Chapter 3

THE TRIP TO JERUSALEM

The road to Jerusalem stretched white and hot in the blazing sunshine. The deep blue sky was without a cloud, and the insects, hidden in the roadside grass, hummed in the heat.

A cloud of dust in the distance told that the three Roman soldiers who, only a moment ago, it seemed, had galloped past the slowly moving ox cart, were nearing their destination, the Holy City. Naomi had watched the glitter of their helmets and the flashing of their bright lances with the same interest she had given to a string of melancholy gray camels led along the road by a country lad in his cool white tunic and broad red leather belt.

Everything was interesting this morning to Naomi. She stared at the dusty gray olive-trees, the shabby scrub oaks, the low-branched sycamores as if she had not been familiar with them all her life. To-day the birds seemed to dart about more swiftly and to utter sweeter songs as they flew. The few sheep she spied nibbling the sparse grass on the rocky hillsides were surely whiter than those at home. The field flowers, with faces upturned to the bright sun, glowed with splendid color. The whole world was glad to-day.

"They are all happy because I am happy," mused Naomi, smiling at her own thought.

She glanced at Jacob plodding contentedly along beside his beasts, at Aunt Miriam who sat silent, her usually busy hands folded in her lap, enjoying this little rest from her many household cares.

Tap, tap, tap!

Naomi peered about, and Aunt Miriam sat up straight at this sound upon the road.

Tap, tap, tap!

Now the shuffling of cautious feet was to be heard, too.

Down the Jerusalem highway came six men walking in single file, each with a staff in hand and the other hand resting upon the shoulder of the man before him. They were all blind! Even their guide, who tapped the ground as he walked, was sightless, "the blind leading the blind."

Naomi stared curiously. She had often seen as many as a dozen blind men walking in such a row, and they were always to be found by the wayside or near the village gates at home, in company with the lame and the helpless, holding out a little bowl for money or food.

"Jacob!" called Aunt Miriam.

She took a piece of money from her purse, securely fastened in her belt, and Jacob, without being told, dropped it in the bowl of the blind leader. He was accustomed to the charity of his good master and mistress. Had not Moses the Lawgiver bade those who fear their God have sympathy for the blind?

The blind men at sound of the cart had drawn up by the side of the road, and now they leaned upon their staffs and turned their sightless faces toward their unseen benefactress. They were glad of an excuse to rest and also to talk, for time meant little to them, and they liked nothing better than to recount, each one, the detailed history of his misfortune.

But Aunt Miriam did not mean to spend several hours this morning in idle talk upon the highway. She motioned Jacob to move on, and in response to the thanks and blessings showered upon her for her gift, she called:

"Peace be unto thee, friends! We hasten on to Jerusalem before the sun mounts high. May all good things await thee in Bethlehem!"

Up the steep hill climbed the bullock cart, and once round the curve in the road Aunt Miriam pointed.

"Naomi--the City!" she said. "See the Temple! How it gleams!"

High above the flat roofs and massive walls of Jerusalem shone the great gold and white Temple of the Hebrews. The little party halted at the sight. Aunt Miriam's lips moved in prayer. Naomi was silent as she gazed. She recalled the lines in one of the hymns her mother had taught her:

"We have thought on thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple."

To the pious little Jewish girl there could be no more beautiful nor inspiring sight than that of the sacred Temple set in the midst of the Holy City. She kept a reverent silence until they reached the Bethlehem gate where entered all the trade and travel from Egypt and the sea.

But once Naomi was lifted down from the cart, and placed in the shade of the huge gateway to wait with Aunt Miriam while Jacob justified their presence in the city to the haughty Roman guard, her tongue wagged on as merrily as before.

"We have no watch-tower like this one on our gateway at home, Aunt Miriam," she observed, glancing up and down and roundabout. "I suppose that ten soldiers could stand in this one at once if they liked."

Her aunt nodded absently. Her thoughts were with Jacob, still talking with the Roman guard. She hoped there would be no trouble on this day of all days when Simon was not with them.

"Wilt thou buy me a drink, Aunt Miriam?" Naomi asked next. "Not of water, but of honey of wine."

The water-carriers were rough-looking bearded men who ran about in short frocks, shouting and rattling their brass cups, with dingy goatskin bottles lashed upon their backs. Naomi was afraid of them. She liked far better the row of peasant women with grape juice to sell, who sat against the wall and called out:

"Honey of wine! Who will buy? Honey of wine! Ho, every one that is athirst, come! Buy and drink! Honey of wine!"

A moment later she had forgotten that she was thirsty and was watching two poor women who sat in a corner on the ground grinding at a stone