of me, Jesus meditated, with jeers and scoffings at the end of the journey, of which I have had plenty; and he began to walk quickly and to look round the hills in search of pasture for a flock, for these hills were but faintly known to him.  It isn’t reasonable that a man will not part with a ram for a great sum of money, he said, and though he may not sell the lamb to his neighbours, whom he knows for rascals, he may sell to the Essenes, whose report is good.  And he continued his way, stopping very often to think how he might find a bypath that would save him a climb; for the foot-hills running down from west to east, off the main range, formed a sort of gigantic ridge and furrow broken here and there, and whenever he met a shepherd he asked him to put him in the way of a bypath; and with a word of counsel from a shepherd and some remembrance he discovered many passes; but despite these easy ways the journey began to seem very long, so long that it often seemed as if he would never arrive at the village he was seeking.  He told me I’d find it on the last ridge looking seaward.  He said I couldn’t miss it; and shading his eyes with his hand, Jesus caught sight of some roofs that he had not seen before.  Maybe the roofs, he said, of the village in which I shall find my ram, and maybe he who will sell me the ram sits under that sycamore.  If such be my fortune he will rise to meet me, Jesus continued, and he strove against the faintness coming over him.  Is there a fountain? he asked.  By that arch the fountain flows, drink thy fill, wayfarer.  His sight being darkened he could not see the arch but stumbled against it and stood there, his face white and drawn, his hand to his side, till, unable to bear up any longer, he fell.

Somebody came to him with water, and after drinking a little he revived, and said he could walk alone, but as soon as they loosed him he fell again, and when lifted from the ground a second time he asked for the inn, saying he had come a long way.  Whereupon a man said, thou shalt rest in my house; I guess thee to be a shepherd, though thy garb isn’t altogether a shepherd’s.  But my house is open to him who needs food and shelter.  Lean on my arm.

Let me untie thy sandals, were the next words Jesus heard, and when his feet were bathed and he had partaken of food and drink and was rested, the villager, whom Jesus guessed to be a shepherd, began to ask him about the length of the journey from Jericho to Caesarea:  we’re three hours from Caesarea, he said; thou must have been walking many hours.  Many hours indeed, Jesus answered.  I’ve come from the Brook Kerith, which is five miles from Jericho.  From the Brook Kerith? the villager repeated.  A shepherd I guessed thee to be.  And a fair guess, Jesus answered.  A shepherd I am and in search of a ram of good breeding, sent on hither by a shepherd.  He did but make sport of thee, the villager answered, for it is I that own the breed that all men would have.