thy leprosy."

This was a message from his master Elisha, who was not coming out to
see the great captain! The Syrian chief was filled with anger at the
man who dared to send him away from the prophet's door as if he were a
beggar, and he exclaimed,--

"I thought he would surely come out to see me, and stand and call on
his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal me. Are not Abana
and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean?"

Springing into his chariot, he grasped the reins, and shook them as he
brought his whip fiercely down on the horses' backs, causing them to
leap forward from the door. The horses galloped swiftly through the
narrow streets, and out by the gate in the city wall, and down the road
to the plain, the guards and servants of the great captain following
after him as quickly as they could. Naaman considered that he had been
mocked by this foreign prophet, and was galloping back to Syria as
quickly as he could.

But horses cannot gallop for ever, however angry their masters may be;
and when at length they came to a walking pace, Naaman began to talk
with his friends about the insult he had received from the rude old
prophet. Why should _he_ bathe in the Jordan River, where the water
was clay-white and often muddy, when he had his own rivers of Abana the
golden and Pharpar the sweet, brimming with the finest water in the
world? His friends did not answer him in his wrath; but they soon
reached the ford of crossing, and if he would not bathe in the Jordan,
he would have to ride through it, for there was no bridge. Then one of
his friends gave him this piece of very good advice.

"My father," he said, "if the prophet had told thee to do some hard
thing, thou wouldst have done it. How much more shouldst thou obey him
when what he commands is such a little thing as this?"

Naaman's rage had passed off with the lashing of his horses and his
furious driving, but his terrible leprosy remained. Was he going back
to his master with the disease still upon him, to tell him that he had
not done what the prophet had told him because it was too easy? There
was the white river rushing past at his feet. To ride so far and then
refuse to wash would seem very foolish; so he changed his mind, and
stopping his chariot at the water's edge, went into the stream and
bathed, and to his surprise and delight was at once healed of his
leprosy, so