Miriam liked Caleb, but she never loved him as she did the old men, her uncles, or Nehushta, who to her was more than all.  Perhaps this may have been because he never grew angry with her whatever she might say or do, never even spoke to her roughly, but always waited on her pleasure and watched for her wish.  Still, of all companions he was the best.  If Miriam desired to walk by the Dead Sea, he would desire the same.  If she wanted to go fishing in the Jordan, he would make ready the baits or net, and take the fishes off the hook—­a thing she hated.  If she sought a rare flower, Caleb would hunt it out for days, although she knew well that in himself he did not care for flowers, and when he had found it, would mark the spot and lead her there in triumph.  Also there was this about him, as she was soon quick enough to learn:  he worshipped her.  Whatever else might be false, that note in his nature rang true.  If one child could love another, then Caleb loved Miriam, first with the love of children, then as a man loves a woman.  Only—­and this was the sorrow of it—­Miriam never loved Caleb.  Had she done so both their stories would have been very different.  To her he was a clever companion and no more.

What made the thing more strange was that he loved no one else, except, mayhap, himself.  In this way and in that the lad soon came to learn his own history, which was sad enough, with the result that if he hated the Romans who had invaded the country and trampled it beneath their heel, still more did he hate those of the Jews who looked upon his father as their enemy and had stolen all the lands and goods that were his by right.  As for the Essenes who reared and protected him, so soon as he came to an age when he could weigh such matters, he held them in contempt, and because of their continual habit of bathing themselves and purifying their garments, called them the company of washer-women.  On him their doctrines left but a shallow mark.  He thought, as he explained to Miriam, that people who were in the world should take the world as they found it, without dreaming ceaselessly of another world to which, as yet, they did not belong; a sentiment that to some extent Nehushta shared.

Wishing, with the zeal of the young, to make a convert, Miriam preached to him the doctrine of Christianity, but without success.  By blood Caleb was a Jew of the Jews, and could not understand or admire a God who would consent to be trodden under foot and crucified.  The Messiah he desired to follow must be a great conqueror, one who would overthrow the Caesars and take the throne of Caesar, not a humble creature with his mouth full of maxims.  Like the majority of his own, and, indeed, of every generation, to the last day of his life, Caleb was unable to divine that mind is greater than matter, while spirit is greater than mind; and that in the end, by many slow advances and after many disasters seemingly irremediable, spirituality will conquer all.  He looked to a sword flashing from thrones, not to the word of truth spoken by lowly lips in humble streets or upon the flanks of deserts, trusting to the winds of Grace to bear it into the hearts of men and thus regenerate their souls.