livelihood; but the fish-basket that he wove was so successful that the
neighbours supplied him with food so that he might make such baskets
for them. And soon people came from the town to buy his baskets, and
when he carried his wares to market, he got rid of them all on the way.
So basket-making became his trade, and he thought how once the little
Moses was saved in a basket on the Nile. And just as his work was
liked, so also did Mary and himself win affection, and they confessed
that life went better on the banks of the Nile than in poor little
Nazareth, for veritably there were fleshpots in Egypt. If only they
could have crushed their hearts' longing for home!

When the little Jesus began to walk, the mothers who were their
neighbours wished him to make friends with their children and play with
them. But the boy was reserved and awkward with strangers. He
preferred to wander alone at evening-time besides the stream and gaze
at the big lotus flowers growing out of the mud, and at the crocodiles
which sometimes crawled out of the water, and lifting their heads
towards the sky, opened their great jaws as if they would drink in the
sunshine. He often remained out longer than he ought, and came back
with glowing cheeks, excited by some pleasure about which he said
nothing. When he had eaten his figs or dates, and lay in his little
bed, his father and mother sat close by, and spoke of the land of their
fathers, or told ancient tales of their ancestors until he fell asleep.
Joseph instructed the boy in the Jewish writings; but it was soon
apparent that Joseph was the pupil, for what he read with difficulty
from the roll, little Jesus spoke out spontaneously from his innermost
soul. So he grew into a slender, delicate stripling, learned the
foreign tongue, marked the customs, and followed them so far as they
pleased him. There was much in him that he did not owe to education;
although he said little, his mother observed it. And once she asked