to Joseph in a dream, '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.' Joseph got up, and took the young
Child and His mother, and went into the land of Israel. But when he
came there, people said to him, 'Herod is dead, but his son Archelaus
is king.' And when Joseph knew that Archelaus was king, he was afraid
to stay in Judaea. And God spoke to him again in a dream, and told him
to go back to Galilee. So Joseph and Mary went back to Galilee, and
lived in Nazareth again.

CHAPTER III

THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS

The Bible tells us only a few stories about the time when Jesus was a
little boy.

Nazareth is built up the side of a hill, and there are plenty of
gardens and fields down below. Amongst these fields there is a
fountain, where the women of Nazareth go to fetch water. Jesus must
often have gone with His mother to that fountain; and sometimes, when
she was tired, He may have fetched the water for her Himself.

[Illustration: Nazareth, from hill above.]

Mary wore a long blue dress, tied round the waist, and a cap with
pieces of money sewn round it, and a white cloth over her head and
shoulders, just as the women of Nazareth do now; and Jesus was very
likely dressed in a red cap, a bright tunic, a sash of many colours,
and a little jacket of white or blue, just as the boys of Nazareth are
dressed now.

The houses of Nazareth are white. Grape vines grow over their walls,
and doves sit and coo on the flat roofs. There is not much inside the
houses: sometimes they have only one room. There is a lamp in the
middle of the room, and round the walls there are waterpots. There are
bright-coloured quilts on a shelf. People unroll these quilts at night
and lie down upon them. There are mats and carpets in the house, and a
bright-coloured box with treasures in it, and a painted wooden stool;
and that is nearly all.

[Illustration: Jewish women grinding corn.]

When the people of the house want to eat, they put a tray of food on
the wooden stool, and they sit round the tray on the floor, and eat
with their hands. People in Palestine would not know what to do with
tables and chairs, and knives and forks, like ours.

The streets of Nazareth are long and narrow, and they are full of
chickens and dogs, of donkeys and camels, of blind beggars and
children. There are little shops by the side of the streets, something