oats being driven back and forth
across the field to cover the seed. But the woman was not interested
in the sowers. On a stone near a clump of citron she sat down to watch
the long roadway for a first sight of one beloved. Months before he
had bade her farewell and had journeyed to Judea. In his own Galilee
he was accounted a great and mighty teacher and wonder worker and
gladly had his message been heard by the common people who followed him
in throngs and oft would have proclaimed him king. But from Jerusalem
had come conflicting reports, and it was with a strange hope and a
strange fear the woman waited his return.

The sower with the seed bag had gone and the birds had come in his
place; the thorn branches had been cast aside by the man on the hill
and the goats were being driven from the valley field, when the figure
of the woman, who had been sitting like a statue on the gray stone,
suddenly became animate, and with eager step hastened into the highway
to meet an advancing pilgrim. Wearily he came as if even his staff
were too great a burden, until he saw the woman. Then his pace
quickened. With outstretched arms she greeted him, crying in joy, "The
God of our fathers bless thee, my son!"

Tenderly he embraced her, pressing the kiss of peace upon her cheek and
saying, "Blessed art thou among women!" Then putting her away he said,
"Is all well with thee, woman--my mother?"

"Yea, save that my heart hath grown hungry to starvation for a sight of
thee, my beloved son, and anxious have I been to hear news of thy
pilgrimage throughout Judea and beyond the Jordan. On thy long
journey, thou hast found friends, and rest and love?"

"Friends and rest and love," he repeated, and the expression of
weariness on his face gave place to a smile. "All these I found under
one roof, which was to me a home."

"And who were these kindly ones and generous?"

"A young man, Lazarus of Bethany, and his two sisters. And the one of
them is Martha, much given to cooking fine meats and sweeping for dust
where it is not."

The woman laughed and asked of him, "Doth this Martha love thee?"

"Yea, as she loveth her brother."

"And the other sister, doth she too brew gravy and seek the dust?"

"Nay. She doth make lilies grow and seek the pearl of greatest price.
At my feet hath she chosen the better way than that of meat and drink.
She is born into the Kingdom."

"Doth this sister, too, love thee?"

"Doth she love me?