moment their eyes went together to the tally on the wall, and
pointing to it Joseph said it bore witness to the earnestness with which
he had pursued his studies for the last six months, and Azariah was
forced to admit there was little to complain of in the past, but he had
noticed that once a boy came late for his lessons his truancy became
common. Moreover, Sir, my time is of importance, Azariah declared, his
hairy nostrils swelling at the thought of the half hour he had been kept
waiting. But may we finish Menander's comedy? Joseph asked, for he was
curious to learn if Moschion succeeded in obtaining his father's leave
to marry the girl he had put in the family way. The lovers' plan was to
ingratiate themselves with the father's concubine and to persuade her to
get permission to rear and adopt the child. Yes, Joseph, the father
relents. But it would please me, Sir, to learn why he relents. And
Joseph promised that he would be for a whole year in advance of his time
rather than behind it. He did not doubt that he would be able to keep
his promise, for he had found a new way to Tiberias; a deserted way it
seemed to be at first, and most propitious, without the temptations of
ball-players, but as the season advanced the lane became infested by
showmen on their way to Tiberias: mummers, acrobats, jugglers,
fortune-tellers, star-mongers, dealers in charms and amulets, and Joseph
was tempted more than once to stop and speak with these random folk, but
the promise he had given Azariah was sufficiently powerful to inspire a
dread and a dislike of these, and to avoid them he sought for a third
way to Tiberias and found one: a path through an orchard belonging to a
neighbour who was glad to give him permission to pass through it every
morning, which he did, thereby making progress in his studies till one
day, by the stile over which his custom was to vault into the quiet
lane, he came suddenly upon what seemed to him like a small encampment:
wayfarers of some sort he judged them to be, but of what sort he could
not tell at first, there being some distance and the branches of an
apple-tree between him and them.

But as he came through the trees, he decided in his mind that they were
the servitude of some great man: varlets, hirelings or slaves. But his
eyes fell on their baskets and--deceived by the number and size of
these--the thought crossed his mind that they might be poulterers on
their way to Tiberias. But whatever their