And so the boat was made ready, with nets and lanterns, and rough fisher's gear for possible wild weather in the night watches. Tor watched the preparations with shining eyes. When all was at length finished he bowed himself before Peter after his old mendicant's fashion. "I pray thee, honorable Galilean, that I also may go fishing," he said timidly.
Peter stared down at him in some perplexity. "What is it that brings thee ever athwart my path, small one?" he asked, not unkindly. "In Jerusalem thou wast verily like my shadow--and now, thou wilt fish."
"I want to see my Master, the King," answered Tor. "He is there." Again the small finger pointed to the darkening lake and the solemn blue mountains beyond. "It is so beautiful he will be there," he repeated softly.
"Come, then," said Peter, and, catching up the little lad, he stowed him snugly in the bow of the great clumsy fishing-craft amid a pile of nets.
Through stretches of moonlit water, where the breeze rippled keenly, in the dark lee of swelling hills, now anchored, now drifting slowly under the winking stars, the fishermen bent to their work. And through the long hours Tor lay quite still in the place where he was bid, speaking to no one, but wrapped in a dream of perfect delight, which the men busied with their fruitless fishing could scarce have understood.
When, now, the darkest hour, that comes before dawn, was already past, and the white mist that shrouded sea and shore and drifted light as thistle- down upon the glassy surface of the nearer water began to glow with rose and amber tints of dawn, Tor wriggled his lithe little body from its nest of coats and stood upright in the bow. His great bright eyes were fixed upon the wavering curtains of the mist. "Listen!" he cried suddenly, in his clear, shrill voice.
A long, level ray from the rising sun burst through the vanishing clouds and rested full upon the land not many furlongs distant.
"Look!" cried the child again, and pointed with his finger.
Some one--a man--was standing upon the pebbly shore looking out over the water. The fishermen rubbed their tired eyes and stared.
"Children, have ye aught to eat?" A clear, human voice brought the little cheerful question across the narrowing space.