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قراءة كتاب Christmas Light

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‏اللغة: English
Christmas Light

Christmas Light

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 6

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 brass 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 passageway 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 God.

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 God. In the huge doorway of this room, where only the priests might enter,

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