"Had they an answer?" It was Mary again who questioned.
"None save the face of them. It were enough—ha! ha!"
"Lazarus is much taken with this man," Martha observed. "Art thou, too, gone after him, Joel?"
"Nay. I like him not. Far be it from the business of a Galilean peasant to tell a merchant of Jerusalem that riches be a curse."
"And hath he said this to thee?" Martha inquired in astonishment.
"Yea, at the gate where my camel did stick and skin his nether quarters."
Lazarus laughed again as he exclaimed, "Enough it were to make dry bones shake! Such a sight! Tell it, Joel."
"Lazarus doth make light of matters sorely vexatious," Joel said without smiling.
"What did happen, Joel?" and there was concern in Martha's question.
"My camel train bearing great stores of silks had come from Damascus. The city gates were gorged with pilgrims so that my men did lead their beasts to the far side of the city wall where the small gates are. Here, when the camel would have walked under, he could not for the bales of silk that did wedge against the stones. Then did we strip the beasts, yet were their frames too large. Then did we get them on their knees and while some did pull, others did push. I stood with those in the rear and most mightily did I push until sweat did drop from my head and much straining did rend my kittuna."