Let me speak to the gate-keeper myself.

I will return quickly." And, putting the leading-strap in the stranger's hand, he pushed into the stirring crowd.
The keeper sat on a great cedar block outside the gate.

Against the wall behind him leaned a javelin.

A dog squatted on the block by his side.
"The peace of Jehovah be with you," said Joseph, at last confronting the keeper.
"What you give, may you find again; and, when found, be it many times multiplied to you and yours," returned the watchman, gravely, though without moving.
"I am a Bethlehemite," said Joseph, in his most deliberate way.
"Is there not room for--" "There is not." "You may have heard of me--Joseph of Nazareth.

This is the house of my fathers.