Group of Cattle
CHAPTER XII.
At this moment Javan returned, and with an air of gaiety that ill accorded with the dark feelings of his heart, summoned his young companions to follow him.
"My mother," he said, "awaits you in the cedar hall, where supper is prepared. Rabbi Joazer is with her, but my father is not yet come in. We will have a merry banquet to-night. Come, you do not seem in a festal mood, Theophilus. This evening walk has wearied you, and chased away your spirits."
"Shall I not sing to you, my brother?" interrupted Naomi, who was fearful that her cousin might reply hastily to Javan's taunt: "my harp used to beguile you of many an hour in former times; but you have hardly heard its tone since you came back to us."
"Yes, child, bring your harp: it will serve to amuse our ears until my father returns."
Naomi obeyed, for she felt that music would be better than conversation in Javan's present mood. She took up her harp from the pedestal on which it lay in the anteroom, and entered the apartment where her mother sat, working at her embroidery by the light of a richly-chased silver lamp. Deborah had joined her after she had met Naomi and her companions at the entrance, and was now occupied in the same manner as her mistress, assisted also by two of Salome's maidens. The rabbi reclined on one of the couches which were placed around the supper-table, according to the Jewish manner of sitting at their meals; and the whole arrangement of the apartment bespoke cheerfulness and comfort. The hearts of several of its inmates responded not to the bright scene around them. Naomi approached her mother, and affectionately saluted her, whispering at the same time,—
"Javan looks unhappy and oppressed with care. Do not notice it, dear mother, but I will sing his gloom away."
So saying, she seated herself on a cushion at Salome's feet, and striking a few chords on her harp, sang in her wildest, sweetest tones, her brother's favourite song; which she herself had composed when first the Roman army threatened the safety of Zion: