So you’ve returned at last! his father cried on seeing him, and began at once to tell the anxiety he had suffered.  Nor was Rachel without her word, and between their reproofs it was some time before Joseph began to apprehend the cause of the tumult:  Azariah had laid a long complaint of truancy!  As to that, Joseph answered tartly, he has little to complain of.  And he spoke of the pact between them, relating that seven or eight months before he had promised Azariah not to be past his time by five minutes.  Look to his tally, Father:  it will tell that I have kept my word for eight months and more and would have kept it for the year if—­Be mindful of what he is saying to thee, Dan.  Look well to the tally before condemning, Rachel cried.  Wouldst have it then, woman, Azariah lied to me?  Not lied, but was carried beyond himself in a great heat of passion at being kept waiting, Rachel answered.  He said that he enjoyed teaching thee, Joseph, God having granted thee a good intelligence and ways of comprehension.  But he couldn’t abide seeing thee waste thy time and his.  We’re willing and ready to hear about this absence and the cause of it, Dan interposed.  So get on with the story:  where hast thou been?  Out with it, boy.  Where hast thou been?

The bare question could only be met by the bare answer:  watching a cock-fight in Tiberias; and to save his parents from much misunderstanding, he said he must begin at the beginning.  Dan would have liked a straight answer, but Rachel said the boy should be suffered to tell his story his own way; and Joseph told a fine tale, the purport of which was that he had sought for a by-way to Tiberias, the large lanes being beset by acrobats, zanies, circus riders and the like, and had found one through Argob orchard and had followed it daily without meeting anyone for many months, but this morning as he came through the trees he had caught sight of an encampment; some cockers on their way to Tiberias, where a great main was to be fought.  And it was the cocks of Pamphilia that had—­He stopped, for the great change that had come over his parents’ faces set him wondering if his conduct was as shameful as their faces seemed to affirm.  He could not see that he had sinned against the law by going to Tiberias, though he had associated himself with Gentiles and for a whole day ... he had eaten in their company, but not of any forbidden meat.  And while Joseph sought to mitigate his offence to himself, his father sat immersed in woe, his head in his hands.  What calamity, he cried, has fallen on my house, and how have I sinned, O Lord, that punishment should fall upon me, and that my own son should be chosen to mete out my punishment?  My house is riven from rafter to foundation stone.  But, Father, at most—­It seemed useless to plead.  He stood apart; his grandmother stood silent and grave, not understanding fully, and Joseph foresaw that he could not count upon her to side with him against his father.  But if