crowd, and, feeling quite easy about him, paid his devotions at the
tomb of his royal ancestor. When they returned to the inn, where they
thought to find Jesus, He was not there; time passed, and He did not
come. Someone said He had joined a party of pilgrims going to Galilee,
because He thought that His parents had already set out. "How could He
think that?" exclaimed Joseph. "As if we should go without Him!"

They hurried off to fetch their son, but when they came up with the
pilgrims, Jesus was not there, nothing was known of him, and his
parents returned to the town. They sought him there for two whole
days. They visited every quarter of the city, searched all the public
buildings, inquired of every curator, asked at the strangers' office,
questioned all the shop-keepers about the tall boy with pale face,
brown hair, and an Egyptian fez on his head. But no one had seen him.
They returned to the inn, fully expecting to find him there. But there
was no sign of him. Mary, who was almost fainting with anxiety,
declared that he must have fallen into the hands of Herod. Joseph
comforted her, though he was himself in sad need of consolation.

"Poor mother," he said, drawing her head down on his breast, "let us go
and place our trouble before the Lord."

And when they had gone up into the Temple, there, among the scholars
and the men learned in the law they found Jesus. The youth sat among
the grey-bearded rabbis, and carried on a lively conversation with
them, so that his cheeks glowed and his eyes shone. Judgment had to be
pronounced on a serious case of transgression of the law. A man in
Jerusalem had baked bread on the Sabbath, because his neighbour had
been unable to lend him the oven the day before. The Pharisees met
together, and eagerly brought forward a crowd of statutes regarding the