house were the stalls of the family ox and ass. The brays of the ass
were the alarm clock in the early morning. There was no drainage.
Garbage was thrown into the street. There were smells of all
varieties. One is not surprised by the frequent stories of pestilences
in the Old-Testament history.

=Compensations of village life.=--It seems strange that people who
were accustomed to life in the open desert should have ever brought
themselves to settle down in these dirty, ill-smelling places. Surely,
at first they must often have been homesick for the clean, pure air of
the plains. On the other hand, probably most of them were willing to
put up with the disagreeable odors and the dirty streets for the sake
of being near other people. The desert was lonesome. In the village
there was always something going on, something to hear and see, gossip
of weddings and courtships and quarrels. Even to-day we find it hard
to persuade those who are accustomed to the city to live in the
country. Even though their city home may be a dark tenement in the
slums, yet they enjoy being in a crowd of their fellow men. The
country seems lonesome.


LESSONS IN HOUSE BUILDING

This village and town life, like the work on the farm, was a new
school for the Hebrew shepherds, and set many an interesting problem
for them to solve. They had to learn to build and repair houses. They
were most often built of rough stones set in mud. The mud, when dry,
became fairly hard, but not like mortar or cement. It was always easy
for a thief "to dig through and steal," as Jesus so graphically
described. Even though no thief came the dried mud was always