s soldiers could not harm them.

[Illustration: The flight into Egypt]

They had gold that the wise men had given them, and Joseph knew how to
make many things of wood, so they lived quietly in Egypt waiting until
the Lord should call them back.

Herod was very angry when he heard that the Magi had gone away without
telling him anything about the young King; so angry that he ordered his
soldiers to destroy every baby boy in Bethlehem. So all the little
boys of Bethlehem under two years of age were killed by the order of
this wicked king, and the Holy Child whom Herod believed would be
destroyed with them was safely borne in His mother's arms along the
road to Egypt, while Joseph walked beside them and led the patient ass,
and angels went with them unseen to be their guard by night and by day.

They lived in Egypt about a year, and then the sick and unhappy old
king died, and an angel came to Joseph one night in a dream, and said,

"Arise and take the young Child and His mother and go into the land of
Israel, for they are dead which sought the young Child's life."

They were glad to know that they could come home again, and they came,
perhaps with a company of merchants, into their own land. Joseph would
have settled in Judea, the part of the land of Israel in which stands
Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, the city of his ancestors, but Herod's son
had been made king over Judea, and Joseph was told in a dream to go
into Galilee.

In Galilee was Nazareth, where both Joseph and Mary lived when they
were married, and there they went and were at home again, and there
Jesus grew to manhood.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BOY OF NAZARETH.

Nazareth was a little town high among the hills of Galilee. It still
stands there, but it is not so large a town as it was when Mary and
Joseph and the Child Jesus lived there. Then Galilee was full of
cities and villages, and men and women were busy among its fields, and
vineyards, and gardens, and the shores of the beautiful Lake of Galilee
were lined with the boats of fishermen.

Nazareth was more quiet than the crowded cities by the Lake. A great
green plain lay below it, and a narrow road winding among the limestone
rocks led up to it. Its streets were narrow and steep, and steps of
stone led from house to house. A fountain of pure water breaking out
of a rock was the meeting place of the women of Nazareth, who came with
their tall pitchers for water and bore them away upon their h