hy father?' and the son said, 'Nay.' To
the other, the man did say, 'Son, wilt thou do a service for thy
father?' and the son did answer, 'Yea.' And when came time to take
account of the service, lo, the son that had said, 'Nay' had performed
the service, while he who had said 'Yea' had done no service. This did
the Galilean Prophet tell in the ears of the crowd for the Pharisees
who had accused him. And then did he say to them, 'I say unto thee,
the publicans and harlots shall enter the Kingdom before thou dost!'"

"Ha! ha!" laughed Lazarus with pleasure. "The man pleaseth me. When
hath a Rabbi spoken such wisdom or possessed such powers of
discernment?"

"Are there many in the Sanhedrin who harken to the teachings of this
Jesus?" Joel asked.

"Beside myself none, save Nicodemus who did go to him by night. Aye,
and it was a hard saying the ears of Nicodemus did hear, for when the
Ruler asked what he should do to be saved, the Galilean told him, 'Thou
must be born again.'"

"Born again? A man be born again--and thou dost call such speaking
wisdom?" It was Joel who asked the question.

"The young Rabbi made clear that the birth he teaches is not of flesh,
but entereth in like the blowing of the wind, and hath to do with the
spirit of man."

"Herein is mystery," Lazarus observed with perplexed face. "I
understand not this being born again. Mary, thou dost spend much time
studying the mysteries of life as it doth appear to thee in living
things. Understandest thou how to be born again?"

"I understand not," Mary answered. "Yet the miracle I have seen. Once
did I plant in the soil a root, brown like a dead leaf and wrinkled
like a hag's face. It hath been born again. Lo--here it is," and she
took the red lily from the vase by Joseph's cup. "See its glad color?
Smell its rare fragrance? Here is a miracle, for this that is
beautiful, is only a changed form of that which was uncomely. A
miracle--yet the secret be with Jehovah God. Mayhap the heart of
Nicodemus was brown and wrinkled with much tradition and useless custom
until the words of wisdom Joseph doth speak of, seemed but foolishness.
And lo! A change did come and he findeth Truth in the words of the
Galilean Rabbi. Thus would he be born again. The miracle thou
mightest see, but the manner of its doing is hidden in the heart of
Jehovah."

During Mary's explanation of a miracle the eyes of Joseph had been
drawn to her in surprise and adm