The injustice and the unrighteousness of it all came to him more forcibly at this place of sacred memories, and he cried: "Oh, Lord God of Hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, I shall see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause." In the bitterness of his spirit he could no longer restrain his woe. Outcast and disgraced, persecuted in Jerusalem and his life sought for by his own family, Jeremiah cursed the very day of his birth: "Cursed be the day in which I was born. Let not the day wherein my mother bore me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought joyful tidings to my father, saying, 'A man child is born to thee,' making him very glad. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord pitilessly overthrew, Because he did not let me die. Why was I born to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?" Baruch did not break in upon the grief and anguish of Jeremiah. He turned away, sat down quietly at the foot of a tree and listened, with a fast-beating beating heart, to the sobs that were racking the very frame of his beloved teacher. For a long time the two sat there, each engrossed in his own thoughts. The tree-clad hills of Gilead, to the northeast of them, were now bathed in the deep shadows cast by the rapidly setting sun. Baruch walked over to Jeremiah and laid a light hand upon his shoulder. Jeremiah felt his presence but did not raise his head. "Master!" Baruch called softly. Jeremiah looked up into a tear-stained face in which he read sympathy, love and sincere devotion. He arose slowly. The lines of a faint smile of appreciation played about his mouth. He grasped the young man in his embrace and clung to him as if he were his only remaining hope. "Baruch! Baruch!" he cried, in a tear-choked voice, and held him tight and stroked his head and kissed his forehead. The boy melted into tears in the man's almost crushing embrace, and his very soul went out to him in sympathy and love. There in the twilight, the bond of friendship had been established between Jeremiah and Baruch, to be broken only in death! Baruch attempted to comfort his friend, but he at once saw the hopelessness of the task. Then he suggested to Jeremiah that they run away, that they go to Babylonia, to Egypt, anywhere, to escape the horror of it all at home. But Jeremiah showed him the uselessness of trying to run away from duty's call: "And if I say, I will not think of it nor speak any more in His name, Then there is in mine heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones." There was a fire burning within the heart of Jeremiah, impelling him to prophesy. He could not help himself! He would not escape it! And, what is more, that day of woe and trial, and the night that followed, bound up Baruch's destiny with that of Jeremiah. CHAPTER XIII. _Teacher and Pupil._