well and am sorry for her; but she has better sons in
James and Jude. Joseph her husband, I knew him in days gone by--a
God-fearing honest man, whom one could always entrust with a day's work.
He doted on his eldest son, though he never could teach him to handle a
saw with any skill, for his thoughts were always wandering, and when an
Essene came up to Galilee in search of neophytes, Jesus took his fancy
and they went away together. But what ails thee? As soon as Joseph could
get control of his voice, he asked his father if the twain were gone
away together to the cenoby on the eastern bank of Jordan, and Dan
answered that he thought he had heard of the great Essenes' encampment
by the Dead Sea. A fellow fair-spoken enough, Dan continued, that has
bewitched the poor folk about the lakeside. But, Joseph, thy cheek is
like ashes, and thou'rt all of a tremble: drink a little sherbet, my
boy. No, Father, no. Tell me, is the Galilean as tall or as heavy as I
am, or of slight build, with a forehead broad and high? And does he walk
as if he were away and in communion with his Father in heaven? But what
ails thee, my son? What ails thee? He came from the cenoby on the
eastern shores of the Jordan? Joseph continued; and has been here nearly
two years? He received baptism from John in the Jordan? Isn't that so,
Father? I know naught of his baptism, Dan answered, but he'll fall into
trouble. I was with Banu, Joseph said, when the hermit saw him in a
vision receiving baptism from John; but though I ran, I was too late,
and ever since have sought Jesus, in Egypt and afterwards among the
hills of Judea. I can't tell thee more at present, but would go out into
the garden or perhaps wander by myself for a little while under the
cliffs by the lake. Thou'lt forgive me this sudden absence, Father?
Dan put down his glass of sherbet and looked after his son. He had been
so happy for a little while, and now unhappiness was by again.