king of
him, the Jewish maidens are singing songs in his honor I heard
them, yesterday, gathered round a well near Neve. His father must
rejoice, and his mother be proud of him, if they are alive.

"What do they say down by the lake, Jonas, of this captain? Are not
the tales we have heard believed, there?"

"I have heard nothing about the Roman javelins not harming him,"
Jonas said; "but he certainly got safely out of the hands of the
Romans, when they had well-nigh taken him; and all say that he is
brave and prudent, and men have great confidence and trust in him."

"Ridiculous, Jonas!" John exclaimed angrily, and Mary and his
mother looked at him in surprise.

"Truly, John," his mother said, "what Mary said is just. This is
not like you. I should have thought you would have been one of the
first to admire this new leader, seeing that he is fighting in the
way I have heard you advocate as being that in which the Romans
should be fought, instead of the Jews being shut up in the cities."

"Quite so, mother! No doubt he is adopting the proper way of
fighting, and therefore has naturally had some success. I am only
saying that he has done nothing wonderful; but has given the Romans
some trouble by refusing to fight, and by merely trying to harass
them. If there were a thousand men who would gather small bands
together, and harass the Romans night and day in the same manner,
they would render it well-nigh impossible for them to make any
progress. As it was, he merely aided in delaying the fall of Gamala
by a day or two.

"And now, let us talk of something else. Our father has succeeded
in getting in the principal part of the harvest, but I fear that
this year you will be short of fruit. We have had no time to gather
in the figs, and they have all fallen from the trees; and although
we have made enough wine for our own use, there will be but little
to sell."

"It matters not at all," Martha said. "God has been very merciful
towards us and, so that we have but bread to eat and water to
drink, until next harvest, we shall have nothing to repine about,
when ruin and destruction have fallen upon so many."

That evening, when Mary and Martha had retired to their apartments,
the former, who had been very silent all the evening, said:

"I cannot understand, mother, why John speaks so coldly of the
doings of this brave leader; and why he was almost angry at our
praises of him. It seems altogether unlike him."

"It is u