“I have come to fetch thee to the temple,” breathed the boy excitedly. “Thou must come quickly, before the King has gone away to his palace.”
“Did the King scatter coins among the crowd?” asked Tor eagerly. “Are the soldiers giving bread and alms to the people, as when Pilate came to Jerusalem?”
“Nay, the man is like no other great one who ever came to Jerusalem,” answered Dan wonderingly. “He is verily a King though. Didst thou not hear the people shouting, ‘Blessed is the King that cometh!’ Hark you, the man is a strange King. He wears no crown, no jewels; he hath no soldiers, no money for [pg 48]the people. He came into the city riding on the colt of an ass; but the people cast even their garments upon the earth before him. I saw it, and shouted with the rest; and because I had no coat, I cut a green branch from a tree and cast it beneath the feet of his beast. So also did many others, when they saw what I had done. They cut palm-branches, olive-branches, and acacias from fields and gardens all along the way; ’twas a great sight! The big turbans came out in a rage to shut our mouths, but for once they could not. Come,—thou must come!”
“Why should I come?” said Tor mournfully. “I am only a beggar—and blind.”
“But thou shalt have thine eyes again, lad,” cried Dan exultantly. “The King is even now laying his hands upon the [pg 49]blind, the lame, and palsied, and they see and leap and walk forthwith. I myself have looked upon it. I will fetch thee to him.”
“But the King would not touch me—a beggar, and unclean,” wailed Tor. “Look you, I am no better than Baladan, and the Jews hate and despise all dogs. He would spurn me—spit upon me. Nay, I will not go.”
“ ‘I HAVE SAID IT. I WILL TAKE THEE TO THE KING.’ ”
Dan laid violent hands upon the blind boy. “Thou shalt go with me,” he said loudly. “I have said it. I will take thee to the King, then if he spurn thee—spit upon thee—Nay, but he will not spurn thee; I saw him, and I say that he will not. But if he heal thee not, what then? I will bring thee again to this place. There shall no harm befall thee.”
The two boys made their way to the temple enclosure, slipping easily among [pg 50]the excited multitudes, unnoticed even as the little brown sparrows which flit among the great feet of horses in a crowded thoroughfare. And when they had come to the place where Jesus was, they found already gathered great numbers of blind and lame and withered and palsied, and the court ringing with the noise of their petitions mingled with the jubilant thanksgivings of those already healed.