e is the mother of John the Baptiser whose head
Herod did give as a bauble to the vile Herodias." Huldah rose
hurriedly and looked out the window.

"The mother of John Baptist, he who did come from the caves of the
mountains with the garment of a wolf, the beard of a lion and the voice
of a bear. Jerusalem turned out to hear the man. Possessed of a devil
was he. Aye, and the hair of his mother be white like the cap of snow
that sits on Hermon's head. Verily a foolish son bringeth down his
mother's hair in sorrow. If the Rabbis are not able to teach the Law,
shall one wild from the desert be able? For attending to business not
his own lost he his head."

"Lean on me," said Mary, just outside the door. "My feet have not
traveled the hard path so long."

"The blessing of Jehovah on thee, my daughter," Elizabeth replied as
they came up the steps. In ample black drapery and wearing a widow's
headdress, the aged woman entered. "Peace be to this house and to thy
hearts, my daughters," she said with upraised hands. She was conducted
to a wide armchair, and Mary threw back her black mantle and Eli
unloosed her sandals.

"There are many pilgrim feet pressing toward the Passover Feast,"
Huldah said.

"Yea, my daughter. And some whose feet pressed the pilgrim path last
year have gone on a longer pilgrimage, a farther journey than to the
City of Zion--yea to the Heavenly Zion have they gone." Elizabeth
rested her head wearily against the back of the chair and tears rolled
down her withered cheeks. Mary knelt beside her and taking her hands
said gently, "Weep not! From our brother have we heard what Herod hath
done. It was cruel, aye, cruel as the grave to take thine son--the
only son of thine old age. But weep not!"

"Cruel as the grave! So seemeth it. Yet the Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away. The Lord truly blessed me in that it was given me to
be the mother of a prophet. Strange too, was it, for the spring-time
of my life had gone. Yea, the ten years had passed after which the
Israelite may give a writing of divorcement to a barren wife. Yet did
the love of my husband live and in the fulness of time to us a son was
born. A Nazarene did he grow, neither cutting his beard, nor drinking
wine nor looking on women. And as Elijah came from the wilds of Gilead
to confound Ahab, so came the son of my bosom from the wilds of Judea
crying in the ear of an adulterous generation, 'Prepare ye! Prepare!
T