The Maccabaean

DONKEYS and mules are known to be stiff-necked, and the term pig-headed has come to be used to designate one who is stubborn. But I am about to tell the story of a stiff-necked kid.

But I am about to tell the story of a stiff-necked kid. It was the youngest in the flock, it was the favorite of its Master, soft and gentle as all little kids. And its Master chose it to be his peculiar treasure; in this it was peculiar and different from other kids. He did not send it to pasture on the mountains with the flock, and he did not give it into the hand of a shepherd. But he said: “I myself shall be its shepherd.” Then he chose his own garden, well-watered and beautiful, and there he set the little kid.

And therefore the kid said in its heart: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

is my shepherd; I shall not want. The kid waxed fat. And it grew stiff-necked, and it did not come nor go at the bidding of its Master. Then he said:

"My kid is a stiff-necked kid. It does not obey me. Yet love is even better than obedience, and my little white kid loves me with all its heart and with all its soul and with all its might. Is it also stiff-necked in its faithfulness as it is in its wilfulness?"

And the Master opened the garden gate to see whether his kid would strav.

But the kid loved its happy garden and its Master, and though it went nosing without the gate, yet it did not stray.

But there came a lion to the open gate and seized the kid and carried it into his den. And there came a huntsman and slew the lion. Then the huntsman took the little kid and bore it home and said: “I will place it in my pasture.” But the stiff-necked kid would neither eat nor drink nor sleep, but cried night and day for its Master. Then said the huntsman: “I cannot keep this kid in my pasture, for it will not eat nor drink, but it cries night and day.” And he set the kid upon the open road. So the kid ran and ran and never rested until it fell exhausted at its Master’s feet.

Then the Master said: “Thou art indeed a stiff-necked kid.” And he closed the gate.

It came to pass that an eagle flew out of the mountains. He spied the whiteness of the little kid and he circled upon it over the well-watered garden. In vain the kid crept under its trees and rocks, in vain it leaped and scrambled from grotto to ledge. The eagle swooped upon it and bore it far away.

When the Master saw that his kid was gone, he said: “Why should I dress my garden? There is none to take pleasure in its green grass and its quiet pools.” And he let the weeds grow, and the brambles, and he cared not if the sun dried all the brooks of water.

But the Master said: “I myself have been its shepherd and I have led it in and out. If my kid remains faithful, I shall yet send a shepherd to redeem it. I shall gather it in and fold it within my bosom; and all the shepherds and flocks will rejoice in the beauty of the garden I shall plant for its sake.”

But the kid was carried afar in the cruel claws of the eagle. It cried and called, but its Master did not answer.

And the eagle said: "O foolish kid, who is thy master? I am thy master. There is none other."

The kid was not butchered, though the eagle tore out some of its long, soft hair to line his nest. And he covered his young ones with it till they looked as white as little kids. But the kid managed to escape over the rocks and into the valleys, wandering, wandering, and crying for its Master. Deep were the wounds of the eagle's talons, and keen was the thirst in that desert land, but the kid cried not for pain but only for its Master and its garden.

The kid wandered and wandered.

Many a flock did it meet, and came to graze in many a pasture. All the flocks belonged to its Master, and each flock had its own shepherd which it falsely called: "Master, Master." But the Master was master of all.

And the little kid passed from flock to flock, but the shepherds rejected it. For a while they let the little stranger graze, but when the pasture was scanty or the brooks were only dribbling, the shepherds would say: “Shoo, strange kid! No room here for thee! Over the hills and away!” And sometimes—oftentimes—they would beat it cruelly till it ran bleeting and bleedine through the fields.

But though it hungered, the little kid would say in its heart: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

It would not lose itself among the kids, nor bow to the shepherd's will to go at night into the fold and become one of the flock. For must not the stiff-necked kid at last return to its Master's garden? Would not he send a shepherd to lead back his little kid?

But there came no shepherd, only a great wolf out of the forest. He saw the kid as it fled from one herd to another, and he leaped upon it and caught it in his teeth.

"Oho," said the wolf, "I shall be thy shepherd."

And he dragged the kid into his den, where his own little ones were cuddled.

"A brother, a brother!" they cried, as they saw the living, bleeding kid.

"Yes," said the wolf, "here is a brother for you." And he snarled at the kid, saying: "Become as a wolf, and I shall let thee live. Be one of us and change thy skin."

But the stiff-necked kid would not change.

Then the wolf set his little ones upon the kid, saying: “Bite him, tear him.”

And they bit and tore him.

He cried, but not with the pain; he cried for his Master and his Master's garden, and for the shepherd that should lead him home.

But the wolf said: "I shall devour thy garden and thy home also."

And every day the wolf said: “Change thy skin.”

And every day the stiff-necked kid replied: "I cannot, and I would not." Then the little wolves fell upon it.

But still it lived and still in its heart it said: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” And it lived because of its faithfulness and its wilfulness.

But one day the wolf himself fell upon the kid to tear it and devour it.

That was the last day. Hope and faith —what could they do now? Yet the stiff-necked kid cried out: “The Lord is my shepherd!”

"The Lord is my shepherd!"

(Continued on page 219)