d her mother warningly, leaning forward to pull Naomi's little
robe straight. "Thy aunt will be occupied with her business, Naomi, and
thou must be as quiet as a mouse so that she will not regret that thou
art with her."

"Never fear that," said Aunt Miriam heartily, "Naomi is as dear to me as
my own. I shall not be so busy that she will have to play mouse all day.
She shall see something of the city, and eat a good dinner at the house
of Simon's sister Anna, and make friends, perhaps, with Anna's little
Martha who is just her age."

"I will be quiet," promised Naomi, her face bright with smiles. "I will
be good. I will not speak a word nor stir all day long."

"Great are thy promises, Naomi," answered Aunt Miriam, rising to go and
laying a kindly hand upon the curly head of her niece. "I will give thee
a hot breakfast at the khan to stay thee on thy journey, so be not late.
We start at sunrise!"

"Oh, Father," cried Naomi, throwing her arms about her father's neck,
"how good I mean to be always after this! Dost think I shall see the
Temple? And, Mother, which am I to wear--my new blue robe or my yellow
and red striped one? I am really to go to Jerusalem! Oh, what will Ezra
say when he hears the good news I have to tell!"

The next morning at daybreak, when the purple shadows lay heavily in the
east and the sky was still gray overhead, Naomi, wearing a gay little
cloak of scarlet over her best blue robe, ran hastily down the stony
road that led to the Bethlehem khan.

The drowsy gate-keeper had already unlocked the heavy town gates, for
day begins early in hot countries, and at sight of Naomi, whom he knew
well, he uttered a sleepy "Peace be with thee!" as a morning greeting.

"With thee be peace!" piped Naomi in return. "Oh, Nathan, I go to-day
to Jerusalem with my Aunt Miriam. This very day I go!"

Old Nathan nodded his head solemnly and muttered in his beard.

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion,"
responded the pious old Jew. But Naomi was half-way down the hill and
did not hear one word.

There before her at the crossroads stood the old khan, with its great
wall of stone and its stout gate behind which all night long sat a
watchman on the alert. Below the inn lay the very fields among which
Ruth, long, long ago, had gleaned the golden corn, and where later King
David as a shepherd lad had tended his flock.

Naomi slipped through the open gate into the courtyard of the khan