The Brook Kerith | Page 5

absence reached Magdala and Dan set out in great alarm with an
armed escort to recover his son. He was very angry when he came upon
him, but the trouble he had been put to and the ransom he had had to
pay were very soon forgotten, so great was his pleasure at the strong
healthy boy he brought back with him, and whose first question to
Rachel was: are there cuckoos in Magdala?--Father doesn't know. His
grandmother could not tell him, but she was willing to make inquiries,
but before any news of the egg had been gotten the hope to possess it
seemed to have drifted out of Joseph's mind and to seem even a little
foolish when he looked into his box, for many of his egg shells had
been broken on the journey. See, Granny, he said, but on second
thoughts he refused to show his chipped possessions. But thou wast
once as eager to learn Hebrew, his grandmother said, and the chance
words, spoken as she left the room, awakened his suspended interests.
As soon as she returned she was beset by questions, and the same
evening his father had to promise that the best scribe in Galilee should
be engaged to teach him: a discussion began between Dan and Rachel
as to the most notable and trustworthy, and it was followed by Joseph
so eagerly that they could not help laughing; the questions he put to
them regarding the different accomplishments of the scribes were very
minute, and the phrase--But this one is a Greek scholar, stirred his
curiosity. Why should he be denied me because he knows Greek? he
asked, and his father could only answer that no one can learn two
languages at the same time. But if he knows two languages, Joseph
insisted. I cannot tell thee more, his father answered, than that the
scribe I've chosen is a great Hebrew scholar.
He was no doubt a great scholar, but he was not the man that Joseph
wished for: thin and tall and of gentle appearance and demeanour, he

did not stir up a flame for work in Joseph, who, as soon as the novelty
of learning Hebrew had worn off, began to hide himself in the garden.
His father caught him one day sitting in a convenient bough, looking
down upon his preceptor fairly asleep on a bench; and after this
adventure he began to make a mocking stock of his preceptor,
inventing all kinds of cruelties, and his truancy became so constant that
his father was forced to choose another. This time a younger man was
chosen, but he succeeded with Joseph not very much better than the
first. After the second there came a third, and when Joseph began to
complain of his ignorance his father said:
Well, Joseph, you said you wanted to learn Hebrew, and you have
shown no application, and three of the most learned scribes in Galilee
have been called in to teach you.
Joseph felt the reproof bitterly, but he did not know how to answer his
father and he was grateful to his grandmother for her answer. Joseph
isn't an idle boy, Dan, but his nature is such that he cannot learn from a
man he doesn't like. Why don't ye give him Azariah as an instructor?
Has he been speaking to thee about Azariah? Dan asked. Maybe, she
said, and Dan's face clouded.

CHAP. II.

We are to understand, Son, Dan said, on hearing that the fourth
preceptor whom he had engaged to teach his son Hebrew had failed to
give satisfaction, that you cannot learn from anybody but Azariah. Now,
will you tell us what there is in Azariah more than in Shimshai,
Benaiah or Zebad? and he waited for his son to speak, but as Joseph did
not answer he asked: is it because he looks more like a prophet than
any of the others? And Joseph, who still dreaded any allusion to
prophets, turned into his corner mortified. But Rachel came forward
directly and taking the child by the shoulders led him back to his father,
asking Dan with a trace of anger in her voice why he should think it
strange that the child should prefer to learn from Azariah rather than

from a withered patriarch who never could keep his eyes open but
always sat dozing in his chair like one in a dream.
It wasn't, Granny, because he went to sleep often; I could have kept
him awake by kicking him under the table. Joseph stopped suddenly
and looked from one to the other. Why then? his father asked, and on
being pressed to say why he didn't want to learn Hebrew he said he had
come to hate Hebrew, an admission which rendered his