e of
the thongs has given way; Joab will speedily set all to rights; I only
regret the delay."

"Where are we now?" asked Zarah.

"Close to the village of Bethlehem," was the Athenian's reply.

"Ah! I must look upon Bethlehem again!" cried Zarah with emotion,
drawing the curtain further back, so as to obtain a wider view of the
dim landscape of swelling hills and soft pastures. "My loved mother
Hadassah was wont to bring me every year to this place; she called its
stones the Memorial of the Past, and the Cradle of the Future."

"I know that Bethlehem is a place of great historical interest,"
observed Lycidas, glancing around; "it was here that David, the
anointed shepherd, watched his flock, and encountered the lion and the
bear. And it was here that the gentle Ruth gleaned barley amongst the
reapers of Boaz." The young Greek was well pleased to show his
recently-acquired knowledge of sacred story.

"Yes; my mother was wont to point out to me the very spots where events
took place which must ever render them dear to the Hebrews," observed
Zarah. "But Hadassah always said that the chief interest of Bethlehem
lies in the future rather than in the past. It is here," Zarah
reverentially lowered her voice as she went on--"it is here that
Messiah the Prince shall be born, as has been revealed to us by a
prophet."

"One would scarcely deem this village to be a place likely to be so
honoured," observed Lycidas.

"Ah! you remind me of what my dear mother once said in reply to words
of mine, spoken several years ago, when I was very young," said Zarah.
"'It will be a long time before the Prince can come,' I observed, 'for
I have looked on every side, and cannot see so much as the first stone
laid of the palace in which He will be born.'--'Think you, child,' said
Hadassah, 'that a building ten thousand times more splendid than that
raised by Solomon would add a whit to His glory? The presence of the
king makes the palace, though it should be but a cave. Does it
increase the value of the diamond if the earth in which it lies
embedded show a few spangles of gold dust?'--I have never forgotten
that gentle reproof," continued Zarah, "and it makes me look with
something of reverence even on such a building as that mean inn which
we see yonder, for who can say that the Prince of Peace may not be born
even in a place so lowly!"

As Joab was still occupied in repairing the thong, Lycidas, standing
bridle in hand beside