3 The Lord Jesus came to the
gate of a certain house, and asked
some women who were standing
there, Where the boys were gone?

4 And when they answered,
That there was no one there; the
Lord Jesus said, Who are those
whom ye see in the furnace?

5 They answered, They were
kids of three years old.

6 Then Jesus cried out aloud,
and said, Come out hither, O ye
kids, to your shepherd;

7 And presently the boys came
forth like kids, and leaped about
him; which when the women saw,
they were exceedingly amazed, and
trembled,

8 Then they immediately worshipped,
the Lord Jesus, and beseeched him,
saying, O our Lord Jesus, son of
Mary, thou art truly that good
shepherd of Israel! have mercy
on thy handmaids, who stand before
thee, who do not doubt, but that
thou, O Lord, art come to save,
and not to destroy.

9 After that, when the Lord
Jesus said, the children of Israel
are like Ethiopians among the
people; the women said, Thou,
Lord, knowest all things, nor is
any thing concealed from thee:
but now we entreat thee, and
beseech of thy mercy, that thou
wouldest restore those boys to
their former state.

10 Then Jesus said, Come hither,
O boys, that we may go and
play; and immediately, in the
presence of these women, the kids
were changed, and returned into
the shape of boys.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1 Jesus becomes the king of his playfellows,
and they crown him with flowers;
4 miraculously causes a serpent who had
bitten Simon the Canaanite, then a boy,
to suck out all the poison again;
16 the serpent bursts, and Christ restores the boy to health.

IN the month Adar Jesus
gathered together the boys, and
ranked them as though he had
been a king.

2 For they spread their garments
on the ground for him to sit
on; and having made a crown of
flowers, put it upon his head, and
stood on his right and left as the
guards of a king.

3 And if any one happened to
pass by, they took him by force,
and said, Come hither, and worship
the king, that you may have a
prosperous journey.

4 In the mean time, while
these things were doing, there
came certain men, carrying a boy
upon a couch;

5 For this boy having gone with
his companions to the mountain to
gather wood, and having found
there a partridge's nest, and put
his hand in to take out the eggs,
was stung by a poisonous serpent,
which leaped out of the nest; so
that he was forced to cry out for
the he