the opening from which, pure and bright, the water
trickled, but the supply was so scanty that she could almost count the
drops as they fell. It would take a considerable time for the jar to
be filled by these drops.

"Ah! methinks my earthly joys are even as this failing spring!" thought
the maiden, sadly, as she watched the slow drip of the water. "All
will be dried up soon. My loved grandmother's strength is sinking; she
will be unable to-morrow to keep the holy feast in Salathiel's house,
though her heart will be with the worshippers there. How different,
oh! how different is this Passover from that which we celebrated last
year! Then, indeed, there was an idol in the Temple of the Lord, and
holy sacrifice could not be offered in the appointed place, but the
fierce storm of persecution had not arisen in all its terrors. Then
around the table of Salathiel how many gathered whom I never again
shall behold upon earth! Solomona, my kinswoman, and her seven sons
all met in that solemn assembly; the bright-eyed Asahel, the fearless
Mahali, young Joseph, who was my merry playmate when ten years ago we
came from Bethsura hither! I remember that when Hadassah looked on
that cluster of brothers, she said that they were like the
Pleiades--they are more like those star-gems now, for they shine not on
earth but in heaven! And Solomona looked proudly on her boys--her
noble sons, and said that not one of them had ever raised a blush on
the cheek of their mother; and then, methinks, she regretted having
uttered the boast, and I fancied that I heard a stifled sigh from
Hadassah. Was it that the spirit of prophecy came upon her then, that
she foresaw the terrible future, or was it--alas! alas! I dare not
think wherefore she sighed! And old Mattathias, he who now sleeps in
the sepulchre of his fathers, he and his sons kept that Passover feast
with Salathiel, having come up to Jerusalem to worship, according to
the law of Moses. How venerable looked the old man with his long snowy
beard! it seemed to me that so Abraham must have looked, when his
earthly pilgrimage was well-nigh ended. Mattathias laid his hand on my
head and blessed me, and called me daughter. Ah! can it be that he
thought of me then as his daughter indeed! The princely Judas stood
near, and when I raised my head I met the gaze of his eyes, and I
thought--no, I never then fully grasped the meaning expressed in that
gaze, it was to me as the tender glance