The discovery seemed to make her forget what she had come to say, and she stood and stared at him; then she remembered. "Rabbi Amos told me of the offer you have had from a rich merchant in Bethany, and I came down here, secretly, to beg you to accept it. In your father's name I beg you!"
Joel looked perplexed. "I hardly know what to do," he said. "Every one advises me just as you do; but I feel that they are all wrong. Surely the Master meant me as well as father Phineas and the others, when He charged us to go and preach the gospel to every creature."
A sudden interest came into the woman's face; she took a step forward. "Joel, did you see Him after He was risen?"
"Yes," he answered.
"Oh, I believe then that He is the Christ!" she cried. "I have thought all the time that it might be so, and the children are so sure of it."
"And Uncle Laban?" questioned Joel.
She shook her head sadly. "He grows more bitterly opposed every day."
"Aunt Leah," he asked, coming back to the first question, "don't you think He must have meant me as well as those men?"
"Oh, hardly," she said, hesitatingly, "you are so young, and there are so many others to do it; it would surely be better for you to go to Bethany."