On she went up the main street, till she saw a woman peeping at her over a garden wall.

“What has chanced here?” asked Nehushta, in the Syrian tongue.

“The Romans! the Romans! the Romans!” wailed the woman.  “The head of our village quarrelled with the tax-gatherers, and refused to pay his dues to Caesar.  So the soldiers came a week ago and slaughtered nearly all of us, and took such sheep and cattle as they could find, and with them many of the young folk, to be sold as slaves, so that the rest are left empty and desolate.  Such are the things that chance in this unhappy land.  But, woman, who are you?”

“I am one shipwrecked!” answered Nehushta, “and I bear with me a new-born babe—­nay, the story is too long to tell you; but if in this place there is any one who can nurse the babe, I will pay her well.”

“Give it me!” said the woman, in an eager whisper; “my child perished in the slaughter; I ask no reward.”

Nehushta looked at her.  Her eyes were wild, but she was still young and healthy, a Syrian peasant.

“Have you a house?” she asked.

“Yes, it still stands, and my husband lives; we hid in a cave, but alas! they slew the infant that was out with the child of a neighbour.  Quick, give me the babe.”

So Nehushta gave it to her, and thus Miriam was nurtured at the breast of one whose offspring had been murdered because the head of the village had quarrelled with a Roman tax-collector.  Such was the world in the days when Christ came to save it.

After she had suckled the child the woman led Nehushta to her house, a humble dwelling that had escaped the fire, where they found the husband, a wine-grower, mourning the death of his infant and the ruin of his town.  To him she told as much of her story as she thought well, and proffered him a gold piece, which, so she swore, was one of ten she had about her.  He took it gladly, for now he was penniless, and promised her lodging and protection, and the service of his wife as nurse to the child for a month at least.  So there Nehushta stayed, keeping herself hid, and at the end of the month gave another gold piece to her hosts, who were kindly folk that never dreamed of working her evil or injustice.  Seeing this, Nehushta found yet more money, wherewith the man, blessing her, bought two oxen and a plough, and hired labour to help him gather what remained of his harvest.

The shore where the infant was born upon the wrecked ship, was at a distance of about a league from Joppa and two days’ journey from Jerusalem, whence the Dead Sea could be reached in another two days.  When Nehushta had dwelt there for some six months, as the babe throve and was hearty, she offered to pay the man and his wife three more pieces of gold if they would travel with her to the neighbourhood of Jericho, and, further, to purchase a mule and an ass for the journey, which she would give to them when it was accomplished.  The eyes of these simple folk glistened at the prospect of so much wealth, and they agreed readily, promising also to stay three months by Jericho, if need were, till the child could be weaned.  So a man was hired to guard the house and vines, and they started in the late autumn, when the air was cool and pleasant.