scales, lividly seamed,
nearly blind, its limbs and extremities swollen to grotesque
largeness, familiar eyes however sharpened by love could not
have recognized the creature of childish grace and purity we
first beheld her.

"Is it Amrah, mother?"

The servant tried to crawl to her also.

"Stay, Amrah!" the widow cried, imperiously. "I forbid you touching
her. Rise, and get you gone before any at the well see you here.
Nay, I forgot--it is too late! You must remain now and share our
doom. Rise, I say!"

Amrah rose to her knees, and said, brokenly and with clasped hands,
"O good mistress! I am not false--I am not wicked. I bring you good
tidings."

"Of Judah?" and as she spoke, the widow half withdrew the cloth
from her head.

"There is a wonderful man," Amrah continued, "who has power to cure
you. He speaks a word, and the sick are made well, and even the dead
come to life. I have come to take you to him."

"Poor Amrah!" said Tirzah, compassionately.

"No," cried Amrah, detecting the doubt underlying the expression--"no,
as the Lord lives, even the Lord of Israel, my God as well as yours,
I speak the truth. Go with me, I pray, and lose no time. This morning
he will pass by on his way to the city. See! the day is at hand.
Take the food here--eat, and let us go."

The mother listened eagerly. Not unlikely she had heard of the
wonderful man, for by this time his fame had penetrated every
nook in the land.

"Who is he?" she asked.

"A Nazarene."

"Who told you about him?"

"Judah."

"Judah told you? Is he at home?"

"He came last night."

The widow, trying to still the beating of her heart, was silent
awhile.

"Did Judah send you to tell us this?" she next asked.

"No. He believes you dead."

"There was a prophet once who cured a leper," the mother said
thoughtfully to Tirzah; "but he had his power from God." Then
addressing Amrah, she asked, "How does my son know this man so
possessed?"

"He was travelling with him, and heard the lepers call, and saw
them go away well. First there was one man; then there were ten;
and they were all made whole."

The elder listener was silent again. The skeleton hand shook. We may
believe she was struggling to give the story the sanction of faith,
which is always an absolutist in demand, and that it was with her as
with the men of the day, eye-witnesses of what was done by the Christ,
as well as the myriads who have succeeded them. She did not question
the