Part 31 (1/2)
The man did not reply.
”--So many years that for nigh upon an hour I have been saying, 'Surely here should Shunem come in sight--or here--its white walls among the oaks below--the house of Miriam of Shunem'. But I forget the curtain on my eyes, and the oaks will have grown tall.”
Still there came no answer. Slightly nettled, the old man went on--
”My son, it is said 'To return a word before hearing the matter is folly.' But also, 'Every man shall kiss the lips of him who answereth fit words.' And further, 'To the aged every stranger shall be a staff, nor shall he twice inquire his way.' Though I may not scan thy face, thou scannest mine; and I, who now am blind, have been a seer in Israel.”
As he ceased, another figure--a woman's--stepped out, as it seemed to him, from behind the man; stepped forward and touched him on the arm.
”Hail, then, Elisha, son of Shaphat!”
”Thou knowest? . . .”
”Who better than Miriam of Shunem? Put near thy face and look.”
”My eyes are very dim.”
”And the oaks are higher than Shunem. My face has changed: my voice also.”
”For the moment it was strange to me. As I came along I was reckoning thy years at three-score.”
”Mayst add five.”
”We may not complain. And thy son, how fares he?”
”That is he, behind us. He is a good son, and leaves his elders to speak first. If we sit awhile and talk he will wait for us.”
”And thy house and the farm-steading?”
The woman threw a glance down towards the valley, and answered quickly--
”My master, shall we not sit awhile? The track here looks towards the plain. Sit, and through my eyes thou shalt see again distant Carmel and the fields between that used so to delight thee. Ah! not there!”
The old man had made as if to seat himself on one of the larger stones on the edge of the heap. But she prevented him quickly; was gone for a moment; and returned, rolling a moss-covered boulder to the right-hand of the path. The prophet sat himself down on this, and she on the ground at his feet.
”Just here, from my window below, I saw thee coming down the mountain with Gehazi, thy servant, on that day when it was promised to me that I should bear a son.”
He nodded.
”For as often as we pa.s.sed by,” he said, ”we found food and a little room prepared upon the wall. 'Thou hast been careful for us,' said I, 'with all this care. What is to be done for thee? Shall I speak to the King for thee, or to the captain of the host?' Thine answer was, 'I dwell in Shunem, among my own people.'”
”There is no greener spot in Israel.”
”'But,' said my servant Gehazi, 'Every spot is greener where a child plays.' Therefore this child was promised thee.”
She said, ”But once a year the plain is yellow and not green; yellow away to the foot of Carmel; and that is in this season of the barley harvest. It was on such a day as this that my son fell in the field among the reapers, and his father brought him in and set him on my knees. On such a day as this I left him dead, and saddled the a.s.s and rode between the same yellow fields to Megiddo, and thence towards Carmel, seeking thee. See the white road winding, and the long blue chine yonder, by the sea. By and by, when the sun sinks over it, the blue chine and the oaks beneath will turn to one dark colour; and that will be the hour that I met thee on the slope, and lighted off the a.s.s and caught thee by the feet. As yet it is all parched fields and sky of bra.s.s and a white road running endless--endless.”
”But what are these black shadows that pa.s.s between me and the sun?”
”They are crows, my master.”