Christmas Light Part 3

Naomi stared curiously. She had often seen as many as a dozen blind men walking in such a row, and they were always to be found by the wayside or near the village gates at home, in company with the lame and the helpless, holding out a little bowl for money or food.

"Jacob!" called Aunt Miriam.

She took a piece of money from her purse, securely fastened in her belt, and Jacob, without being told, dropped it in the bowl of the blind leader. He was accustomed to the charity of his good master and mistress. Had not Moses the Lawgiver bade those who fear their G.o.d have sympathy for the blind?

The blind men at sound of the cart had drawn up by the side of the road, and now they leaned upon their staffs and turned their sightless faces toward their unseen benefactress. They were glad of an excuse to rest and also to talk, for time meant little to them, and they liked nothing better than to recount, each one, the detailed history of his misfortune.

But Aunt Miriam did not mean to spend several hours this morning in idle talk upon the highway. She motioned Jacob to move on, and in response to the thanks and blessings showered upon her for her gift, she called:

"Peace be unto thee, friends! We hasten on to Jerusalem before the sun mounts high. May all good things await thee in Bethlehem!"

Up the steep hill climbed the bullock cart, and once round the curve in the road Aunt Miriam pointed.

"Naomi--the City!" she said. "See the Temple! How it gleams!"

High above the flat roofs and ma.s.sive walls of Jerusalem shone the great gold and white Temple of the Hebrews. The little party halted at the sight. Aunt Miriam's lips moved in prayer. Naomi was silent as she gazed. She recalled the lines in one of the hymns her mother had taught her:

"We have thought on thy lovingkindness, O G.o.d, in the midst of thy temple."

To the pious little Jewish girl there could be no more beautiful nor inspiring sight than that of the sacred Temple set in the midst of the Holy City. She kept a reverent silence until they reached the Bethlehem gate where entered all the trade and travel from Egypt and the sea.

But once Naomi was lifted down from the cart, and placed in the shade of the huge gateway to wait with Aunt Miriam while Jacob justified their presence in the city to the haughty Roman guard, her tongue wagged on as merrily as before.

"We have no watch-tower like this one on our gateway at home, Aunt Miriam," she observed, glancing up and down and roundabout. "I suppose that ten soldiers could stand in this one at once if they liked."

Her aunt nodded absently. Her thoughts were with Jacob, still talking with the Roman guard. She hoped there would be no trouble on this day of all days when Simon was not with them.

"Wilt thou buy me a drink, Aunt Miriam?" Naomi asked next. "Not of water, but of honey of wine."

The water-carriers were rough-looking bearded men who ran about in short frocks, shouting and rattling their bra.s.s cups, with dingy goatskin bottles lashed upon their backs. Naomi was afraid of them. She liked far better the row of peasant women with grape juice to sell, who sat against the wall and called out:

"Honey of wine! Who will buy? Honey of wine! Ho, every one that is athirst, come! Buy and drink! Honey of wine!"

A moment later she had forgotten that she was thirsty and was watching two poor women who sat in a corner on the ground grinding at a stone mill. Near by stood a man selling the cakes new made from the meal the women had ground. It was hard work turning the handles that pressed the meal between the upper and nether millstones, and the women worked wearily.

"How slow they are!" said Naomi scornfully. "I could work much faster than they, could I not, Aunt Miriam? Could I not grind fast if I tried?"

Naomi's aunt did not answer. With a gentle hand she pushed the little girl back against the wall.

"Stand there, thou chattering sparrow," said she with a smile, "and hold thy peace. Here comes one Solomon the goldbeater, thy Uncle Simon's friend. The load of grapes was brought here at his order, and it is my task to-day to see that he offers a fair price for them. Peace!"

It seemed a long time to Naomi that Solomon the goldbeater and Jacob the serving-lad, standing at a little distance from the wall, haggled over the load of grapes. But at last Jacob came to report to his mistress the sum offered, and since she was satisfied the bargain was soon made.

Then up they went through the narrow dingy streets with their overhanging houses that made a pleasant shade, past the quarters of the tinsmiths and the jewelers, the tailors and the sandal-makers. Naomi looked eagerly in at the gay bazaars piled high with fine linens and embroideries, rich scarves and veils, spices and coffee, dried fruits and nuts. On they went, past the street of the potters where anything might be bought, from water-jars as tall as Naomi herself to the tiny cup-shaped Virgin's lamps which, filled with sweet oil, were carried by the Jewish girls.

"Look well about thee, child," instructed Aunt Miriam from behind her veil. "We shall not come this way again."

"I can tell it all now to Ezra," answered Naomi confidently. "I have not forgotten a single sight. So far I liked it best of all when the great Pharisee gave alms to the poor in the market-place just now, when we were waiting there for Jacob. I liked it when his servant blew upon the trumpet, and the poor came hurrying, and every one turned to look.

And next best I liked the cages of sparrows for sale. We have them in the market-place at home, but not so many nor so fat. And next--"

"And next," interrupted her aunt with a smile, "thou wouldst like thy dinner, perhaps. Here is the home of Simon's sister Anna, and verily I believe her little Martha is watching for us through the wicket in the gate."

