“How is it?” cried Ruth, with trembling voice, [pg 267]her fears again getting the upper hand. “Do you go? and Azariah?”
“Yes, my dearest, I go, and next in command to the captain and his brothers.”
Ruth flung her arms round her husband’s neck. “Oh! I am proud of you; but yet if you could have stayed, for our little Daniel is so young——”
And she could say no more.
“Nay, wife, be of good cheer, and do not grudge us to the Lord’s service, for indeed there is need of us all. Even while the letters from Gilead were being read there came messengers from Galilee with their clothes rent. From them we heard that the men of Ptolemaïs and of Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee of the Gentiles were gathered together. Then it was determined that Simon should go to Galilee with three thousand men, and Judas and Jonathan to Gilead.”
“And what of Azariah?”
“He and Joseph, the son of Zachariah, are to be left in the city with the remnant of the army as captains of the people. They are to have the Governor’s house, and you, with our little Daniel, will live there while I am away. This will be well for you, and for Miriam and Judith also, for there will be many coming and going, and Miriam is a fair maiden, as she should be, being kin to you.”
Ruth smiled through her tears at the lover-like compliment.
“Come now,” Seraiah went on, “and get ready what I shall want for my journey, for we set out at sunset.”
The two women kissed each other, and the old priest blessed Seraiah. “The Lord give thee strength in the day of battle, and deliver thee out of the hand of the enemy, and bring thee back to the house of thy fathers.”