He was not, however, afraid of her laughing: women had no sense of the
Word of God, he muttered. There were nests in the trees, but he kept
himself from looking, lest a nest might inspire him to climb for it. But
nobody could climb trees with several quires of Scriptures under his
arm. He would lose his grip and fall, or else the Scriptures would fall,
and if a thief happened to be going by it would be easy for him to pick
up the quires and away with them before it would be possible for Joseph
to slide down the tree and raise a hue and cry.

The lanes through which his way took him were frequented by boys,
ball-players every one of them, and at this time ball-playing was a
passion with Joseph and he would steal away whenever he got a chance and
spend a whole day in an alley with a number of little ragamuffins. And
if he were to meet the tribe, which was as likely as not at the next
turning, he must tell them that he was going to school and dared not
stop. But they would jeer at him. He might give them his ball and in
return they might not mock at him. He walked very quietly, hoping to
pass unobserved, but a boy was looking over the cactus hedge and called
to him, asking if he had brought a ball with him, for they had lost
theirs. He threw his ball to him. But aren't you coming to play with
us? Not to-day, Joseph answered. I'm on my way to school. Well,
to-morrow? Not to-morrow. I may not play truant from learning, Joseph
answered sententiously, walking away, leaving his former playmates
staring after him without a word in their mouths. But by the next day
they had recovered their speech and cried out: the fishmonger's son is
going by to his lessons and dare not play at ball. Azariah would whip
him if he did. One a little bolder than the rest dangled a piece of rope
in his face saying: this is what you'd get if you stayed with us. He was
moved to run after the boy and cuff him, but the quires under his arms