And soon people came from the town to buy his baskets, and when he carried his wares to market, he got rid of them all on the way.
So basket-making became his trade, and he thought how once the little Moses was saved in a basket on the Nile.

And just as his work was liked, so also did Mary and himself win affection, and they confessed that life went better on the banks of the Nile than in poor little Nazareth, for veritably there were fleshpots in Egypt.

If only they could have crushed their hearts' longing for home! When the little Jesus began to walk, the mothers who were their neighbours wished him to make friends with their children and play with them.

But the boy was reserved and awkward with strangers.

He preferred to wander alone at evening-time besides the stream and gaze at the big lotus flowers growing out of the mud, and at the crocodiles which sometimes crawled out of the water, and lifting their heads towards the sky, opened their great jaws as if they would drink in the sunshine.