d: "Yes, gentlemen, she is my
nearest--enemy."

"Isn't she your wife?" asked Simon.

Without answering him, the tax-gatherer said: "I am a publican, and
blessed with mistrust as far as my eye can reach. Yet all those
without do not cause me as much annoyance as she who is nearest me in
my house."

One of the men laid his hand on his shoulder: "Then, friend, see that
she is no longer your nearest. Come with us. We have left our wives
and all the rest of our belongings to go with Him. Don't you know Him?
He is the man from Nazareth."

The publican started. The man of whom the whole land spoke, the
prophet, the miracle-worker? This young, kindly man was He? He who
preached so severely against the Jews? Didn't I say almost the same,
that time at the Feast of Tabernacles? And yet the people were angry.
They listen reverently to this man and follow Him. Shall I do so too?
What hinders me? I, the much-hated man, may be dismissed the service
at any moment. I may be driven from my house to-day, as soon as
to-morrow? And my wife, she'll probably be seen on the road from
behind? There's only one thing I can't part with, but I can take that
with me.

Then, he turned to the Nazarene, held the tray with the remains of the
fruit towards Him: "Take some, dear Master!"

The Master said gently, in a low voice: "Do you love Me, publican?"

The tax-gatherer began to tremble so that the tray nearly fell from his
hands. Those words! and that look! He could not reply.

"If you love Me, go with Me, and share our hardships."

"Our joys, Lord, our joys," exclaimed Simon.

At that moment a train of pack-mules came along the road. The drivers
whipped the creatures with knotted cords, and cursed that there was
another turnpike. The tax-gatherer took the prescribed coins from
them, and pointed out their ill-treatment of the animals. For answer
he received a blow in his face from the whip. Levi angrily raised his
arm against the driver. Then Jesus stepped forward, gently pulled his
arm down, and asked: "Was his act wrong?"

"Yes!"

"Then do not imitate it."

And the little witty man again interposed: "If you go with us,
publican, you'll have two cheeks, a right and a left. But no arm, do
you understand?"

The remark had reference to a favourite saying of the Master when He
was defenceless and of good-cheer in the presence of a bitter enemy.
Several received the allusion with an angry expression of countenance.