“Ah! my poor boy will cry his eyes out that he wasn’t here to-day.  Dear lad, he’s in Jerusalem.”

“God be his guard!  Let those who are playing in the courtyard come up.”

They came shyly in at the door, two dark little girls, and a fair boy, who carried a carved wood camel in his hand.  When Jesus spread out His arms, they went to Him, and were soon at home, holding up their little red mouths, in which He put fruit from the table.  Peter, who would have liked to sleep a little, was not particularly pleased with the little guests, but was glad that the Master petted them and joked with them.

Then Jesus said to the boy:  “Benjamin, mount your camel, ride to that man over there, and ask him why he is so silent.”

Peter accepted the invitation to join in the conversation, but he was not very happy in what he said.  “Master,” he said hesitatingly, “what I have to say is scarcely suited to this pleasant day.”

Such remarks, said Martha humorously, were of the right sort to add to the cheerfulness of the company.  Peter was not the man to keep a secret long.  Turning to the Master, he said:  “Early to-day, in the city, I heard some people talking.  They’re always doing you some injustice.”

“What were they saying, Peter?”

“They said that the Prophet was a man of fair words, but that He did nothing.  He never once healed the sick who came to Him from great distances.”

“They say that?”

“Yes, sir, that’s the kind of thing they say.”

Jesus raised His head, and looked cheerfully round the circle.  While He rocked one of the little girls on His knee, He said calmly:  “So they say I only talk and do nothing.  In their sense they are right.  I don’t pray, they mean, because they don’t see Me do it.  I don’t fast, because we can’t eat less than a little, except when we sit at a luxurious table like Martha’s.  I don’t give alms because My purse is empty.  What good do I do, then?  I don’t work, because in their eyes My work doesn’t count.  I don’t work miracles on their bodies, because I am come to heal their souls.  Amon, say, would you exchange the peace of your heart for sound legs?”

“Lord!” exclaimed Amon vivaciously, “if they say you do nothing good, just let them come to the house of old Amon at Bethany.  You came under my roof, and my soul was healed.”

“And you brought me resurrection and life,” shouted Lazarus passionately from the other end of the room.

“And me, more than that,” said Magdalen, looking up at Him with moist eyes.  And then she bent down and kissed His feet.

And Peter exclaimed:  “I was a mere worm, and He made me a man.  He does more than all the Rabbis and physicians and generals put together.”

Then John turned to him and asked:  “Brother, why didn’t you talk like that to the people in Jerusalem?  Were you afraid of them?”

“Is yon man a coward?” asked the boy, pointing with his hand to Peter.  “Then he’ll help us to play lion and sheep in the courtyard!”