brought together
carefully, so that no man can find the place. This balm will cure all
kinds of coughs, and will disperse bile as many a time I have found.
Some will wash a wound with wine and water, but I hold it heats the
blood about the wound and so increases the making of fresh humours. Now,
Master, take up the pot of water and see that ye hold it steady. I'll
carry the basket containing the oil and the balm.... It was the Queen of
Sheba who first made the balm known, because she gave it to Solomon. But
we must keep the flies from him; and while I'm getting these things go
to him and take with thee a fine linen cloth; thou'lt find some pieces
in that cupboard, and a hammer and some nails. I'm thinking there are
few flies in the gardener's cottage, half of it being underground; but
hasten and nail up the linen cloth over the window, for the first sun
ray will awaken any that are in the cottage, and, if there aren't any,
flies will come streaming in from the garden as soon as the light comes,
following the scent of blood. No, not there, a little to the right, he
heard her crying, and, finding a piece of linen and a hammer and some
nails, he went out into the greyness still undisturbed by the chirrup of
a half-awakened bird.

On either side of the shelving lawn or interspace were woods, the
remains of an ancient forest that had once covered this hillside; paths
wound sinuously through the woods, and, taking the one he had followed
overnight, he passed under sycamore boughs, through some woodland to the
terrace that he had crossed last night with a naked man on his
shoulders. And he remembered how hard it had been to keep to the path
overnight, and how fortunate it was that the gardener's cottage was not
locked, for if he had had to lay Jesus down he would never have been
able to lift him up again on to his shoulder. He had done all he could
to relieve his suffering. But Jesus, he said to himself, is lying in
agony, and if he has regained consciousness he may believe himself
buried alive. I must hasten. Yet when he arrived at the cottage he did
not enter it at once, but stood outside listening to the moans of the
wounded man within, which were good to hear in this much that they were
an assurance that he was still alive. At last he pushed the door open
and found Jesus moving his head from side to side, unable to rid himself
of a fly that was crawling about his mouth. Joseph drove it away and
gave Jesus some more weak w