Category: Novels

The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story

My dear Mary Hunter. It appears that you wished to give me a book for Christmas, but were in doubt what book to give me as I seemed to have little taste for reading, so in your embarrassment you gave me a Bible. It lies on my table now with the date 1898 on the fly-leaf--my co...

Chapters

26. Chapter 26

It passed under rocks and between rocks to the very brink of the precipice as it descended towards the bridge that spanned the brook some hundreds of feet lower down. Already ou...

22. Chapter 22

She lifted her face till he saw her dim eyes, perhaps for the first time: but ye haven't been in bed, and there be dust on thy garments, and blood upon thy hands and sleeves. Ye...

38. Chapter 38

His words seemed to be true words, and I pondered on them, and along the Jordan everybody was asking whether he was the promised Christ. I walked miles to hear him, leaving my f...

36. Chapter 36

A moment indeed of great joy this was, but it did not last longer than many other moments of the same kind with which my life has been sprinkled. James, the brother of the Lord,...

30. Chapter 30

These, about six or seven hours, a Roman soldier said, in answer to Jesus' question as to the length of time they had been on their crosses, not more than six hours, the soldier...

20. Chapter 20

Nicodemus stopped, for his memory died suddenly, and, unable to discover anything in the blank, he turned to Joseph and said: he speaks with a strange, bitter energy, like one t...

27. Chapter 27

Now the day seems like keeping up, he said; but there was a certain fear in his heart that the valleys would be close and hot in the afternoon and the hill-tops uninviting. But...

37. Chapter 37

It was three days after Festus had disembarked at Cæsarea that he went up to Jerusalem, and no sooner had he arrived there than the High Priest asked for audience and besought h...

19. Chapter 19

His master seemed unable to give either order, and stood at gaze till the servant reminded him that Nicodemus was waiting in the hall; and then, as if yielding to superior force...

2. Chapter 2

Joseph promised to be good and quiet and to keep himself from putting questions. I will listen attentively, he said, and he seized on the last chance available to his tongue to...

15. Chapter 15

At the end of one of these, out of the sun's rays, the old man lay propped up among cushions, dreaming, or perhaps only conscious, of the refreshing breeze that came and went aw...

40. Chapter 40

They walked without speaking, Paul afraid lest some chance word of his might awaken Jesus' madness, and Jesus forgetful of Paul, his mind now set on Jerusalem, whither he was go...

34. Chapter 34

The Essenes, ten in number, were seated in an embrasure. A reader had been chosen (an elder) to read the Scriptures, and the attention of the community was now engaged in judgme...

6. Chapter 6

Joseph marvelled that priests could speak like this, and tried to forget the vile things they said, but they were unforgettable: he treasured them in his heart, for he could not...

14. Chapter 14

And so sweet was his reverie to him that he regretted the passing of it as a misfortune, but finding he was in spirit as well as in body among realities, he lent his ear to the...

4. Chapter 4

But as he came through the trees, he decided in his mind that they were the servitude of some great man: varlets, hirelings or slaves. But his eyes fell on their baskets and--de...

3. Chapter 3

Joseph stood waiting on the edge of the rocks and cried out in the fulness of his joy on seeing his preceptor appear above the cliff, and at once fell to rolling himself over an...

39. Chapter 39

Paul, who had seemed to Jesus to have recovered a great part of his strength, spoke with great volubility and vehemence, saying that angels were but the messengers of God, and t...

1. Chapter 1

My dear Mary Hunter. It appears that you wished to give me a book for Christmas, but were in doubt what book to give me as I seemed to have little taste for reading, so in your...

24. Chapter 24

Joseph waited, for he expected Jesus to speak of the Essenes and of the time when he was their shepherd; but Jesus' thoughts seemed to have wandered from dogs, and to bring them...

10. Chapter 10

Horse and horseman seemed a match the morning they went away to Galilee together, Xerxes all bits and bridles, stirrups and trappings, and Joseph equipped for the journey not le...

23. Chapter 23

Salome, mother of John and James, too, got in her word and railed against Jesus for having brought them all from Galilee for naught. John and James, he promised me, were to sit...

32. Chapter 32

It was not the length of Mathias' discourse, nor his eloquence, Hazael said, that caused my senses to swoon away. My age will not permit me to listen long. I would be with Jesus...

17. Chapter 17

If he were a good son he would take a maid to bed. But that he couldn't do! I am afraid, he said, speaking suddenly out of his thoughts, I'm not the son you deserve, Father. I'm...

8. Chapter 8

Such a belief being detestable, he resolved to rid himself of it, and Mathias would help him, he was sure, and in this hope he confided his life to him, going back to the night...

25. Chapter 25

Whereupon Esora, who was standing by when these words were spoken, was much moved, for she, too, believed in dreams and their interpretation, and she could put no other interpre...

5. Chapter 5

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 n...

35. Chapter 35

It was Barnabas who brought me to James, the brother of the Lord, and to Peter, and told them that though I had persecuted I was now zealous, and had preached in many synagogues...

33. Chapter 33

Jesus, who had gone to fetch a basin of water and a garment, returned and asked Saddoc and Manahem the cause of their unseemly struggle with their guest. They replied that their...

13. Chapter 13

But dark though it was he answered her with a seeming cheerfulness that in the coming world there is neither weariness of spirit nor of body, and therefore chairs are not set in...

11. Chapter 11

The dogs barked as he unlocked the gate, but a few words quieted them (they still remembered his voice) and he crept upstairs to his room, weary in body and sore of foot, for he...

29. Chapter 29

At these words the Essenes gathered close together, and with brightening eyes listened, for they interpreted these words to mean that the brethren by the lake had fallen headlon...

18. Chapter 18

In this he was, however, mistaken, and in the hour they spent together his host's thoughts were much less occupied than Joseph expected them to be with the jewels on his neck an...

7. Chapter 7

No better commodity have we for the moment, the curator said, struck by the precarious shelter the hut offered--a crazy door and a roof that let the starlight through at one end...

28. Chapter 28

The brethren waited for Jesus to return, but he did not return to them; and at nightfall a watch was set at the bridge head, and the same was done for many succeeding days, till...

21. Chapter 21

Jesus was laid on the ox-cart, and Mary, Martha and Joseph following it reached Mount Scropas, in which was the tomb, before sunset. As I told thee with half-an-hour for thee to...

9. Chapter 9

And now, as he walked from the Jordan to the cenoby, he remembered how, all one night after that meeting, dreams of a mutual destiny plagued him: how he slept and was awakened b...

16. Chapter 16

At the sight of Ruth beautiful and living naught mattered to Rachel but revenge, and she crossed the street as if with the intention of striking her with a dagger, but as she ap...

12. Chapter 12

Joseph made no reply, hoping by silence to quiet Philip's tongue which returned to the attack, he was fain to admit, not altogether unlike a fly. He tried not to hear him, for t...

31. Chapter 31

The flock will go to Jacob, the lad he's been training to follow him ever since his friend was killed, Havilah remarked timidly. Eliab and Bozrah raised their eyes, and looked a...

41. Chapter 41

The sea of Cilicia was beautifully calm, and they sailed on, hearing all the sailors, who were Greek, telling their country's legends of the wars of Troy, and of Venus whose gre...