“And thy house and the farm-steading?”

The woman threw a glance down towards the valley, and answered quickly—­

“My master, shall we not sit awhile?  The track here looks towards the plain.  Sit, and through my eyes thou shalt see again distant Carmel and the fields between that used so to delight thee.  Ah! not there!”

The old man had made as if to seat himself on one of the larger stones on the edge of the heap.  But she prevented him quickly; was gone for a moment; and returned, rolling a moss-covered boulder to the right-hand of the path.  The prophet sat himself down on this, and she on the ground at his feet.

“Just here, from my window below, I saw thee coming down the mountain with Gehazi, thy servant, on that day when it was promised to me that I should bear a son.”

He nodded.

“For as often as we passed by,” he said, “we found food and a little room prepared upon the wall.  ‘Thou hast been careful for us,’ said I, ’with all this care.  What is to be done for thee?  Shall I speak to the King for thee, or to the captain of the host?’ Thine answer was, ‘I dwell in Shunem, among my own people.’”

“There is no greener spot in Israel.”

“‘But,’ said my servant Gehazi, ’Every spot is greener where a child plays.’  Therefore this child was promised thee.”

She said, “But once a year the plain is yellow and not green; yellow away to the foot of Carmel; and that is in this season of the barley harvest.  It was on such a day as this that my son fell in the field among the reapers, and his father brought him in and set him on my knees.  On such a day as this I left him dead, and saddled the ass and rode between the same yellow fields to Megiddo, and thence towards Carmel, seeking thee.  See the white road winding, and the long blue chine yonder, by the sea.  By and by, when the sun sinks over it, the blue chine and the oaks beneath will turn to one dark colour; and that will be the hour that I met thee on the slope, and lighted off the ass and caught thee by the feet.  As yet it is all parched fields and sky of brass and a white road running endless—­endless.”

“But what are these black shadows that pass between me and the sun?”

“They are crows, my master.”

“What should they do here in these numbers?”

The woman rose and flung a stone at the birds.  Seating herself again, she said—­

“Below, the reapers narrow the circle of the corn; and there are conies within the circle.  The kites and crows know it.”

“But that day of which thou hast spoken—­it ended in gladness.  The Lord restored thy son to thee.”

“Thou rather, man of God.”

“My daughter, His mercy was very great upon thee.  Speak no blasphemy, thou of all women.”

“The Lord had denied me a son; but thou persuadedst Him, and He gave me one.  Again, the Lord had taken my child in the harvest-field, but on thy wrestling gave him back.  And again the Lord meditated to take my child by famine, but at thy warning I arose and conveyed him into the land of the Philistines, nor returned to Shunem till seven years’ end.  My master, thou art a prophet in Israel, but I am thinking—­”