So saying she tossed her head, with an air. But Judith clapped her hands. “A camel driver,” she exclaimed, “why, Sarah, you never told me. Did he take you up on his camel? Just think, how delightful. That’s really life, isn’t it, Sarah?” “Ak,” cried the nurse, “where do you get such ideas?” And turning to Prince Ahab, who was entering the room at that moment, she exclaimed, “God knows who puts such things into her head.” Prince Ahab replied, with a discouraged gesture, “Do not ask me, Sarah, for I do not know who puts anything into people’s heads nowadays. I assure you, the entire world is mad. Do you know what the king is doing, now that the war is over? You would think he would be getting ready for the next one. Not at all; he prefers to discuss the marriage laws with Prince Absalom. What a state of affairs. Do not expect me to know what makes a young girl foolish besides.” “I am not foolish, Uncle,” said Judith; “when I am older, I shall be just as wise as you or Sarah.” “Be respectful to your uncle,” said Sarah. Ahab shrugged his shoulders. “No one is respectful any more,” he said; “I simply wonder that people do not go around with their fingers actually to their noses. But, then, with so many prophets filling the air with groans and complaints.... Amos, Joel, Hosea, they are enough to fill the mind of anybody with disrespect.” “And Jonah?” asked Judith. Ahab replied gravely: “Jonah is not like the others. He comes of a worthy family of Zebulon; as a matter of fact, his home is here in this village. So, you can see, there is something to him. His brother is the village herdsman. Yes, Jonah is quite a different thing altogether.” Judith looked lazily at her face in the mirror. “Tell me what he is like,” she said. “What’s that to you?” asked Sarah. She added that she supposed he was old and had a long white beard. “No,” replied Ahab, “he is not old. He is young, and enthusiastic. His eyes seem to burn. He is a little thin, but one can understand that, living in the desert, and probably starving most of the time. It is not a healthy life. I came upon him during the battle against the Aramæans; the fighting had made him sick. He is not what I would call a very robust individual.” “And did he really see an angel,” asked Judith, “as they say he did?” “Why not?” said Ahab. “Is there any reason why a man from my own village should not see an angel? He has certainly as much right to see one as Amos of Tekoa; or do you imagine that angels only appear to the men of Judah?” “What an idea,” cried Sarah. And she added with conviction, “For myself, I would sooner take the word of a man from Zebulon.”