But on trying the door it was found to be unlocked, and Joseph said:  it will be no use building a wall twenty feet high to secure yourself from robbers if you leave the door unlocked.  It was Jesus that left the door unlocked, Hazael answered, he must have passed this way, we shall find him on the hillside; and Joseph stood amazed at the uprolling hills and their quick descents into stony valleys.  Beyond that barren hill there is some pasturage, Hazael said; and in search of Jesus they climbed summit after summit, hoping always to catch sight of him playing with his dogs in the shadow of some rocks, but he was nowhere to be seen, and Hazael could not think else than that he had fallen in with Amos and yielded to the beguilement of the hills, for he has known them, Hazael continued, since I brought him here from Nazareth, a lad of fifteen or sixteen years, not more.  We shall do better to return and wait for him.  He will remember us presently.  To which Joseph answered, that since he was so near Jericho he would like to go thither; a great pile of business awaited his attention there, and he begged Hazael to tell Jesus that he would return to bid him good-bye on his way back to Jerusalem that evening, if it were possible to do so.

CHAP.  XXV.

It was as Hazael had guessed:  the puppies had scampered up the loose pathway leading to the hills; Jesus had let them through the door, and had followed them up the hills, saying to himself:  they have got the scent of sheep.

The stubborn, unruly ground lay before him just as he remembered it, falling into hollows but rising upwards always, with still a little grass between the stones, but not enough to feed a flock, he remarked, as he wandered on, watching the sunrise unfolding, and thinking that Amos should be down by the Jordan, and would be there, he said to himself, no doubt, were it not for the wild beasts that have their lairs in the thickets.  Whosoever redeems the shepherd from the danger of lions, he added, as he climbed up the last ascents, will be the great benefactor.  But the wolves perhaps kill more sheep than lions, being more numerous.  It was at this moment that Brother Amos came into sight, and he walked so deep in meditation that he might have passed Jesus without seeing him if Jesus had not called aloud.

Why, Jesus, it is thou, as I’m alive, come back to us at last.  Well, we’ve been expecting thee this long while.  And thou hast not come back too soon, as my poor flock testifies.  I’m ashamed of them; but thou’lt not speak too harshly of my flock to Hazael, who thinks if he complains enough he’ll work me up into a good shepherd despite my natural turn for an indoor life.  But I’d not have thee think that the flock perished through my fault, and see in them a lazy shepherd lying always at length on the hillside.  I walk with them in search of pasture from daylight till dark, wearing my feet away, but to no purpose, as any man can see though he never laid eyes on a sheep before.  But it was thou, Brother, that recommended me for a shepherd, and I can think of naught but my love of wandering with thee on the hills, and listening to thee prating of rams and ewes, that put it into my head that I was a shepherd by nature and thy successor.