Her cat, large, strong and supple as a tiger, had advanced from the opposite wood, and, unmindful of a bitch and her puppies, seated himself in the middle of the terrace.  As he sat tidying his coat the puppies conceived the foolish idea of a gambol with him.  The cat continued to lick himself, though no doubt fully aware of the puppies’ intention, and it was not till they were almost on him that he rose, hackle erect, to meet the onset in which they would have been torn badly if Jesus had not hopped hastily forward and menaced him with his crutches.  Even then the puppies, unmindful of the danger, continued to dance round the cat.  You little fools, he will have your eyes, Jesus cried, and he caught them up in his arms, but unable to manage them and his crutches together, he dropped the crutches and started to get back to his seat without them.

It was this last imprudence that compelled Esora to cry out to Joseph that her work would be undone if Joseph did not run at once to Jesus and give him his crutches:  now, Master, I hope ye told him he must leave cats and dogs alone, she said as soon as Joseph returned to her.  If he doesn’t we shall have him on our hands all the winter.  All the winter!  Joseph repeated.  It is for thee to say, Master, how long he is to stay here; three weeks, till he is fit to travel, or all the winter, it is for you to say.  Fit to travel, Joseph repeated.  Why should he leave when he is fit to travel? he asked.  Only, Master, because it will be hard to keep him in hiding much longer.  Secrets take a long time to leak out, but they leak out in the end.  But I may be wrong, Master, in thinking that there is a secret.  I hardly know anything about this man, only that thou broughtest him back one night.  So thou’rt not certain then that there is a secret, Esora?  Joseph said.  I won’t say that, Master, for I can see by his back that he has been scourged, and cruelly, she answered.  His hands and feet testify that he has been on the cross.  Therefore, Joseph interposed, thou judgest him to be a malefactor of some sort.  Master, I would judge no one.  He is what thou choosest to tell me he is.  Come then, Esora, Joseph replied, and I will tell thee his story and mine, for our stories have been strangely interwoven.  But the telling will take some time.  Come, let us sit in the shade of the acacia-trees yonder; there is a seat there, and we shall be in view of our sick man, ready to attend upon him should he require our attention.

She sat listening, immovable, like a figure of stone, her hands hanging over her knees.  And when he told how Jesus opened his eyes in the tomb, and how he carried him through the rocks, seeking perhaps to astonish her a little by his account of the darkness, and the wild beasts, he said:  now tell me, Esora, if I could have done else but bring him here on my shoulders.  True it is that Pilate believed he was giving me not a live but a dead body; but Pilate wouldn’t expect me to go to him with the tidings