Galilee, of the whole land, and the whole world. Nazareth means
flowery--a fitting name for the home of Jesus. It was rightly named. So
must James and John have thought if their young cousin went with them to
gather daisies, crocuses, poppies, tulips, marigolds, mignonette and
lilies, which grow so profusely around the village. Did they ramble
among the scarlet pomegranates, the green oaks, the dark green palms,
the cypresses and olives that grew in the vale of Nazareth, and made
beautiful the hills that encircled it? Did they climb one of them, and
gain a view of the Mediterranean, and look toward the region where John
would live when his boyhood was long past, in the service of his cousin
at his side?

[Illustration: VIRGIN, INFANT JESUS, AND ST JOHN (Madonna della Sedia)
_Raphael_ Page 31]

A great artist, Millais, painted a picture of the boy Jesus,
representing Him as cutting His finger with a carpenter's tool, and
running to His mother to have it bound up. Did John witness any such
incident? How little did he think of a deeper wound he was yet to behold
in that same hand.

We cannot answer such questions. These things were possible. They help
us to think of Jesus as a boy, like other boys. James and John thought
of Him as such only until long after the days of which we are speaking.

While thinking of John and Jesus as cousins, we may also think of a
kinsman of theirs, a second cousin of whom we shall know more. John was
to have a deep interest in both of the others, and they were to have
more influence on him than all other men in the world.