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GEORGE MOORE
59
TIMOTHY: The question that I asked the shepherd, who answered me: Belike an angel came down from heaven and carried him back to Kerith, whence he had come.
Priscilla: To follow his flock, as herebefore.
TIMOTHY: And to work miracles, as herebefore. A great wonder-worker is this shepherd from Nazareth, having power to heal and to prophesy.
Priscilla: Has he cast out devils? And do the bedridden rise up at his bidding?
TIMOTHY: He comes into a room, and the crazy become peaceful; his look is a balm. And the shepherd told me how his wife had not left her bed for three years, but had risen out of it when Jesus told her she must clothe herself and follow her husband into Arabia.
Apollos: We do not know whence his power comes, whether from heaven or hell.
TIMOTHY: I asked the shepherd if he had heard of the Lord Jesus; he said he hadn't, nor had he heard of Paul.
Apollos: Thou hast brought back a strange story from the hills, Timothy.
EUNICE: But the story of the cross, whence came it? Does Jesus of Nazareth babble it as he leads his flock?
TIMOTHY: Jesus of Nazareth, who is now guiding Paul to Caesarea, speaks seldom.
Priscilla: He may be one who, after long brooding on the story of the cross, has sloughed his own pitiful story to drape himself in the Lord's legend.
EUNICE: And should this shepherd have been on the cross and bear the scars of the nails on his hands and feet, he may have easily borrowed the rest of the story.
TIMOTHY: Mother, I brought back the story for its own sake, and I see all your faces in gloom.
Apollos: What thinkest thou, Eunice?
EUNICE: It may be that the shepherd has come to believe himself to be the Lord Jesus, or it may be that the shepherds have confused this shepherd with God's messenger.
Aquila: Or it may be that the Lord Jesus has appeared to Paul on the road to Caesarea.
Apollos: Hast forgotten, Aquila, that Paul's guide is an Essene well known to the shepherds for many years?
