eping in the home of Jael's father!
Listen! Hear thou--the children calling--calling?"

The woman went to the door. She listened a moment and as the wail of a
child sounded over the court she said, "Aye, sore weeping. Why, Jesu?"

"Jael's father went away yester morning and hath not come again. A man
saw him with many others driven in chains like cattle. A stain of
blood was on his face--and he will not come again. Why did the
soldiers take Jael's father?"

"Hist, child. Talk not of Jael's father. Run and play."

* * * * * *

The next morning before the rising sun had climbed above Mount Tabor,
little Jesu with his peasant mother left Nazareth, carrying between
them a new-made yoke. They had not yet reached the end of the footpath
around the slope of the hill to the highway, when they heard a
heart-sickening moan.

The child stopped suddenly saying, "Something doth suffer?"

The woman took a few steps forward and looked out into the roadway.
Then she too stopped, and with a sharp cry threw her hand across her
eyes. Having received no answer to his inquiry the child pushed past
her to the highroad. Then he too gave a cry, half fear, half pain,
saying, "It is the father of Jael--and, mother--_mother_--there is a
_dog_." And with a scream he dashed into the roadway. As he did so an
animal slunk across his path and disappeared behind a cactus thicket
hedging a barley field.

The moan gave way to a feeble call as the child appeared. "Jesu!
Jesu, I thirst!" were the words the parched lips uttered.

Helpless, the man hung crucified. The cross was not more than four
feet high, all in this wholesale crucifixion being purposely low that
wild dogs and jackals might tear the vitals, the bodies thus exposed
emphasizing the power and cruelty of Rome. Naked the crucified one
hung, his palms clotted with blood where spikes held them on the green
cross-beam, and the wood behind the body stained dark from thong-cuts
on the back. His legs lay on the ground. Flies swarmed wherever there
was blood and the gray face of the victim was yet grayer from dust cast
up by travelers on the roadway.

"Jesu! Jesu! Water for my burning tongue!" the man moaned.

"Give him to drink," the woman said in low tones to the child, who
stood before the cross, his large dark eyes fixed on the helpless one
in horror and in pity. "Give him water and I will watch that none spy
you at the deed. Hasten