Volume 2

148 Life of Jesus Christ
that he held in his hand, he made them quickly change
the sum to a lesser amount, for he thought: "When I shall
be discharged, I shall find shelter with them and have
whereon to live, for I cannot work."
I saw now the peasants sending their servants to the
lord with camels and asses laden with sacks of corn and
baskets of olives. They that had charge of the olives carried
money also, little metal bars done up in packages,
larger or smaller according to their sum, and fastened
together with rings. But the lord, glancing at the
packages, saw by what he had before received that these
were far too small, and from the false account rendered,
he understood the design of the steward. Turning to his
courtiers, he said with a laugh: "See, the man is shrewd
and cunning. He intends to make friends of those under
him. The children of the world are wiser in their doings
than the children of light, who rarely do for good what
the former do for evil, who rarely take as much trouble
for a reward as this man has done for punishment." Then
I saw that the hunchbacked knave was discharged from
his office and banished into the desert. The soil there was
metallic (yellow, hard, unfruitful ferruginous sand, ocher),
its only vegetation the alder tree. He was at first quite
confounded and troubled, but I saw that he afterward set
to work to chop wood and to build. The two peasants also
were sent away, though to them somewhat better places
amidst the sand of the desert were allotted. But the poor
underservants, formerly the victims of cruel extortion,
were now entrusted with the care of the field.
6. JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES INVITED TO
TEACH AND BAPTIZE IN SELEUCIA
Jesus and the disciples separated and went in different
directions throughout the whole city of Adama. Jesus took
the central portions for Himself, while the disciples went