, as she
re-entered the house; though she did fear that trouble, and ruin,
might be approaching.

John was soon at work among the fig trees, aiding Isaac and his son
Reuben--a lad of some fifteen years--to pick the soft, luscious
fruit, and carry it to the little courtyard, shaded from the rays
of the sun by an overhead trellis work, covered with vines and
almost bending beneath the purple bunches of grapes. Miriam--the
old nurse--and four or five maid servants, under the eye of Martha,
tied them in rows on strings, and fastened them to pegs driven into
that side of the house upon which the sun beat down most hotly. It
was only the best fruit that was so served; for that which had been
damaged in the picking, and all of smaller size, were laid on trays
in the sun. The girls chatted merrily as they worked; for Martha,
although a good housewife, was a gentle mistress and, so long as
fingers were busy, heeded not if the tongue ran on.

"Let the damsels be happy, while they may," she would say, if
Miriam scolded a little when the laughter rose louder than usual.
"Let them be happy, while they can; who knows what lies in the
future?"

But at present, the future cast no shade upon the group; nor upon a
girl of about fourteen years old, who danced in and out of the
courtyard in the highest spirits, now stopping a few minutes to
string the figs, then scampering away with an empty basket which,
when she reached the gatherers, she placed on her head and
supported demurely, for a little while, at the foot of the ladder
upon which John was perched--so that he could lay the figs in it
without bruising them. But, long ere the basket was filled she
would tire of the work and, setting it on the ground, run back into
the house.

"And so you think you are helping, Mary," John said, laughing, when
the girl returned for the fourth time, with an empty basket.

"Helping, John! Of course I am--ever so much. Helping you, and
helping them at the house, and carrying empty baskets. I consider
myself the most active of the party."

"Active, certainly, Mary! but if you do not help them, in stringing
and hanging the figs, more than you help me, I think you might as
well leave it alone."

"Fie, John! That is most ungrateful, after my standing here like a
statue, with the basket on my head, ready for you to lay the figs
in."

"That is all very fine!" John laughed; "but before the basket is
half full, away you go; and I have to get down th