their mothers had taught
them from the Scriptures, especially of The Great One whom those mothers
were expecting to appear as the Messiah? Did they go together to the
synagogue, and hear the Rabbi read the prophecies which some day Jesus,
in the same synagogue, would say were about Himself?

Jesus was the flower of Mary's family, the flower of Nazareth, of
Galilee, of the whole land, and the whole world. Nazareth means
flowery--a fitting name for the home of Jesus. It was rightly named. So
must James and John have thought if their young cousin went with them to
gather daisies, crocuses, poppies, tulips, marigolds, mignonette and
lilies, which grow so profusely around the village. Did they ramble
among the scarlet pomegranates, the green oaks, the dark green palms,
the cypresses and olives that grew in the vale of Nazareth, and made
beautiful the hills that encircled it? Did they climb one of them, and
gain a view of the Mediterranean, and look toward the region where John
would live when his boyhood was long past, in the service of his cousin
at his side?

[Illustration: VIRGIN, INFANT JESUS, AND ST JOHN (Madonna della Sedia)
_Raphael_ Page 31]

A great artist, Millais, painted a picture of the boy Jesus,
representing Him as cutting His finger with a carpenter's tool, and
running to His mother to have it bound up. Did John witness any such
incident? How little did he think of a deeper wound he was yet to behold
in that same hand.

We cannot answer such questions. These things were possible. They help
us to think of Jesus as a boy, like other boys. James and John thought
of Him as such only until long after the days of which we are speaking.

While thinking of John and Jesus as cousins, we may also think of a
kinsman of theirs, a second cousin of whom we shall know more. John was
to have a deep interest in both of the others, and they were to have
more influence on him than all other men in the world.

There were some things common to them all. They were Jews. According to
Jewish customs they were trained until six years of age in their own
homes. Their library was the books of the Old Testament. They learned
much of its teachings. They read the stories of Joseph, Samuel and
David. At six they went to the village school, taught by a Rabbi. Some
attention was paid to arithmetic, the history of their nation, and
natural history. But, as at their homes, the chief study was the
Scriptures. They were taught especially