Nothing definite is known about either Simon's childhood or his boyhood. However, we are safe to conclude from what we know about the customs, beliefs, and practices of the Jews of his time that he lived in a small, flat-roofed house containing very little, if any, furniture; that either at home or at school, perhaps at both, he learned all about the prophets in what is now our Old Testament; that he observed the Sabbath day strictly; and what is most important of all, he learned to look forward to the day when the Savior of the world would come to His people. In fancy, we can picture Simon and Andrew and their playmates amusing themselves on the shore of Galilee; but it is only in imagination that we can see any of the incidents in Simon's childhood. "We may think of him," writes George L. Weed, "as a useful boy, helping his mother in the labors of the house--carefully bringing the little red clay lamps for trimming, or the corn to be parched, or the fish his father had caught, or the charcoal on which it was to be cooked, or the bread from the oven, and the oil and honey-cakes to be eaten with it, or water from the stream that flowed from the hill behind their home into the lake, or filling the water-jars at the door. Was he not his mother's joy when for the first time he shook the olives from the trees and brought them to her as a part of their frugal meal; or when he spread the maize and hemp to dry on the flat roof in the summer sun? Was he not his father's pride the first time he handled the oar, and dipped it aright in the wave, and helped to spread the net, and counted the fish they had caught? He watched the flight of the sparrows and gathered the flowers--poppies, daisies and anemones--like those from which the Great Teacher, whom now he knew not, would teach him lessons of wisdom and love. Childlike, he gathered shells upon the seashore, and dug in the white sand of the beach with a rude stick, with delight equal to that of the boy of today with his finished toy-shovel and little painted pail." None of the fishermen who saw Simon with his playmates scampering around the nets and boats ever suspected that he would grow up to be among the greatest men of the world! Some writers tell us that the Galileans were generally brave and fearless, and loved liberty. The men made good soldiers for they were "bold and intrepid." The boy, Simon, as he grew to manhood must have admired the brave, bold men around him, for he, too, became a man of strong character, as we learn from the first recorded instance of his life. SIMON'S NAME CHANGED [Sidenote: Simon Hears John the Baptist.]