"No, indeed, Elsie. Five large loaves, such as you are accustomed to seeing, would hardly be enough to feed fifty such hungry men; and those five loaves were much smaller than ours—probably little, if any, larger than our soda crackers; hardly enough to satisfy the appetite of one hungry boy."
"There were two fishes besides, you know, grandma; but if they were small ones, a boy could eat them, too."
"Yes; so no wonder the disciples thought it utterly impossible to feed that great crowd of hungry people, and begged Jesus to send them away to go into the villages and buy themselves victuals."
"Do you suppose they had any money to buy with, grandma?" asked the little girl.
"I think it probable that most of them were poor people with little or no money about them," replied Grandma Elsie. "And even if they had money, they were too many to find sufficient food in the little nearby towns. Jesus knew all that; He could see how weary and hungry many, if not all of them, were, particularly the women and little children. Jesus pitied and was ready to help them as no one else could, and no doubt he was glad He had the power. He bade His disciples not to tell them to depart, but 'Give ye them to eat,' He said; and they replied, 'We have here but five loaves and two fishes;' and Jesus said, 'Bring them hither to me.' And He said, 'Make the men sit down.' John tells us there was much grass in the place, and that the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Then He (Jesus) took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and brake the loaves, and gave them to His disciples, and they distributed them among that great multitude. All ate till they were satisfied; then Jesus said, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.' John tells us, 'Therefore, they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.'"
"It was very, very wonderful, grandma, wasn't it?" exclaimed the little girl thoughtfully.
"Yes, indeed! a miracle that none but God could work. It proved that Jesus was divine. You have been reading Matthew's account of this miracle; now turn to the sixth chapter of Mark, and you will find the same story told by him. Then in the eighth we will find that he tells of another time when Jesus had worked a similar miracle—when He fed four thousand on seven loaves and a few small fishes; and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets."
"Yes, grandma," said the little girl, turning over the leaves of her Bible, "and it says after that first time that He departed into a mountain to pray. But after the second, 'and straightway He entered into a ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.' Where was that, grandma?"
"It was a town on the west coast of the sea of Galilee. Read on now to the fourteenth verse."