splinter in
your flesh, no one asks if it is the Sabbath; the splinter must be
taken out. But you come with your laws against a poor man who was
obliged to prepare his food on the Sabbath, and you imagine yourselves
better than he is. No, that will not do. The intention must decide.
If any one bakes bread on the Sabbath, I should say to him: 'Is it for
your own good or for gain?' In the first case you are acting rightly,
in the last you desecrate the Sabbath."

As they now did not know what to say, they decided that the youth was
too insignificant for them to dispute with.

Jesus, still excited, came down and joined the crowd, where his mother
was wringing her hands over the boldness with which her son had spoken
to the elders and the wise men. She stretched her arms towards him.
"Child! child! What are you doing here? Why treat us so? What we
have not suffered on your behalf! We have sought you for three whole
days in the greatest anxiety."

Then Jesus said: "Why did you seek me? He who has a task to do, cannot
always stay with his own people. I have been about my Heavenly
Father's business."

"Where were you all the time?"

He did not answer. Others might have told how he stood between the
pillars listening to the discussions of the Rabbis until he could keep
silence no longer.

Joseph said to him with some severity: "If you are learned enough to
interpret the Scriptures to those honourable men, you must know the
fifth commandment: 'Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may
be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.'"

Jesus said nothing.

"And now, my son, we will betake ourselves to that land."

And so they set out on the last stage of their journey. It was hard
walking over the vineyards of Judaea and Samaria, and Mary, when they
were quite near home, asked if she should ever see Nazareth again.
Jesus marched the distance, so to speak, twice, for he was never tired
of turning aside to gather dates, currants, and figs, or to fetch a
pitcher of water in order that his parents might quench their thirst.
So they went slowly over the rocky land, and when the mule-path led to
an eminence over which flat stones lay scattered, and which was thickly
sown with stumpy shrubs, the fertile plain of Israel lay before them.
It was surrounded by wooded hills, while villages were scattered about
its surface, and shining rivers wound through it. Opposite, one range
of mountains showed