oseph to pull Jesus forward. All this, she
said, was raw flesh a week ago, and now the scab is coming away nicely;
you see the new skin my balsam is bringing up. His feet, too, are
healing, Joseph observed, and look as if he will be able to stand upon
them in another few days. Wounds do not heal as quickly as that, Master.
Thou must have patience. But he'll be wanting a pair of crutches very
soon. We might send to Jerusalem for a pair. There is no need to send to
Jerusalem, he answered. I think I'd like to make him a pair. Anybody can
make a pair of crutches, however poor a carpenter he may be; and every
evening as soon as his watch was over he repaired to the wood-shed. They
won't be much to look at, Esora reflected, but that won't matter, if he
gets them the right length, and strong.

Come and see them, he said to her one evening, and when she had admired
his handiwork sufficiently he said: tell me, Esora, is a man's mind the
same after scourging and crucifixion as it was before? Esora shook her
head. I suppose not, Joseph continued, for our minds draw their lives
from our bodies. He'll be a different man if he comes up from his
sickness. But he may live to be as old as I am, or the patriarchs, she
returned. With a different mind, he added. So I've lost him in life whom
I saved from death.

Esora did not ask any questions, and fearing that her master might tell
her things he might afterwards regret having said, she remarked that
Jesus would be needing the crutches in about another week.

And it was in or about that time, not finding Jesus in the cottage, they
came down the pathway in great alarm, to be brought to a sudden stop by
the sight of Jesus sitting under the cedars. How did he get there? Esora
cried, for the crutches were in the wood-shed. They were, Esora, but I
took them down to the cottage last night, and seeing them, and finding
they fitted him, he has hobbled to the terrace. But he mustn't hobble
about where he pleases, Esora said. He is a sick man and in our charge,
and if he doesn't obey us he may fall back again into sickness. The
bones have not properly set---- We don't know that any bones were
broken, do we, Esora? We don't; for the nails may have pierced the feet
and hands without breaking any. But, Master, look! Didst ever see such
imprudence? Go! drive away my cat, or else my work will be undone.

Her cat, large, strong and supple as a tiger, had advanced from the
opposite wood, and, unmindful