The colt that seems to break its heart at the cut of a whip,
will hobble at last to the knacker unmoved by a shower of blows.
While Caleb looked, the red rim of the sun rose above the horizon,
flooding the world with light and life. Now birds began to chirp, and
beasts to move; now the shadows fled away. Caleb's impressionable nature
answered to this change. Hope stirred in his breast, even the pain of
his maimed hand was forgotten.
"I will win yet," he shouted to the silent sky; "my troubles are done
with. I will shine like the sun; I will rule like the sun, and my
enemies shall whither beneath my power. It is a good omen. Now I am glad
that the Roman spared my life, that in a day to come I may take his--and
Miriam."
Then he turned and trudged onward through the glorious sunlight,
watching his own shadow that stretched away before him.
"It goes far," he said again; "this also is a very good omen."
Caleb thought much on his way to Jerusalem; moreover he talked with all
whom he met, even with bandits and footpads whom his poverty could not
tempt, for he desired to learn how matters stood in the land. Arrived in
Jerusalem he sought out the home of that lady who had been his mother's
friend and who gave him over, a helpless orphan, to the care of the
Essenes.
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