ot to foot
during his aunt's long speech. "Have I not been teaching him for more
than a week? Say thy lesson well, little donkey! Stand here before him,
Naomi!"

Samuel placed Naomi in position.

"Thy donkey's name, Naomi," went on Ezra, "is Michmash, because he comes
from the town of that name. Now place thy hands upon the tips of his
ears. Do not pinch or he will kick. I know."

Samuel guided the little girl's hands until they rested upon the tips of
the long gray ears.

"Now say his name slowly," instructed Ezra, his face aglow.

"Mich," said Naomi, and down came a furry ear, "mash," and down came the
other.

Then the little donkey winked both ears violently, and turned a patient
eye upon his young teacher as if asking praise.

"He did it! He did it!" cried the teacher. "He did not forget his
lesson and he will do it every time. Michmash!" And as the long ears
fell again, Ezra threw his arms about Naomi and hugged her close.

"Wilt thou come for a ride with me now?" he whispered. "The sun shines
and the wind blows and it will be pleasant out upon the hills."

So seated upon the back of Michmash, Naomi rode off, with such a bright
look upon her wan face that her father and mother could not help
thinking that better days were in store for them all.

Every pleasant day Ezra, leading Michmash, took Naomi, wrapped in her
little scarlet cloak, out riding, and as they moved along in the crisp,
bracing air they talked--long, long talks of what they were passing, of
Ezra's day at school, or of the thoughts and fancies that filled Naomi's
active little mind.

"Ezra," said she one day, as Michmash felt his way securely up the side
of one of the stony little Judean hills, "Ezra, dost thou remember what
was told thee that the letter-writer said that day by the Pool of
Bethesda?"

Her lip trembled as she spoke, but Ezra answered her instantly.

"Yea," said he, "I do, indeed. He spoke of the Messiah."

"And what think you of the Messiah?" asked Naomi timidly. "What think
you he will do when he cometh, Ezra? Dost think that he will open the
eyes of the blind?"

Ezra, in order to speak more earnestly, halted Michmash, who gladly fell
to cropping the coarse grass.

"The Messiah, Naomi," said Ezra slowly, "will do what the prophet Isaiah
promised of him. Never fear. He will open the eyes of the blind and
unstop the ears of the deaf. He will make the lame man leap and the
dumb man sing for joy. When he cometh, we sh