breeze, they shall stay. So there is a fringe of green blades set
thick with blue blossoms on top of the old wall with vines, and of
these, as of the valley of lilies she hath found, doth Mary throw up
her hands and cry--'Beautiful!'"

Anna and Debora laughed as Martha acted the part of Mary and they
passed on toward the lily beds. Between the garden wall and the
winding roadway, grew a luxurious grove of date palms which gave to the
home of Lazarus its name. Inside the garden, pomegranates and grapes
and figs grew, with melons and lentils and aromatic plants, in addition
to Mary's garden of many colored lilies. In the center of the
courtyard near the house was a water pool in a stony basin, and from
the top of a pile of stones in the middle of the pool, water bubbled
and dropped over the aquatic plants that grew along its sides. On the
side of the pool nearest the house was the sun-dial. Close to the
stairs which went to the housetop from the outside, was an olive tree
of unusual size, the wide extended branches of which shaded a corner of
the house and its roof garden, for Mary had shade-loving plants here
also. Under this gnarled and ancient tree was a thick stone slab hewn
into a seat and here Martha and her guests sat down, after walking
through the garden, to talk of the Passover celebration just at hand,
of Martha's lover Joel, the silk merchant, and Zador Ben Amon's wealth.

As Martha had said, her sister had set forth in the sunrise for a yet
damp wady around the foot of Olivet, where, before the time of
blossoms, she had discovered beds of lilies. After an uninterrupted
walk of a mile or two, Mary paused on the brow of Olivet and stopping
to rest, turned her face to the east. Against the flood light of the
rising sun the far distant Mountains of Moab cast dim blue sky-lines.
Emerging from the many-hued green hills that rose in the foreground,
like a twisted thread, stretched the Jericho road which led past the
garden wall of Lazarus' home in Bethany. Even at this early hour
pilgrims on foot and on donkeys were journeying toward the scene of the
great Passover.

From the east Mary turned her face to the west. Often had she seen
Jerusalem before, yet now she gave an exclamation of joy as the
ascending sunlight fell in floods of golden glory over the snowy towers
and gold minarets of the City of David, secure on its summit of rugged
fastness. "Who has not seen Zion knows not what beauty is!" she