Jonah remained silent and gloomy; he respected the Law, and did not know how to reply to Amaziah. The old priest regarded him in a more genial manner, and continued: “However, these pastoral matters need not concern you. You are a prophet, not a priest, a messenger, not an interpreter. That is something you prophets could learn to your advantage. “Tell me what tidings you bear the King. You speak of Hamath, and the Aramæans; is it possible that you know of some conspiracy in the north of which your rulers are ignorant?” Jonah replied that as far as he knew, the Aramæans were peaceful, and their army was unprepared. “An angel appeared to me in a dream,” he declared. “This angel was more beautiful than I can say, and had long white wings which kept up a slow movement in the air. I could wish that the women of Israel had such wings, which lend to the figure a charm that cannot be described. The beauty of that angel caused my heart to overflow with grief and longing.” And he remained silent, lost in painful memories. He resumed: “In a voice of heavenly sweetness I was told to arise, and bidden to say to King Jeroboam, ‘Against the insolence of Hamath, Israel shall prevail once again.’ When I awoke I found on the ground a white feather which shone like snow. I picked it up, and put it beneath my cloak.” And he held out to Amaziah a white feather about a foot long. “Here is the proof,” he said, “of what I have told you.” Amaziah reverently received the angelic token, which he put to his nose and carefully tasted with his tongue, before remarking, “It does not surprise me, seeing the marvelous economy of Heaven, that the wings which support the angels should be not unlike those on which the snowy herons sail so majestically above the hills. However, as the king and his nobles might consider this feather a trifle too light to support so august a body as an angel through the air, let me place this sacred relic in the Tabernacle, and give you, instead, the feather of an eagle, which has a more important look. Do not draw back in dismay, my son; in dealing with simple minds, a certain amount of ingenuity is needed. It is a characteristic which has distinguished the Jews in the past even more than their valor. I have only to remind you of David’s treaties with the Philistines, and the manner in which the heroic Jael divorced the head of Sisera from his Canaanite body. It is upon such stratagems as these, added to the irresistible power of the Lord, that the glory of Israel depends.” He sat for a brief space, his head sunk forward upon his breast in meditation. Presently he said thoughtfully: