“Do you think that I mind being poor?” cried Jonah. “I do not wish to be anything else. Since I am poor, I am free, my heart is at peace. Remember that I live in the desert, where all your uncle’s wealth would not do him the least good. It is you, not I, for whom you ought to reserve your sympathy. I do not need anything; I am happy, my heart is full of beauty, like the wilderness, quiet, fragrant, and bare.” Judith bowed her head, “My heart is bare, too,” she thought. But something moved in it, and she sighed. “No,” she told herself, “my heart is quite bare.” Jonah continued: “You have never seen the dawn come up across the desert. The night rolls away into the west like the last clouds of a storm, dark and terrifying. The east grows brighter and brighter, shining like a lamp, so clear and quiet; and the sky seems to be full of angels going out into the world. There is no sound, for the birds do not sing yet. All is peace, all is holiness and beauty. No, you do not know anything about such things.” Judith sat silent, her hands clasped in her lap, her brown eyes cloudy. At last she murmured sighing, “I should like to be poor, like you.” And they sat dreaming, hearing their thoughts knock like echoes on the walls of their hearts. At noon Jonah returned home through the field where his brother Aaron was grazing the village cattle. Bright-colored insects buzzed and hummed about him as he walked; lazy lizards sunned themselves on stones; in the noonday heat earth spoke with faint but audible voices. The trees drank in the light; the wild bees hurried to and fro among the flowers which opened their petals with voluptuous joy to the south wind. The prophet found his brother asleep beneath a locust tree. “So,” he said, rousing him with his staff, “that is the way you make a success, by going to sleep. I could do that too, without any trouble.” Aaron sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I have my hands full,” he said. “Remember that I am up at daybreak. And then there are all these cows. If I doze now and then, it is what any one would do in my place.” Seeing Jonah’s coat, he cried out angrily, “That is the coat mother promised me.” Jonah paid no attention to this outburst. “Tell me,” he said seriously, “how does one make a living? I am interested, and should like to know a few things.” An appeal of this nature made Aaron feel pleased. “To make a living,” he said thoughtfully, “is, to begin with, a very difficult thing. Then there are other questions to consider: such as, what sort of a living do you wish to make? Any one can live. Look at Uncle David.” “No,” said Jonah; “by a living I mean a family and children.” But Aaron shook his head. “There again,” he replied, “it depends on what kind of wife will do. Must she be expensive? Then you need a good living, naturally. But what could you do, Jonah? Could you sell cloth, or gold? Or perhaps you might build roads.” And he burst out laughing. “Ha, ha, ha.”