not answer me, Jesus?  Because thou’rt waiting to hear from me the words that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me?  My brethren have told it to me, Jesus answered.  And thou believest it not?  Paul cried.  I believe, Jesus answered, that the Jesus that spake to thee out of a cloud never lived in the flesh; he was a Lord Jesus Christ of thy own imagining, and I believe, too, that if we had met in Galilee thou wouldst not have heeded me, and thou wouldst have done well, for in Galilee I was but a seeker; go thou and seek and be not always satisfied with what first comes to thy hand.

These words provoked a great rage in Paul, and believing Jesus to be an evil spirit come to tempt him, he turned fiercely upon him, threatening him with his staff, bidding him begone.  But as he could not desert Paul in the wilderness Jesus dropped behind him and directed Paul’s journey, bidding him tread here and not there, to avoid the hill in front of him, and to keep along the valley.

In this way they proceeded for about another hour, and then Jesus cried out to Paul:  yonder are the fig-trees where the shepherd told me to look for a pool among the rocks after the late rains.  Art overcome, Paul, with the long march and the heat?  Rest.  Let me untie thy sandals.  Alas! they are worn through and will scarce carry thee into Bethennabrio.  But they must carry me thither, Paul answered, and if there be water in the pool after we have drunken and filled our water-bottle I’ll loose the thongs and bathe my feet.

The season was advanced, but there were still leaves on the fig-trees, and among the rocks some water had collected, and having drunk and filled the water-bottle, Jesus loosed the thongs of Paul’s sandals and bound his feet with some bandages torn from his own clothing.  He broke the bread that the passing shepherd had given him, but Paul could eat very little so overcome was he with fatigue.  I shall try to eat after I have slept a little, and having made his head comfortable with his sheepskin, Jesus watched him doze away.

Soon after the warm rocks brought sleep to Jesus’ eyes, and he fell asleep trying to remember that he had nothing more explicit to rely upon than his own declaration (where should it be made, in the streets to the people or in the Sanhedrin to the priests?) that he was Jesus of Nazareth whom Pilate condemned to the cross, only his own words to convince the priests and the people that he was not a shepherd whom the loneliness of the hills had robbed of his senses.  He could not bring the Essenes as testimony, nor could they if they came vouch for the whole truth of his story.

CHAP.  XLI.

Hast slept well, Paul, and hath sleep refreshed thee and given thee strength to pursue thy journey?  Paul answered that he was very weary, but however weary must struggle on to Caesarea.  Thy strength wilt not suffer thee to get farther than Bethennabrio, and to reach Bethennabrio I must make thy sandals comfortable, Jesus answered, and on these words he knelt and succeeded in arranging the thongs so that Paul walked without pain.