Our Little Jewish Cousin

"Look at the woman beside her," said Miriam. "She looks very tired. I suppose she has walked several miles from her own village with her baskets of fruit. Her baby boy sits on her shoulders, crowing and laughing at every one who passes by."

"Come, children. We will go now to some shops where I must buy things not sold here," said Esther's mother.

She led the way out of the market and they entered a crowded street. There were Turks in their flowing robes, Arabs, Armenians, Syrians, and Jews. Almost all were gaily dressed, and many of them were handsome. The Arabs were either barefooted, or else they wore red or yellow slippers.

"They lift their feet as though they were passing over a desert," said Esther to Miriam, as they went by some Arabs.

"I should think they would suffer from the heat," answered her sister. "Their heads look so big, I'm sure they have two or three caps under their turbans."

"Perhaps they think the more clothing they wear, the better the heat will be kept out," said their mother, who heard what they were talking about.

"Here is the shop I was looking for. We will go in."

She led the way into a sort of cave cut into the soft rock. It was a dark, dingy little place. There were shelves around the sides of it. In the middle was a sort of counter, where the storekeeper sat with his goods around him.

As Esther's mother entered, he slowly took his pipe from his mouth and stopped his gossiping with a friend who sat outside on the pavement. He was in no hurry, however. He acted more like a king on his throne than a trader who had to sell cloth for a living.

"Yellow plush, is it?" he asked. "Ah! I have some beautiful, beautiful. It is the very thing."

But his customer was not easily satisfied, and after she had finally picked out the piece she wished, there was a long talk about the price. Both were satisfied at last. The plush was cut off and wrapped up, and the storekeeper was left to his own pleasure.

Esther's mother still had some errands to do, so they visited several other stores. They were not all in caves, however, but most of them were small and dark.

At last, everything needed was purchased and the lady and children started homeward.

"Look at the sky," said Esther. "Isn't it beautiful to-night?"

The sun was almost setting. The clouds were turning a rosy red. They were so bright that the city itself seemed to share in their glory.

"Jerusalem the Blessed!" said Miriam, in a low voice.

"There is papa. We are late about getting home and so is he," said Esther. "Now we can have his company."

Her father had already seen his wife and the girls, and was smiling at them.

It was a warm evening, yet he wore his fur-trimmed, round velvet hat over the tight-fitting cap that never left his head in the daytime. A long lock of hair hung down on each side of his face, as it always did after he was dressed for the day.

"Bless you, my little ones," he said, as Esther and Miriam each seized a hand. "Now tell me what you have seen while you were shopping."

The children chattered as they do everywhere in the world. They described the market and the people, the camels and the shopkeepers.

"We were coming to your store when we found how late it was. Then we thought it would be closed, and you on your way home. And so you were," said Esther, laughingly.

By the time the children had reached their own door, they were so tired they thought only of bed and sleep. They were even too tired to care about their supper.

"But you must not slight your night prayer," said their father, soberly.

Esther's and Miriam's eyes winked and blinked a good many times before they got through the prayer.

"It never seemed so long before, except when I was sick," Esther told her adopted sister, when they were at last stretched on their beds. "And, do you know, Miriam," she added, sleepily, "I believe Solomon doesn't always repeat it all. He says our people have so many prayers he gets tired of them sometimes. Isn't that dreadful?"

But Miriam was already sound asleep, and did not answer.

CHAPTER VII

THE CAVE

"Which way did you come?" asked Levi, as he helped the two little girls down from the ass's back. Solomon had walked by their side all the way.

"We passed through the Jaffa gate and then took the shortest way down here into the valley," said Esther.

Jerusalem is surrounded by walls. There are seven gates through which the city may be entered or left. But the Jaffa and Damascus gates are the ones most used.

"We saw a Bedouin riding a beautiful horse. He was in full dress, and looked just elegant," said Solomon. "I should like to own a horse like his."

"Tell me how he was dressed," said Rebecca.

"His long, wide cloak must have been quite new. I could tell, because the yellow stripes looked so clean and bright. The shawl bound around his head and hanging down over his shoulders was pure white," said Miriam.

"His high red leather boots were the handsomest part of his dress. There were tassels at the sides, of course," interrupted Solomon. "But his sash! You ought to have seen the shining dagger and the pistol that were stuck in it. My! the man looked as though he were ready to meet any one.

"His horse was a beauty, too. She was decked with red woollen tassels that reached clear to the ground. She snorted and stepped off with the spirit of a war-horse. You know the tassels are useful in keeping off the flies. There are such swarms of them the poor beasts suffer very much."

"But come along, children, I know you want to have a romp under the trees. You need not stay here talking any longer."

While Levi was speaking, Rebecca put her arm around Miriam's waist and tried to make her feel at home. She had not been to Jerusalem since the little orphan had come to live with Esther and Solomon.

"She is a sweet child," she thought. "Not as strong as Esther nor as brave as Solomon. But she will be grateful for kindness. I feel sure of that when I look into her eyes."

In a few minutes Rebecca and Levi were playing with their young company as though they were children themselves.

"To-morrow we will have a little picnic, and I will take you to a cave you have never visited," promised Levi, as his young visitors were bidding him good night.

"It is a pleasant walk there, and not so far as to tire us," added Rebecca.

The next morning was bright and clear. The breakfast was soon eaten, after which, Esther and Miriam helped Rebecca clean up the house and prepare the lunch they were to carry.

While they were waiting for Levi and Solomon to finish some farm work, the little girls had a chance to pet the gazelle and the tame sheep of which Rebecca had written them.

At last they were all ready to start. It was a pleasant walk, as Rebecca had said, yet there were several rough and rather wild places to pass through.

"Almost all the caves around here are made of limestone," said Levi. "It is so soft that the rains wear great hollows in the rocks."

"Did you ever go to the cave of Adullam, Levi?" asked Solomon.

"Yes, once when I was a boy. It is beyond Bethlehem. I had heard father speak of it. He told me that King David hid there with four hundred of his followers."

"Four hundred! It must be a very big cave, then," said Esther.