Part 98 (1/2)

”'And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

”'And on the morrow when he departed, he took, out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.

”'Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?

”'And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.'

”What do you think that story means?” asked mamma.

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”I think,” said Harold, ”that it means that to be neighbor to anybody is to help him.”

Margaret thought a minute. ”It seems to me,” she said, ”that neighbors can live a long way off, then. Our teacher said she would tell us next Sunday how we could help poor little children in a big city five hundred miles away. That will make us neighbors to them, won't it, mamma?”

”Why, yes,” said mamma. ”So it will.” Then she smiled a little and said, ”I think we have some neighbors living in China and some others living in India.”

What do you suppose mamma meant?

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Harold and Margaret were looking at a picture of an Eastern shepherd with his flocks.

”Mamma,” said Harold, ”is this our country? This man is not dressed as men are here.”

”No,” said mamma, ”it is a picture of a shepherd and his sheep in the country of the Bible.”

”What makes the shepherd go before the sheep, mamma?” asked Harold.

”In that country,” said mamma, ”the sheep are not driven, but led.”

”Were sheep more plenty in the Bible land than in ours? I have never seen many sheep,” said Harold.

”Yes,” answered mamma, ”most of the children in the Bible land knew all about sheep. Many of the hillsides had little white flocks of sheep on them. They were not kept in fields with fences. They wandered about over the open pasture lands; and so a man or a boy must be with them to watch over them. He was called the shepherd. He took them to the best pastures. At some seasons of the year he had to lead them a long way to find water. He kept the bears and the wolves and the lions away. He kept away the thieves who might come to steal the sheep. At night he drove the sheep to a fold, or shed, or sometimes he slept with them all night in the open air, beneath the stars.

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[Ill.u.s.tration]

AN EASTERN SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP

From a photograph taken by W. J. Aitchison, Esq., of Hamilton, Canada, and used by his kind permission.

These sheep are feeding just outside Jerusalem. ”All the plateaus east of the Jordan, and the mountains of Palestine and Syria, are pasture grounds for innumerable flocks and herds. In the spring there is plenty of gra.s.s. Later, when the rain has ceased, the sheep still nibble the dry herbage and stubble and flourish where, to a western eye, all is barren desert. They require water but once a day. The descendants of the same shepherds who tended the flocks in Bible days still occupy the great sheep walks of Palestine”

[End ill.u.s.tration]

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