Homo Sum | Page 8

and said cheerfully: "No man is more than
man, and many men are less. In the ark there were many beasts, but
only one Noah."
"You are the Noah of our little ark," replied Stephanus.
"Then this great lout here is the elephant," laughed Paulus.
"You are no smaller than he," replied Stephanus.
"It is a pity this stone roof is so low, else we might have measured
ourselves," said Paulus. "Aye! if Hermas and I were as pious and pure
as we are tall and strong, we should both have the key of paradise in
our pockets. You were scourging yourself this night, boy; I heard the
blows. It is well; if the sinful flesh revolts, thus we may subdue it."
"He groaned heavily and could not sleep," said Stephanus.
"Aye, did he indeed!" cried Paulus to the youth, and held his powerful
arms out towards him with clenched fists; but the threatening voice was

loud rather than terrible, and wild as the exceptionally big man looked
in his sheepskin, there was such irresistible kindliness in his gaze and
in his voice, that no one could have believed that his wrath was in
earnest.
"Fiends of hell had met him," said Stephanus in excuse for his son,
"and I should not have closed an eye even without his groaning; it is the
fifth night."
"But in the sixth," said Paulus, "sleep is absolutely necessary. Put on
your sheep-skin, Hermas; you must go down to the oasis to the Senator
Petrus, and fetch a good sleeping-draught for our sick man from him or
from Dame Dorothea, the deaconess. Just look! the youngster has really
thought of his father's breakfast--one's own stomach is a good reminder.
Only put the bread and the water down here by the couch; while you
are gone I will fetch some fresh--now, come with me."
"Wait a minute, wait," cried Stephanus. "Bring a new jar with you from
the town, my son. You lent us yours yesterday, Paulus, and I must--"
"I should soon have forgotten it," interrupted the other. "I have to thank
the careless fellow, for I have now for the first time discovered the right
way to drink, as long as one is well and able. I would not have the jar
back for a measure of gold; water has no relish unless you drink it out
of the hollow of your hand! The shard is yours. I should be warring
against my own welfare, if I required it back. God be praised! the
craftiest thief can now rob me of nothing save my sheepskin."
Stephanus would have thanked him, but he took Hermas by the hand,
and led him out into the open air. For some time the two men walked in
silence over the clefts and boulders up the mountain side. When they
had reached a plateau, which lay on the road that led from the sea over
the mountain into the oasis, he turned to the youth, and said:
"If we always considered all the results of our actions there would be
no sins committed."
Hermas looked at him enquiringly, and Paulus went on, "If it had

occurred to you to think how sorely your poor father needed sleep, you
would have lain still this night."
"I could not," said the youth sullenly. "And you know very well that I
scourged myself hard enough."
"That was quite right, for you deserved a flogging for a misconducted
boy."
Hermas looked defiantly at his reproving friend, the flaming color
mounted to his cheek: for he remembered the shepherdess's words that
he might go and complain to his nurse, and he cried out angrily:
"I will not let any one speak to me so; I am no longer a child."
"Not even your father's?" asked Paulus, and he looked at the boy with
such an astonished and enquiring air, that Hermas turned away his eyes
in confusion.
"It is not right at any rate to trouble the last remnant of life of that very
man who longs to live for your sake only."
"I should have been very willing to be still, for I love my father as well
as any one else."
"You do not beat him," replied Paulus, "you carry him bread and water,
and do not drink up the wine yourself, which the Bishop sends him
home from the Lord's supper; that is something certainly, but not
enough by a long way."
"I am no saint!"
"Nor I neither," exclaimed Paulus, "I am full of sin and weakness. But I
know what the love is which was taught us by the Saviour, and that you
too may know. He suffered on the cross for you, and for me, and for all
the poor and vile. Love is at once the easiest and