. Six and one abroad. ceded into an excur-sion into Samaria and left ]\TcCurdy and me without benefitof clergy, to see Jerusalem with unorthodox eyes. Bethlehem was four miles distant to the south, and the roadled to it over the backbone of a mountain—a splendid road ofnatural pavement of rock. For this trip we engaged the serv-ices of a new guide. We regretted to part with Melchizedek—he was so interesting, and we had become attached to him, buthe had another engagement and was not available. This latest acquisition was a dignified Syrian in Europeandress, with the exception of a bright red f
. Six and one abroad. ceded into an excur-sion into Samaria and left ]\TcCurdy and me without benefitof clergy, to see Jerusalem with unorthodox eyes. Bethlehem was four miles distant to the south, and the roadled to it over the backbone of a mountain—a splendid road ofnatural pavement of rock. For this trip we engaged the serv-ices of a new guide. We regretted to part with Melchizedek—he was so interesting, and we had become attached to him, buthe had another engagement and was not available. This latest acquisition was a dignified Syrian in Europeandress, with the exception of a bright red fez that decoratedthe terminus of his tall form. His name was a quadruple-jointed title that we could not pronounce, and so we dubbedhim Jehoshaphat for short. Jehoshaphat rode with the driver, and at all points of in-terest slowly and pompously doled out his valuable informa-tion. A carob tree by the roadside he averred to be the va-rietv that bore the husks the swine did eat and with which 112 Six and One Ah road. Bethlehem and the Manger 113 the prodigal son woukl fain have filled his stomach. We hada kind of Sunday School notion that the prodigal son wasdriven to the necessity of eating corn husks, and he had there-fore always had our earnest sympathy. But notwithstandingthe revision of our opinion of his diet, the wayward boy isstill entitled to some commisseration, for the carob husk isabout as unpalatable as a liveoak acorn. Three miles out we came upon a little patch of ground lit-erally covered with pebbles, Avhich Jehoshaphat claimed weremiraculously produced. According to his story, a man wassowing seed broadcast on the spot and Jesus, passing by, askedhim what he was sowing. The man insolently replied that hewas sowing stones, and Jesus, to punish him for his imperti-nence, actually turned the seeds to stones. The fact that thisdoes not appear in Scripture threw some doubt upon it inour minds, but Jehoshaphat insisted that the stones were thereto speak for themse
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