Little Martha, with the help of the porter, threw open the gate before Aunt Miriam could say another word, and Naomi stepped through a pa.s.sageway under the house into a courtyard with a tiny fountain playing in the center and a palm growing on either side of it.

Little Martha was as fair as Naomi was dark. She had light reddish hair and blue eyes, and well pleased was her mother that it should be so, for this was called "King David's coloring" and was supposed to have been that of the great King himself. She wore a soft little robe of white and a fine gold chain about her neck. She joyfully led the visitors to her mother who was waiting for them at the end of the court.

"Come in, thou blessed of the Lord," was the gracious greeting Anna gave them, and she ushered them up the stairs and into a room that actually had two windows cut in the side. They were the first windows Naomi had ever looked from, and she held tight to the sill for fear of falling into the street below.

"I would that I had windows in my house," thought Naomi ruefully. "I would be so proud if I were Martha. But then she has no brother Ezra nor baby Jonas to play with her."

In spite of the windows little Martha did not seem at all proud. She helped her mother bring bowls of water for the guests to wash in, and when the meal was ready she patted the plump cushions into shape on the divans placed before the gayly painted table.

"Sit by me," she whispered to Naomi, breaking off a neat three-cornered piece of barley cake which was to serve Naomi as knife and fork and spoon.

For dinner there was a dish of young kid stewed with olives, hot barley cakes, fresh and dried fruit--apricots, figs, pomegranates--and a bowl of amber honey.

Not an easy thing is it to serve one's self with neatness and dispatch without knife or fork, and only one's fingers and a bit of bread to rely upon. But Naomi and Martha were able to dip their food from the common dish with a bit of barley cake quite as nicely as the grown people did, and they sat quiet and respectful while Aunt Miriam told of Simon's illness and the reason for this trip to Jerusalem.

When the meal was over, Martha ran for fresh bowls of water, for the Jews were careful to wash both before and after eating, and as Naomi dabbled her fingers daintily Martha whispered to her:

"Mother says we are all to go about the twelfth hour, in the cool of the day, to show thee the Temple and to see King Herod's garden. Oh! Oh!"

And she squeezed her new friend's arm with such fervor that the pretty bowl was barely saved from falling to the floor.

Later in the day when the first evening breezes were drifting down the dark ravines that swept round the city, the little party of sight-seers slowly climbed the steep lanes that led toward Mount Moriah on which the Temple stood. Built of white marble and glittering with gold, it dazzled the eyes of little village-bred Naomi and made her heart thrill as she gazed up the flights of steps at the very House of G.o.d.

It was a flat-roofed, oblong building, this Temple of the Hebrews, divided within by a curtain of the finest work into two great rooms, the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place.

The Holy of Holies was the dwelling-place of the Most High, never to be trodden, never to be seen, except upon the rarest occasions, by mortal man. It was now bare and empty, since the loss years before, in the war with Babylon, of the Ark with its Mercy Seat and two golden cherubim.

In the outer chamber, the Holy Place, lying to the east, stood the golden candlestick bearing seven lamps, the golden table of shew bread with its twelve loaves arranged in two rows, and the golden Altar of Incense, having thirteen spices burning night and day to signify that all the produce of the earth belongs to G.o.d. In the huge doorway of this room, where only the priests might enter, and facing the sunrise, hung a second curtain or veil of fine linen richly embroidered in blue and scarlet, purple and flax. These colors were meant to be an image of the world. The scarlet represented fire, the flax earth, the blue sky, and the purple sea. Along the wall ran golden vines and cl.u.s.ters of the grape, the typical plant of Israel.

All this Naomi could picture perfectly so often had she heard it described, but she saw it with the eye of her mind only, for the women of Israel had a court set apart for them many flights below the Temple building itself and at the east of the men's Court of the Israelites, as it was called.

Martha stood at the little girl's elbow, gazing about, too, but not with the same eager interest that Naomi showed, since a visit to the Temple was no great rarity to her.

"Thou shouldst see the Temple at Pa.s.sover, Naomi," she murmured; "the crowds of people, and the priests at sunrise upon the walls blowing a thousand silver trumpets, and the long procession in the streets carrying the lambs for the offering."

"Father hath promised to bring us all next Pa.s.sover," Naomi answered happily. "But now I long mightily to see the great Altar of Burnt Offering in the Court of the Priests. It is made of unhewn stone, Ezra says, and there, too, stands the bronze basin where the priests wash hands and feet before entering the Holy Place. Ezra has learned all about it at school. I long to see it."

Little Martha shook her head.

"Nay," she murmured reprovingly, "that is not a sight for me and thee. I have seen the smoke rising--that is all."

Naomi stared up at the great group of buildings--courts, halls, cloisters, terraces, and walls, topped by the splendid golden front of the Holy Place, in silent awe.

"If once I should lose sight of Aunt Miriam," she thought, "I might wander about here for days and days and never find her again."

And she took such a firm hold upon her aunt's cloak that she, feeling the tug, thought the little girl was impatient to move on.