276 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

hills of Oregon. Only this sound here at Nazareth was softer,
and too, it seemed not so monotonous.

‘The sound, heard only at rare intervals, and when the
wind lay very low, was at first very faint, and very soft and
doubtful. But after a while I heard a heavier and a harder
stroke. Then the two would blend together and then finally
be lost, to be lifted up to the thick tangle of foliage by the
roadside, which hung in festoons above and about us, where
the doves sat and sang, or the bluebird flitted along in a line
of sapphire.

‘But in the morning, if the morning is still, and warm
and pleasant, go out on the hills and listen. Listen and
believe, and you will hear the low, soft and almost pathetic
monotony of sound of which I have spoken.

‘“* And what does it all mean?’ I at last asked of the
half-naked old son of Syria, who had constituted himself my
guide and only companion.

“He put a whole pile of dirty fingers to his thin, brown
lips, and would not answer. But as spring advanced, day
after day we went on the wooded hills to catch the sound.
Sometimes, not often, however, we were rewarded, for in
Nazareth, as well as elsewhere, there are cloudy days, and
days of wind and storm.

‘But to cut the story short, as I was about to Icave
this holiest place on earth to one who loves the woods and
believes in God, the ragged old follower led me once more
up to the hills to lay my ear for the last time to the bosom
of the earth. I never heard the sound so distinctly before.

“What can it mean?’

‘The old man crept close and whispered in his wild and
broken way: ‘The loom! It is Mary at her loom; and
then the carpenter’s hammer.’