after Christ, and when they saw Him make the afflicted whole with a

word, it is no wonder they worshiped Him. No wonder His deeds were the

talk of the nation. No wonder the multitude that followed Him was so

great that at one time--thirty miles from here--they had to let a sick

man down through the roof because no approach could be made to the door;

no wonder His audiences were so great at Galilee that He had to preach

from a ship removed a little distance from the shore; no wonder that

even in the desert places about Bethsaida, five thousand invaded His

solitude, and He had to feed them by a miracle or else see them suffer

for their confiding faith and devotion; no wonder when there was a great

commotion in a city in those days, one neighbor explained it to another

in words to this effect: "They say that Jesus of Nazareth is come!"

Well, as I was saying, the doctor distributed medicine as long as he had

any to distribute, and his reputation is mighty in Galilee this day.

Among his patients was the child of the Shiek's daughter--for even this

poor, ragged handful of sores and sin has its royal Shiek--a poor old

mummy that looked as if he would be more at home in a poor-house than in

the Chief Magistracy of this tribe of hopeless, shirtless savages. The

princess--I mean the Shiek's daughter--was only thirteen or fourteen

years old, and had a very sweet face and a pretty one. She was the only

Syrian female we have seen yet who was not so sinfully ugly that she

couldn't smile after ten o'clock Saturday night without breaking the

Sabbath. Her child was a hard specimen, though--there wasn't enough of

it to make a pie, and the poor little thing looked so pleadingly up at

all who came near it (as if it had an idea that now was its chance or

538

The Innocents Abroad