A Childs Book of Saints | Page 8

the white walls and low flat-roofed
houses of a little town; and some one was speaking to him and saying,
"These are the fields in which the Shepherds watched, and that rocky
pathway leads up the slope to Bethlehem."
[Illustration: "These are the fields in which the Shepherds watched"]
At the sound of the voice Isidore hastily looked round, and behind him
was the pilgrim, and yet he knew that it was not truly the pilgrim, but
an Angel disguised in pilgrim's weeds. And when he would have fallen
at the Angel's feet, the Angel stopped him and said, "Be not afraid; I
have been sent to show thee all the holy places that thy heart has longed
to see."
On valley and hill and field and stream there now shone so clear and
wonderful a light that even a long way off the very flowers by the
roadside were distinctly visible. Without effort and without weariness
Isidore glided from place to place as though it were a dream. And I
cannot tell the half of what he saw, for the Angel took him to the
village where Jesus was a little child, which is called Nazareth, "the
flower-village;" and he showed him the River Jordan flowing through
dark green woods, and Hermon the high mountain, glittering with snow
(and the snow of that mountain is exceeding old), and the blue Lake of
Gennesareth, with its fishing-craft, and the busy town of Capernaum on
the great road to Damascus, and Nain where Jesus watched the little
children playing at funerals and marriages in the market-place, and the
wilderness where He was with the wild beasts, and Bethany where
Lazarus lived and died and was brought to life again (and in the fields
of Bethany Isidore gathered a bunch of wild flowers), and Jerusalem
the holy city, and Gethsemane with its aged silver-grey olive-trees, and
the hill of Calvary, where in the darkness a great cry went up to heaven:
"Why hast Thou forsaken me?" and the new tomb in the white rock
among the myrtles and rose-trees in the garden.
There was no place that Isidore had desired to see that was denied to
him. And in all these places he saw the children's children of the

children of those who had looked on the face of the Saviour--men and
women and little ones--going to and fro in strangely coloured clothing,
in the manner of those who had sat down on the green grass and been
fed with bread and fishes. And at the thought of this Isidore wept.
"Why dost thou weep?" the Angel asked.
"I weep that I was not alive to look on the face of the Lord."
Then suddenly, as though it were a dream, they were on the sea-shore,
and it was morning. And Isidore saw on the sparkling sea a fisher-ship
drifting a little way from the shore, but there was no one in it; and on
the shore a boat was aground; and half on the sand and half in the wash
of the sea there were swathes of brown nets filled with a hundred great
fish which flounced and glittered in the sun; and on the sand there was
a coal fire with fish broiling on it, and on one side of the fire seven
men--one of them kneeling and shivering in his drenched fisher's
coat--and on the other side of the fire a benign and majestic figure, on
whom the men were gazing in great joy and awe. And Isidore, knowing
that this was the Lord, gazed too at Christ standing there in the sun.
And this was what he beheld: a man of lofty stature and most grave and
beautiful countenance. His eyes were blue and very brilliant, his cheeks
were slightly tinged with red, and his hair was of the ruddy golden
colour of wine. From the top of his head to his ears it was straight and
without radiance; but from his ears to his shoulders and down his back
it fell in shining curls and clusters.
Again all was suddenly changed, and Isidore and the Angel were alone.
"Thou hast seen," said the Angel; "give me thy hand so that thou shalt
not forget."
Isidore stretched out his hand, and the Angel opened it, and turning the
palm upward, struck it. Isidore groaned with the sharp pain of the
stroke, and sank into unconsciousness.
When he awoke in the morning the sun was high in the heavens, and

the pilgrim had departed on his way. But the hut was filled with a
heavenly fragrance, and on his bed Isidore perceived the wild flowers
that he had plucked in the fields of Bethany--red anemones and blue
lupins and yellow marigolds, with many others more sweet and lovely
than the flowers