much attention
to the landscape around him; with Israel the spiritual winter was not
over, her time for the singing of birds had not come.

Onwards pressed the traveller without resting, till at about noonday he
reached the valley of Ajalon. There was a fountain by the side of the
road, and here the weary man slaked his thirst, and sat down for awhile
to rest beneath the shade of some date-palms. The Asmonean took from
the scrip which he carried his simple repast of dried figs, laved his
brow and hands in the cooling water, blessed God for his food, and
began to eat.

Ere many minutes had elapsed, a woman in the widow's garb of mourning,
bearing a child of about six years old on her back, dragged her weary
steps to the fountain by which the traveller was seated. She placed
her boy on the ground, drank of the water herself, and gave to her son
to drink. Her appearance denoted extreme poverty, and the child was
evidently suffering from sickness.

Judas divided this slender supply of provisions into three portions,
and with the courteous salutation of "Peace be with you," offered one
to the widow, and one to the boy.

"The blessing of the God of Abraham be with you!" exclaimed the poor
woman; "your servant hath not tasted food since sunset." And, seated
on the turf not far from Judas, the widow and her son partook of the
dried figs with the eagerness of those who are well-nigh famished.

"Your child looks ill," observed the Asmonean, regarding with
compassion the wasted shrunken frame of the boy.

"He will not suffer long," replied the widow, with the calm apathy of
despair. "I laid his father's head in the grave last month, and I
shall lay Terah's head beside him this month. The seal of death is
upon him; I shall soon be alone in the world."

"Nay, despair not, God is good; the child may yet live," said Judas.

"Why should I wish him to live," murmured the widow. "His father was
taken from the evil to come, the boy will be taken from the evil to
come. Jerusalem is defiled, the land is in bondage, Israel is given a
prey to the heathen! The faithful are few in the land, and persecution
will sweep these few away. There is no resting-place but under the
sod, no freedom but in the grave. The name of Judah will soon be
blotted out from amongst the nations!"

"Never!" exclaimed Judas, with energy; "never, while the God of Truth
lives and reigns! Judah can never perish. The vine that was brought
out of E