CHAPTER III
The Trip to Jerusalem
THE road to Jerusalem stretched white and hot in the blazing sunshine. The deep blue sky was without a cloud, and the insects, hidden in the roadside grass, hummed in the heat.
A cloud of dust in the distance told that the three Roman soldiers who, only a moment ago, it seemed, had galloped past the slowly moving ox cart, were nearing their destination, the Holy City. Naomi had watched the glitter of their helmets and the flashing of their bright lances with the same interest she had given to a string of melancholy gray camels led along the road by a country lad in his cool white tunic and broad red leather belt.
Everything was interesting this morning to Naomi. She stared at the dusty gray olive-trees, the shabby scrub oaks, the low-branched sycamores as if she had not been familiar with them all her life. To-day the birds seemed to dart about more swiftly and to utter sweeter songs as they flew. The few sheep she spied nibbling the sparse grass on the rocky hillsides were surely whiter than those at home. The field flowers, with faces upturned to the bright sun, glowed with splendid color. The whole world was glad to-day.
"They are all happy because I am happy," mused Naomi, smiling at her own thought.
She glanced at Jacob plodding contentedly along beside his beasts, at Aunt Miriam who sat silent, her usually busy hands folded in her lap, enjoying this little rest from her many household cares.
Tap, tap, tap!
Naomi peered about, and Aunt Miriam sat up straight at this sound upon the road.
Tap, tap, tap!