sorry. It seemed to him that the lake, its towns and villages, were too
inseparably part of himself for him to wish to see them with the
physical eyes, and that it would be wiser to keep this part of Galilee,
the upper reaches of the lake at least, for his meditations; yet he did
not think he would like to return to Magdala without seeing Capernaum.
Perhaps because Jesus was there. That Jesus should have pitched upon
Capernaum as a centre revived his interest in it, and there was a
certain pathetic interest attached to the memory of a question he once
put to his father. He asked him if Capernaum was the greatest city in
the world, and for years after he was teased till Capernaum became
hateful to him; but Capernaum within the last few minutes regained its
place in his affections. And as the town became hallowed in recollection
he cried out to Philip that he could not go farther with him. Not go any
farther with me, Philip answered: now why is that, brother, for Peter is
waiting to see you and will take on mightily when I tell him that you
came to the head of the lake with me and turned back. But it is Peter
whom I fear to meet, Joseph muttered, and then at the sight of the long
lean street slanting down the hillside towards the lake, breaking up
into irregular hamlets, some situated at the water's edge close to the
wharf where Peter's boats lay gently rocking, he repeated: it is Peter
that I fear. But unwilling to take Philip into his confidence he turned
as if to go back to Magdala without further words, but Philip restrained
him, and at last Joseph confessed his grief--that being the son of a
rich man he was not eligible to the society of the poor. You will ask
me, he said, to give up my money to the poor, a thing I would willingly
do for the sake of Jesus, whom I believe to be God's prophet; but how
can I give that which does not belong to me--my father's money? That was
my grief when you found me sitting on the stone by the lake's edge.

Whereupon Philip stood looking at Joseph as one suspended, for the first