Part 19 (1/2)
”No, mother. Fortunately, they listened to the counsels of my father, who implored them not to put out on the lake for that, did they do so, they would only bring misfortune and ruin upon themselves.”
”And have you heard, John,” Mary asked, ”anything of the champion who they say has arisen? We have heard all sorts of tales of him--how he hara.s.sed the Romans before Gamala and, with his followers, burned their camp one night and well nigh destroyed them; and how, when he goes into the fight, the Roman javelins drop off without harming him; and how, when he strikes, the Romans fall before his blows like wheat before a sickle.”
John burst into a laugh.
”I wonder, Mary, that the reports didn't say also that he could fly through the air when he chose; could render himself invisible to the enemy; and could, by a wave of his hand, destroy them as the hosts of Sennacherib were destroyed. The Romans were hara.s.sed somewhat, at Gamala, by John and his followers, who crept into their camp at night and set it on fire, and had a few skirmishes with their working parties; but when you have said that, you have said all that there is to say about it.”
”That is not like you, John,” Mary said, indignantly, for the tales that had circulated through the province had fired her imagination.
”Everyone is talking of what he has done. He, alone of all our leaders, has checked the Romans; and has shown wisdom, as well as valor, in fighting. I should have thought you would have been one of the first to praise him. Everyone is talking about him and, since we heard of what he has been doing, mother and I pray for him, daily, as we pray for you and your father; and now you want to make out he has done nothing.”
”I do not want to make out that he has done nothing, Mary, for doubtless the Lord has been with him, and has enabled him to give some trouble to the Romans; but I was laughing at the fables you have heard about him, and at the reports which had converted his skirmishes with the Romans into all sorts of marvelous actions.”
”I believe they were marvelous actions,” Mary said. ”Why should what people say be all wrong?
”We believe in him, don't we, mother?”
”Yes, Mary. It is true that the tales we have heard may be, as John says, exaggerated; but a.s.suredly this new champion of our people must be a man of wisdom and valor, and I see not why, as G.o.d raised up champions for Israel in the old time, he should not do so now, when our need is so great.”
”There is no reason, mother,” John said, more quietly, ”but I fear that the champion of Israel is not yet forthcoming. We have heard of the doings of this John and, as I said, he has merely had some skirmishes with the Romans--his band being too small to admit of any regular fighting. He interrupted their work, and gave them some trouble; and his men, creeping down into the camp, set it on fire, and so caused them a good deal of loss; but more than this cannot be said of him.”
”At any rate,” Mary said disdainfully, ”he has done more than your Josephus, John--for he brought ruin on all who took his advice, and went into the cities he had fortified. It may please you to make little of what this champion has done. Others do not think so.
Everywhere he is talked of, and praised--the old men are talking of him, the Jewish maidens are singing songs in his honor I heard them, yesterday, gathered round a well near Neve. His father must rejoice, and his mother be proud of him, if they are alive.
”What do they say down by the lake, Jonas, of this captain? Are not the tales we have heard believed, there?”
”I have heard nothing about the Roman javelins not harming him,”
Jonas said; ”but he certainly got safely out of the hands of the Romans, when they had well-nigh taken him; and all say that he is brave and prudent, and men have great confidence and trust in him.”
”Ridiculous, Jonas!” John exclaimed angrily, and Mary and his mother looked at him in surprise.
”Truly, John,” his mother said, ”what Mary said is just. This is not like you. I should have thought you would have been one of the first to admire this new leader, seeing that he is fighting in the way I have heard you advocate as being that in which the Romans should be fought, instead of the Jews being shut up in the cities.”
”Quite so, mother! No doubt he is adopting the proper way of fighting, and therefore has naturally had some success. I am only saying that he has done nothing wonderful; but has given the Romans some trouble by refusing to fight, and by merely trying to hara.s.s them. If there were a thousand men who would gather small bands together, and hara.s.s the Romans night and day in the same manner, they would render it well-nigh impossible for them to make any progress. As it was, he merely aided in delaying the fall of Gamala by a day or two.
”And now, let us talk of something else. Our father has succeeded in getting in the princ.i.p.al part of the harvest, but I fear that this year you will be short of fruit. We have had no time to gather in the figs, and they have all fallen from the trees; and although we have made enough wine for our own use, there will be but little to sell.”
”It matters not at all,” Martha said. ”G.o.d has been very merciful towards us and, so that we have but bread to eat and water to drink, until next harvest, we shall have nothing to repine about, when ruin and destruction have fallen upon so many.”
That evening, when Mary and Martha had retired to their apartments, the former, who had been very silent all the evening, said:
”I cannot understand, mother, why John speaks so coldly of the doings of this brave leader; and why he was almost angry at our praises of him. It seems altogether unlike him.”
”It is unlike him, Mary; but you must never be surprised at men, they do not like to hear each other praised; and though I should have thought, from what I know of my son, that he was above the feeling of jealousy, I cannot but think that he showed some signs of that feeling today.”
”But it seems absurd, mother. I can understand John being jealous of any one his own age who surpa.s.sed him in any exercises--though I never saw him so for, when in rowing on the lake, or in shooting with bows and arrows, or in other sports, some of our neighbors'
sons have surpa.s.sed him, he never seemed to mind at all; and it seems almost absurd to think that he could be jealous of a great leader, who has done brave deeds for our people.”
”It does seem so, Mary, and I wonder myself; but it has been ever one of our national faults to be jealous of our leaders. From the time the people vexed Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness, it has ever been the same. I grieve to see it in John, who has distinguished himself greatly for his age, and of whom we are proud; but no one is perfect, my child, and you must not trouble because you find that your betrothed husband is not free from all weaknesses.”