f cactus into
little fields and gardens, which, about the fall of the spring
rains, wear an aspect of indescribable calm, and glow with a tint of
the richest green. Beside the narrow pathway, at no great distance
apart from each other, are two wells, and the women who draw water
there are more beautiful, and the ruddy, bright-eyed shepherd boys
who sit or play by the well sides, in their gay-colored Oriental
costume, are a happier, bolder, brighter-looking race than the
traveler will have seen elsewhere. Gradually the valley opens into a
little natural amphitheater of hills, supposed by some to be the
crater of an extinct volcano; and there, clinging to the hollows of
a hill, which rises to the height of some five hundred feet above
it, lie, 'like a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald,' the flat
roofs and narrow streets of a little Eastern town. There is a small
church; the massive buildings of a convent; the tall minaret of a
mosque; a clear, abundant fountain; houses built of white stone, and
gardens scattered among them, umbrageous with figs and olives, and
rich with the white and scarlet blossoms of orange and pomegranate.
In spring, at least, everything about the place looks indescribably
bright and soft; doves murmur in the trees; the hoopoe flits about
in ceaseless activity; the bright blue roller-bird, the commonest
and loveliest bird of Palestine, flashes like a living sapphire over
fields which are enameled with innumerable flowers."
[End illustration]

{89}

JESUS HAD NO HOME

Jesus had no home of his own after he grew up.

Once a man wanted to be his disciple.

Jesus wanted this man to know that he had no
fine house where he could entertain him.

He said that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests, but that he had not where to lay his head.

His friends asked him to visit them.

They were always glad when he came to see them.

Sometimes a rich man asked Jesus and his friends to dinner.

He made no difference between the rich and the poor among his friends.

One of the homes where he liked to be was the home of a fisherman.

The fisherman's name was Simon.

{90}

Sometimes he was called by another name, Peter.

He caught fish in the lake of Galilee.

His house stood near the lake.

His fishing boat was drawn up upon the shore.

Another home where Jesus liked to stay was the home of Lazarus.

Lazarus had two sisters.