ooth, with slender legs, pretty,
sharp-pointed ears, and long whiskers round its big intelligent eyes.

"Isn't it the colour of a thoroughbred Arab?" said the old man.

"It's a beautiful creature," assented James. "Will you lend it for a
silver piece and much honour? It can easily be back by noon."

To which the little old man replied: "It stands to reason that we can
make something out of it during this time of visitors. Let us make it
two silver pieces."

"One silver piece and honour!"

"Let us make it two silver pieces without honour," haggled the little
old man. "A steed for princes, I tell you. In the whole of Judaea you
won't find such another beauty! It is of noble descent, you must know."

"We can dispense with that honour," said James, "if only it does not
stumble."

Then the old man related how in the year of Herod's massacre of the
innocents--"a little over thirty years ago, I think--you must know that
the Infant Messiah lay in a stable at Bethlehem with the ox and the
ass. The child rode away into foreign lands, as far as Egypt, they
say, on that very ass. And this ass is descended from that one."

"If that's so," said James brightly, "it's a marvellous coincidence!"
And he whispered softly in the old man's ear: "The man who will enter
Jerusalem to-day on that ass is the Messiah who was born in the stable."

"Is it Jesus of Nazareth?" asked the old man. "I will hire the animal
to Him for half a silver piece. In return I shall implore Him to heal
my wife, who has been rheumatic for years."

So they made their compact, and James led the ass up the mountain where
they were all sitting together, unable to gaze long enough at
Jerusalem. Only Jesus was wrapt in thought and looked gloomily at the
shining town.

"Oh, Jerusalem!" He said softly to Himself. "If only thou wouldst heed
this hour. If thou wouldst recognise wherein lies thy salvation. But
thou dost not recognise it, and I foresee the day when cruel enemies
will pull down thy walls so that not one stone remains upon another."

John placed his cloak on the animal, and Jesus mounted it. He rode
down to the valley followed by His disciples.

And then an extraordinary thing happened. When they reached the valley
of Kedron where the roads cross, people hurried up shouting: "The King
is coming! The Son of David is coming!" Soon others ran out of the
farms and the gardens, and kept alongside them at the edge of the road,
shouting: