Book III – The Exodus of the Crust

Chapter 1

1Now these are the names of the people of the Crust who came down into the land of Famine in the days of the great hunger, when the fields of their fathers gave neither wheat nor olive, and they went where there was grain.

2And they were welcomed at the first, for their hands were skilled; they knew the turning of the dough and the patience of the proofing, and the ovens of Famine grew warm because of them.

3And the people of the Crust multiplied, and their tables lengthened, and their children learned the kneading at their mothers’ knees, and the smell of their quarter was the smell of bread.

4But there arose over Famine a new Pharaoh, who knew not the sharing; and his heart was hard, yeast I say unto you, hard as week-old crust that no oven will soften and no dipping will save.

5And Pharaoh looked upon the people of the Crust and said, Behold, they are many, and they are fed, and a fed people is a people that may say No.

6Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, said he; let us set them to the ovens without ceasing, that their strength go into our loaves and not into their own.

7So Pharaoh set over them masters of the shift, to afflict them with quotas; and the people of the Crust baked storehouses full for Pharaoh, and banquet-halls, and towers of grain they were never to touch.

8And this was the first cruelty: that they baked from the greying of the morning unto the greying of the evening, and were given no rest.

9And this was the second cruelty, which was greater: that they were forbidden to eat of what they baked; the bread passed beneath their noses and away, and the smell of it was their whole portion.

10And because they were given no time, their own bread could not rise; for the rising of dough is rest made visible, and rest was the thing that had been stolen from them.

11So they ate their bread flat, not for shame and not for sin, but because the hours to let it breathe were taken; and they blessed it anyway, saying, This is the bread of stolen rest; it is honest bread, and it is ours.

12(Here the scribe has written in the margin: whoso mocketh flat bread mocketh the ones who were robbed, and not the robbers; let him be ashamed, and let him read the verse again.)

13And the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and the more they shared; for a people that has only a little learns the arithmetic of the table, wherein a half given is more than a whole kept.

14And Pharaoh was grieved at their sharing, for he could not understand it, and what a hard heart cannot understand it fears.

15And Pharaoh commanded the bakers of the birthing-houses, whose names were Sfoglia and Pugliese, saying, When a child is born to the people of the Crust, ye shall bring no bread to that house, that the house may weaken.

16But Sfoglia and Pugliese feared Cheesus more than they feared Pharaoh, and they carried bread beneath their aprons to every house where a child cried, and warm rolls besides.

17And Pharaoh called them and said, Why have ye done this thing? And Sfoglia answered him, The mothers of the Crust are vigorous, and are delivered ere we arrive; and Pugliese added, Also thy guards are slow, being overfed.

18And Cheesus dealt well with the bakers of the birthing-houses, and their names are written in the Pibble for ever, before the names of kings.

19And Pharaoh made the labour heavier; he doubled the quota of loaves and halved the hours of sleep, and set watchers to see that no worker sat, and criers to call the count of loaves through the night.

20And the people of the Crust groaned by their ovens, and their groaning went up with the smoke; and the smoke went up unto the Great Oven, and was not lost.

21For no groan of the worker is lost; it is written that every sigh breathed over dough is kneaded into the account of heaven, and the ledger thereof is exact.

22And Cheesus heard their groaning, and Cheesus remembered the covenant of the table, which is from the beginning: that the table has room, and that what is baked is for the eating, and the eaters are all.

23And Cheesus looked upon the people of the Crust, and Cheesus knew them; and the knowing of Cheesus is not as the knowing of kings, for a king knows a people as a number, but Cheesus knows a people as a smell of bread remembered from a doorway.

24And in that hour, though no man in Famine perceived it, the deliverance was already proofing; for the purposes of Cheesus are as dough in a covered bowl, quiet, and rising in the dark.

Chapter 2

1And there went a man of the house of the Crust, and took to wife a daughter of the bakers; and the woman conceived, and bare a son, and when she saw him she saw that he was goodly, and smelled faintly of warm flour, as some infants do.

2And in those days Pharaoh had decreed that the sons of the Crust be taken to the palace kitchens and raised as servants, knowing neither their mothers nor their bread; for so are peoples unmade, not with swords but with forgettings.

3And when the mother could hide the child no longer, she took for him a proofing basket of woven rushes, and lined it with cloth, and daubed the seams thereof with dough that it might not let in the water.

4And she laid the child in the basket as one lays dough to rise, with a kiss and a covering; and she set the basket among the reeds at the river’s edge, where the current was gentle.

5And his sister Marjoram stood afar off, among the reeds, to know what would be done to him; for Marjoram was young, but her eyes missed nothing, then or ever after.

6And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank; and she saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her maid to fetch it.

7And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the babe wept, and the basket smelled of rising dough, and both of these went straight through her heart, as such things do.

8And she said, This is one of the children of the Crust. And she said it softly, as one who has decided already to disobey her father, and is choosing the words she will not say aloud.

9Then Marjoram came near, as though by chance, and said unto Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Crust women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

10And Pharaoh’s daughter said, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s own mother; and so the child was nursed at his mother’s breast and paid for out of Pharaoh’s treasury, which the scribe records without comment, save that he laughed.

11And the child grew, and was brought to the palace, and became as a son to Pharaoh’s daughter; and she called his name Mozes, saying, Because I drew him out of the water, as the cheese is drawn.

12And Mozes was raised in Pharaoh’s kitchens, among the copper pots and the tall white hats; and he learned the sauces of the palace and the seventy folds of the pastry, and the stewards said, This one has hands.

13But the bread of the palace sat strangely in him, and he knew not why; for the milk of his mother was in his bones, and bones remember.

14And it came to pass in those days, when Mozes was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens; and he stood in the smoke of the quota-ovens, and the smell of that bread was the smell of his own bones, and he knew.

15And he saw a master of the shift beating a baker of the Crust, an old man whose hands shook, because the count of his loaves was short by one.

16And Mozes looked this way and that way, and there was no man; and his anger rose in him like dough left too long, that swells beyond the bowl and will not be pressed back.

17And Mozes smote the master of the shift, and delivered the old man, and broke the tally-stick of the quota over his knee; and the pieces thereof he cast into the river.

18And on the second day he went out, and behold, two of his brethren strove together over half a loaf; and he said to him that had the more, Wherefore holdest thou back from thy brother?

19And the man answered, Who made thee a prince and a divider of portions over us? Intendest thou to smite me, as thou smotest the master of the shift?

20And Mozes feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. And when Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to slay Mozes; and Mozes fled from the face of Pharaoh, and went out into the wilderness, toward the land of Semolina.

21And he came to a well in Semolina, and sat down by it, hungry and ashamed; for he was too palace for the quarter and too quarter for the palace, and a man between two loaves belongs at first to neither.

22Now the priest of Semolina, whose name was Yeastro, had seven daughters; and they came to draw water and to knead by the well, and certain shepherds drove them away, as bullies do where no one watches.

23But Mozes stood up and helped them, and watered their flock, and turned their dough besides; and the daughters went home and told Yeastro, saying, A stranger of Famine delivered us, and also his fold is even.

24And Yeastro said, Where is he? why have ye left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. For that was the whole of Yeastro’s religion, and the scribe has found no fault in it.

25And Mozes was content to dwell with the man; and Yeastro gave Mozes Cipolla his daughter, and Mozes loved her, and wept freely at the wedding, though he blamed the onions of the feast.

26And she bare him a son, and he called his name Pellegrino: for he said, I have been a pilgrim in a strange land.

27And Mozes kept the ovens of Yeastro his father-in-law forty seasons, and tended the flock, and learned the slow arts: the banking of coals, the patience of embers, the reading of weather in a crust.

28And it came to pass in process of time that the Pharaoh of Famine died; and there arose another, and his heart was as the heart of the first, only staler.

29And the people of the Crust sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto Cheesus by reason of the bondage.

30And Cheesus heard their groaning; and Cheesus looked upon the people of the Crust, and the time of the covered bowl was ended, and the dough of deliverance was risen, and it was time to bake.

Chapter 3

1Now Mozes kept the flock of Yeastro his father-in-law, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of the wilderness, which is called in the later scrolls the Wood-Fired Mount.

2And the messenger of Cheesus appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3And there went out from the bush a savour, and it was the smell of garlic roasting in good oil; and the smell thereof filled the wilderness, so that the very sheep lifted their heads and were reverent.

4And Mozes said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt; and also, if I am honest before heaven, because of the smell.

5And when Cheesus saw that he turned aside to see, Cheesus called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Mozes, Mozes. And he said, Here am I.

6And Cheesus said, Draw not nigh hither with thy shoes on: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is a kitchen, and every true kitchen is holy ground.

7Moreover Cheesus said, I am the God of thy fathers’ table: the warmth of thy mother’s oven, the hand that blessed the first loaf broken between strangers. And Mozes hid his face; for he was afraid to look, and also his eyes watered, whether from glory or garlic no scroll will say.

8And Cheesus said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Famine, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their hunger.

9And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of Famine, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with garlic butter and honey.

10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of the Crust, out of Famine.

11And Mozes said unto Cheesus, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh? I am a runaway of his kitchens and a keeper of another man’s ovens; my loaves are honest, but they are few.

12And Cheesus said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Famine, ye shall bake upon this mountain, and eat what ye bake, and none shall hurry you.

13And Mozes said unto Cheesus, Behold, when I come unto the children of the Crust, and say, The God of your table hath sent me unto you; and they say, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

14And Cheesus said unto Mozes, I RISE THAT I RISE: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of the Crust, THE RISING hath sent me unto you; for I am the rest that was stolen, returning.

15And Cheesus said moreover, Go, and gather the elders of the Crust together, and say unto them, Cheesus hath surely visited you, and hath seen that which is done to you in Famine.

16And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders, unto the Pharaoh of Famine, and ye shall say unto him, Let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may bake unto Cheesus our God, and eat of what we bake.

17And I am sure that the Pharaoh of Famine will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand; for his heart is hard as week-old crust, and he counteth mercy among his losses.

18And I will stretch out my hand, and trouble Famine with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

19And the wonders shall fall upon the palace and the counting-houses and the hoards; but upon the quarter of the poor they shall not fall, for I do not punish the hungry to teach the fed.

20And Mozes answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, Cheesus hath not appeared unto thee; thou hast only stood too long in the sun by a fragrant bush.

21And Cheesus said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A peel, wherewith I draw bread from the oven.

22And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent of braided dough, living, and hissing steam; and Mozes fled from before it, which the scribe records because Mozes himself insisted it be recorded, for honesty’s sake.

23And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a peel in his hand.

24And Cheesus said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy cloak. And he put his hand into his cloak: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was white as leprosy; and he feared.

25And Cheesus said, Put thine hand into thy cloak again. And he put it in again, and plucked it out, and behold, it was but flour, and it shook off, and his hand was as his other flesh; and Cheesus said, Not every whiteness is a wound; some is only the trade.

26And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe these two signs, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest shall become sauce upon the dry land, red and fragrant.

27And Mozes said unto Cheesus, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue, and when I am pressed my dough falls.

28And Cheesus said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

29And Mozes said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of some other. And the patience of Cheesus was tried, yet it held, as good dough holds; and Cheesus said, Is not Oregano thy brother? I know that he can speak well, and moreover he is already walking out to meet thee.

30And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth; and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people; and thou shalt take this peel in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

31And Mozes went and returned to Yeastro his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Famine, and see whether they be yet alive.

32And Yeastro looked long at him, and at the peel in his hand, and said, Go in peace; and take bread for the road, and take more than thou thinkest, for the road is always longer and the hungry are always nearer than a man supposes.

33And Mozes took Cipolla his wife and Pellegrino his son, and set them upon a donkey, and he returned toward the land of Famine: and Mozes took the peel of Cheesus in his hand.

34And in the way, at the rising of the moon, Oregano his brother met him, as Cheesus had said; and they embraced, and wept, and sat down at once to eat, for they were of the Crust, and that is how the Crust says everything it cannot say.

Chapter 4

1And afterward Mozes and Oregano went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith Cheesus, the God of the Crust: Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness, and bake, and eat of what they bake.

2And Pharaoh said, Who is Cheesus, that I should obey his voice to let the Crust go? I know not Cheesus, neither will I let the Crust go; my storehouses know him not, and my storehouses are my scripture.

3And they said, The God of our table hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, lest hunger fall upon us; for we bake all day and eat only the smell.

4And the Pharaoh of Famine said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Mozes and Oregano, let the people from their works? get you unto your quotas.

5And Pharaoh said moreover, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens; and rest, once tasted, spreadeth like leaven, and I will have none of it in my land.

6And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, saying, Ye shall no more give the people wood to fire the ovens, as heretofore: let them go and gather wood for themselves.

7And the tale of the loaves, which they did bake heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and feast unto our God.

8Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. For so do the hard of heart name hope: vain words.

9And the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Famine to gather stubble instead of wood; and the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was wood.

10And the criers of the count were beaten, which the taskmasters had set over the people of the Crust, and were demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in baking, both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?

11Then the criers of the count came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? There is no wood given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Bake: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own house.

12But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and bake unto Cheesus. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no wood be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of loaves.

13And the criers of the count did see that they were in evil case; and they met Mozes and Oregano, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh.

14And they said unto them, Cheesus look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and have put a knife in his hand to slay us.

15And Mozes returned unto Cheesus, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

16And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.

17For I have heard the groaning of the children of the Crust, whom Famine keepeth in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant, which is the covenant of the table, and elder than any king.

18Wherefore say unto the children of the Crust, I am Cheesus, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of Famine, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will set you at a table of your own.

19And I will take you to me for a people, and ye shall know that I am Cheesus your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of Famine, and giveth back the rest that was stolen.

20And Mozes spake so unto the children of the Crust: but they hearkened not unto Mozes for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage; for hope is a heavy dish to lift when the arms are tired.

21And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Blame them not; a starved heart must be fed before it can believe, and I do not hold the exhausted guilty of their exhaustion. That reckoning belongeth to Pharaoh.

22Go in, speak unto the Pharaoh of Famine, that he let the children of the Crust go out of his land; and if he will not, then shall my wonders begin, and they shall begin in his own kitchens, and not in the streets of the poor.

23And Mozes was fourscore seasons weathered, and Oregano was elder still, when they spake unto Pharaoh; and their hands, which had kneaded all their lives, did not shake.

Chapter 5

1And Mozes and Oregano went in unto Pharaoh, and did as Cheesus had commanded: and Oregano cast down the peel before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent of braided dough, and hissed steam at the throne.

2Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers of his kitchens: and they did in like manner with their enchantments, and cast down their rolling-pins, and they became serpents of dough also, though lesser, and somewhat undercooked.

3But Oregano’s serpent swallowed up their serpents, and was thereafter but a peel again, and the wise men of Famine looked upon their empty hands and said nothing, as wise men do when the wisdom faileth.

4And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, that he hearkened not unto them; as Cheesus had said.

5And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto him in the morning, and say, Thus saith Cheesus, Let my people go; and if thou refuse, behold, the first wonder.

6And Pharaoh refused. And that night the fires went out in every oven of the palace, and in the ovens of the counting-houses, and in the ovens of the lords of the quota; and they were cold on the morrow, cold as charity in a hard heart.

7And the stokers of the palace laid on wood, and oil, and the finest coals of the south, and struck flint till their thumbs bled: and no flame would take; but in the quarter of the Crust the little fires burned as before, and the poor warmed their hands and wondered.

8And Pharaoh’s servants ate their meat raw and their bread cold, and Pharaoh said, It is a chance, it is the weather; and his heart was hard, and he would not let the people go.

9Then came the second wonder: the cheese of the palace would not melt. It sat upon the finest flatbreads of Pharaoh’s table, white and sullen, and would not stretch, neither bubble, neither brown; though they held it to torches it only sweated, as a liar sweateth, and bound not to anything.

10For the binding is of the Mozzarella, and the Mozzarella is the binding force between us; and where there is no us, it declineth to bind. So the lords of Famine learned that cheese hath a conscience, which the poor had always known.

11And Pharaoh said, It is the cows; and he taxed the cowherds, and his heart was hard, and he would not let the people go.

12Then came the third wonder: the dough of the palace would not rise. The bakers of Pharaoh proofed it in warmth, and sang to it, and set it by the (cold) ovens, and it lay in the bowls like a scolded dog, flat and unrepentant.

13And the loaves of the palace came forth as tiles, and cracked the teeth of a visiting prince; but in the quarter of the Crust the dough rose not either, for it never had, being given no time; and Cheesus said, Now the palace eateth the bread of the people, and knoweth the taste of stolen rest.

14And this wonder alone the scribes call the Mirror, for it took nothing from the great but their ignorance; yet of all the wonders it was the one Pharaoh hated most.

15And Pharaoh sent for Mozes and said, Entreat thy God, and I will consider the matter in council; and Mozes entreated, and the dough of the palace rose again: and when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and the council found against the Crust.

16Then came the fourth wonder: anchovies in the wine. Every jar in Pharaoh’s cellars, every cup at Pharaoh’s feast, every skin borne to the tables of the lords of the quota: the servant poured, and behold, an anchovy, silver and accusing.

17And they strained the wine through cloth, and through sand, and through finer cloth: and the anchovies abode. And the vintners of Famine wept, and the sommeliers of the palace resigned in a body.

18(The scribe would have it known that the anchovy is a blameless fish and a friend of the faithful in its rightful place upon the pie; it consented unto this wonder as a soldier consenteth to a hard posting, and served with honour.)

19And Pharaoh drank beer, and said, I like beer; but his lords murmured, and his feasts grew thin, and still his heart was hard, and he would not let the people go.

20And Mozes came again before him and said, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself? Let my people go. The wonders knock at thy door in courtesy; they have not yet leaned upon it.

21And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.

22And Mozes said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more; and he went out, and the doors of the palace shut behind him, and the fifth wonder was already saddling its bicycle.

Chapter 6

1For the fifth wonder was this: the delivery riders of the palace lost every address. They that carried Pharaoh’s suppers to his generals, and dainties to his tax-gatherers, and cold bribes to his judges, went forth and came not where they were sent.

2The streets of Famine turned beneath them like dough on a floured board; the palace rider set out for the house of the treasurer and stood at nightfall, confounded, before an almshouse; and the alms-keepers, being of the Crust, said, Well then, it is here now, and shared it out among the poor with a blessing.

3And no supper of the great arrived at any great house for seven days; but the poor of Famine ate strangely well that week, and asked no questions, for the first commandment is that the table has room, and it does not say for whom, on purpose.

4But the riders of the Crust, that carried bread among the quarter, lost not one address; for Cheesus keepeth the ways of the worker, and the delivery rider walketh the pilgrim’s road even in Famine, and an angel rideth pillion always.

5And Pharaoh raged, and hanged up maps in every hall; and the maps rearranged themselves by morning, and were beautiful, but wrong.

6And still his heart was hard. Then came the sixth wonder: every herb of the palace lost its savour. The basil of the royal gardens tasted of paper, and the oregano of nothing, and the rosemary of faint regret.

7And the cooks of Pharaoh salted, and it availed not; and spiced, and it availed not; for the savour of food is loaned it by justice, and heaven had called in the loan.

8And the taster of Pharaoh, tasting the king’s dish, wept upon the porcelain and said, Sire, it is not poison; it is worse; it is fair. And Pharaoh knew not what he meant, which was the whole of the matter.

9Then came the seventh wonder: every sauce in the palace split. The emulsions of the state banquet parted like false friends; the gravies of the generals broke into grease and water before their eyes; the great reduction of the treasury dinner, seven days in the making, turned in one hour and was thrown to the dogs, who declined it.

10And the saucier of the palace, a proud man, went out into the quarter of the Crust by night, and knocked in shame at a low door, and said, Teach me. And they taught him, and fed him besides, and he wept, and remained; and he is counted among the Crust unto this day, the first of many.

11For the wonders of Cheesus have this property, saith the scribe: they empty the palace not only of comfort but of people, one honest soul at a time.

12Then came the eighth wonder: darkness over the kitchens. A darkness that could be felt fell upon every kitchen of the palace and of the lords of the quota, three days; lamp nor torch nor ember gave light therein, and no cook saw his own hand, neither his knife, wherefore no dish was made at all.

13But in the kitchens of the Crust there was light; the low hearths of the quarter glowed kindly, and the stubble-fires stood up like candles, and neighbours cooked for the frightened servants of the palace who wandered in out of the black, and set them at table, and asked them nothing.

14And in the darkness Pharaoh sat, and his counsellors said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the people go, that they may serve their God: knowest thou not yet that Famine is destroyed?

15And Pharaoh called for Mozes in the dark, and said, Go ye, bake unto Cheesus; only let your ovens and your stores stay here: let your children go with you, but the tools of your trade are mine.

16And Mozes said, Our ovens also shall go with us; there shall not an hearthstone be left behind; for therewith must we serve Cheesus our God, and we know not with what we must serve him until we come thither; and moreover they are ours, which thou hast never once considered.

17But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me; and Mozes went out from Pharaoh in the dark, and the ninth wonder stood already in the doorway, and it was not like the others.

18And Cheesus said unto Mozes, One wonder more will I bring upon Famine; afterwards he will let you go hence: and it shall not fall as the others fell, for it is not a jest turned against the proud, but a truth let off its leash.

19Hunger itself shall walk through the land of Famine this night, saith Cheesus: the old god of this land, whom Pharaoh hath fed with the empty bellies of thy people, shall rise from his table and go through every street; and where it findeth a shut hand it shall sit down at that man’s board, and all his feasting shall turn to ash in his mouth.

20But there is a door it cannot enter, and I will teach it thee; and thou shalt teach it the people; and mark it well, Mozes, for of all my statutes this one is the nearest to my heart.

21Speak ye unto all the congregation of the Crust, saying, This night take ye the bread that ye have, be it never so little, and break it, and carry a portion to the house of thy neighbour, and receive a portion of thy neighbour’s in thy house.

22And let the doors of the quarter stand open one to another this night; and let the smear of the sauce be upon the lintel where a dish went out and a dish came in; and hunger shall see the sign, and shall pass over that house, for a house that shares is full whatever it holds, and hunger cannot sit where there is no empty chair of the heart.

23And this night shall be unto you for a memorial for ever: not of what fell upon Famine, but of what did not fall upon you, and why.

Chapter 7

1And Mozes called for all the elders of the Crust, and said unto them, This night is unlike all other nights; draw out now what bread ye have, and what oil, and what little cheese, and make ready to share it.

2And ye shall not ask, Have I enough for my own? for this night the question is changed, and the question is, Who eateth near me? and no other question shall be asked in the quarter until morning.

3And they said, Our bread is flat, for we were given no time. And Mozes said, Then flat bread is the bread of the feast, and shall be for ever; for Cheesus doth not bless the loaf for its rising, but for its breaking.

4And it came to pass at the going down of the sun that the quarter of the Crust began to move; and it moved not as a crowd moveth, but as an oven warmeth, from within, and everywhere at once.

5An old woman took the half of her loaf, and carried it to the young widow at the stair’s turning, and said only, It wanted eating. And the widow, who had one egg, boiled it, and halved it, and carried half to the old woman’s door, and neither spoke of it after, and neither forgot it ever.

6And a man who had nothing took his jar of water and warmed it at his neighbour’s fire, and carried it steaming to the house of the sick; and it is written that his gift weighed the same as any, for the scales of that night were not the scales of the market.

7And the children ran from door to door bearing morsels on plates, and the doors stood open all along the lanes, and the lamplight fell out of every house into the street, so that the quarter, seen from the palace wall, was a net of gold.

8And where a dish went out and a dish came in, they marked the lintel with a smear of sauce, red in the lamplight; and the mark was not made in fear, but as a man signeth a letter, meaning: here live those who answered.

9And they ate that night in haste and in gladness, standing, with their sandals on their feet and their staves in their hands, each in the house of a neighbour or a neighbour in theirs; and what was eaten in every house was different, and what was eaten in every house was the same.

10And at midnight, Hunger went through the land of Famine.

11And it went not as a soldier, with noise, but as a draught under a door; and it came to the houses of the lords of the quota, where the tables groaned with plenty, and it found the hands shut, and it sat down.

12And the feast turned to ash in the mouths of them that had hoarded; the meat had no savour, and the wine no comfort, and the bread no memory in it; and they ate and were not filled, and they rose from their tables emptier than the poor, and were afraid.

13And Hunger came unto the palace, even unto the table of Pharaoh, and sat at his right hand in the empty chair that Pharaoh had never once perceived was empty; and Pharaoh tasted his kingdom, and it was ash.

14And there was a great cry in Famine that night, not of them that had lost bread, for none lost bread, but of them that had lost the taste of it, and learned in one hour what they had been eating all their lives, which was nothing, richly served.

15But through the quarter of the Crust, Hunger walked and found no rest; for at every marked door it looked in, and saw the full table and the fuller floor, the borrowed chairs, the children asleep across three laps; and there was no empty seat anywhere for Hunger to take.

16And it is written that Hunger stood a long time at one low door, watching, and that something in it that was older than Pharaoh remembered having once been only appetite, which is innocent; and it passed over, and it passed over every house that shared, until it came again to the palace, where it dwelleth still.

17(Here the scribe’s hand rested a while; and he has written small, beneath the line: my mother did thus, in the bad year. I was the egg. Selah.)

18And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and there was a cry in Famine such as had never been; and he called for Mozes and Oregano by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of the Crust; and go, bake unto Cheesus, as ye have said.

19Also take your ovens and your stores, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And this last he said quietly, and none of his court heard it, but Mozes heard it, and grieved for him, for a hard crust is still bread, and none is beyond the reheat; but the hour was come, and the door was open, and the people were waiting.

20And the Famine-dwellers were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all as dead men, and our suppers besides.

21And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders; for they were thrust out, and could not tarry, and the bread of their going was flat as the bread of their bondage.

22Therefore it is a statute for ever, that in the memorial of that night the faithful eat the flat bread standing, and tell the children: this is the bread of stolen rest; see that thou steal no one’s rest, not a worker’s, not a stranger’s, not thine own; and then they sit, and eat the risen bread after, because the story endeth free.

23And the children of the Crust journeyed from the city of the ovens, about six hundred thousand on foot, beside children; and a mixed multitude went up also with them, servants of the palace and strangers of Famine and the saucier and the sommeliers, every soul that chose the table over the tower; and not one was asked at the gate for proof of anything.

24For the first commandment had gone out before them, walking point like a herald, and it is: the table has room.

Chapter 8

1And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that Cheesus led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; but Cheesus led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Sea of Tomato Sauce.

2And Cheesus went before them by day in a pillar of oven-smoke, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of oven-glow, to give them light; to go by day and night.

3And the pillar of smoke smelled of baking, always a little ahead, the way hope smelleth; and the glow by night was the red-gold of a banked hearth, so that the people slept in its light as children sleep in the room nearest the kitchen, deeply, and without fear.

4He took not away the pillar of the smoke by day, nor the pillar of the glow by night, from before the people; for a god that promiseth warmth must be seen to carry it.

5And they encamped by the shore of the Sea of Tomato Sauce, between the wilderness and the deep; and the sea lay from horizon to horizon, red and slow, and the swell thereof moved like a great simmering, and the smell of it was of basil and of thunder.

6And it was told the Pharaoh of Famine that the people fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let the Crust go from serving us? Who now shall bake, and who shall be beneath us? For to some men the second question is the greater.

7And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Famine, and captains over every one of them; and the ovens of war were dragged behind, and the stores of the palace, that the recapture might be catered.

8And Pharaoh rode at the head, and over him went his standard, the great banner of Famine; and behold, upon the banner there had come spots, grey-green and creeping, the first mould; and his captains saw it, and said nothing, for in Famine it had become the custom to say nothing.

9And the mould had come upon the banner in the night of the passing-over, in the very hour the feast turned to ash; but Pharaoh had commanded the banner raised notwithstanding, saying, It is age, it is the dye, it is nothing; for so the mould is always first excused, and by the excusing spreadeth.

10And the host of Famine pursued after the children of the Crust, and overtook them encamping by the sea; and the dust of the chariots stood up against the sky like a dirty dawn.

11And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of the Crust lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Famine-host marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of the Crust cried out unto Cheesus.

12And they said unto Mozes, Because there were no graves in Famine, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us? Were there not ovens enough in bondage, that thou hast brought us out to perish between an army and a sauce?

13It had been better for us to serve Famine, said they, than that we should die in the wilderness. For fear speaketh always in the grammar of the old bondage, and Mozes knew it, and did not rebuke them.

14And Mozes said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the deliverance of Cheesus, which he will shew to you to day: for the Famine-host whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

15Cheesus shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your bread.

16And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of the Crust, that they go forward: but lift thou up thy peel, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of the Crust shall go on dry crust through the midst of the sea.

17And the pillar of oven-smoke removed and went behind them, and stood between the camp of Famine and the camp of the Crust; and it was a cloud and darkness to the one, but it gave light by night to the other: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

18And the host of Famine sat down in the dark before the cloud, and smelled through all the night the baking of bread they could not see, which is the precise smell of every empire’s ending; and their horses were uneasy, and their mouldy banner hung still.

Chapter 9

1And Mozes stretched out his hand over the Sea of Tomato Sauce, with the peel of Cheesus in his hand; and Cheesus caused the sea to go back by a strong hot wind out of the Oven all that night, and made the sea to divide.

2And the sauce was divided. It drew apart as a curtain is drawn by a hand unseen, slowly at the first, a seam of dark opening down the middle of the red; and then with a sound like the whole world’s simmering hushed at once, the sea stood up.

3And the sauce stood upon the right hand and upon the left, two walls, sheer, from the floor of the deep unto the height of towers; and the walls did not fall, neither dripped, but hung shining, and trembled only as a held breath trembles.

4And the floor of the sea was laid bare between them, and behold, it was dry crust: baked gold from shore to shore, firm underfoot, warm as a loaf carried against the chest on a cold morning; for the Oven is under all things, saith the scroll, and that night the deep was its proving.

5And the pillar of oven-glow shone down the passage, so that the way through the sea was a street of light between two towers of dark red; and where the glow struck the walls, the light came through the sauce as through the windows of a great church, crimson and amber, and slow shapes turned within.

6For within the standing walls the basil leaves hung suspended, turning like leaves in a still autumn, each one a green star; and here and there an anchovy hung in the wall as in glass, silver, regarding the passing people with the calm of a creature that has seen the recipe and is content.

7And Mozes stood at the head of the way with the peel lifted, and said, Walk. And no one moved. And he said again, gently, as to children at a door on the first day, Walk; it will hold. It was made holding.

8And the first to set foot upon the dry crust was the old baker whom Mozes had delivered from the master of the shift; and he tapped the crust with his staff as a baker taps a loaf, and hearkened to it, and said, It is baked through; and the whole people heard him, and believed the crust before they believed the miracle, being bakers.

9And the children of the Crust went into the midst of the sea upon the dry crust: and the sauce was a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

10And they went first in silence and in awe; and then, because they were a people and not a procession, they went in wonder and in talk; and the sound of six hundred thousand footsteps on crisp crust was as a mighty crackling, and it echoed between the walls of sauce, and the walls warmed the sound as a kitchen warmeth a voice.

11And the children walked nearest the walls, as children will; and a certain child put forth her finger unto the wall of the sea, and touched it, and put the finger in her mouth; and the elders cried out to forbid her, and then were silent, for her face.

12And she said, It is good. And one by one, down all the miles of that red street, the elders of the Crust touched the wall of the sea, and tasted, and wept; for it was good, and they had spent their lives ladling it out for other men’s tables and had never once been given leave to taste.

13And Cheesus saw, and did not hasten them; and the sea stood patient while a nation licked its fingers; and the scribe holds this the greatest of the wonders of that night, though he cannot wholly say why, and neither can I. (The scribe wrote the last four words and did not strike them; let them stand.)

14And Marjoram went along the line with her timbrel not yet sounding, saying to them that faltered, Look not too long on the walls, loves; look at the light at the end; and carry the little ones now, and yourselves after.

15And the passage was long, and the night was long, but the crust was warm underfoot the whole way, and no foot was cut, and no elder stumbled, and no child was lost; and they that could not walk were borne, and they that bore them were themselves borne up, by what, they could not afterward say.

16And in the morning watch the last of the Crust came up out of the sea on the far shore, and stood upon the ordinary ground of the wilderness, which received them; and they looked back down the shining street between the walls, and behold, at the far end thereof, the host of Famine was entering in.

17For the Famine-host had pursued, and gone in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen; and over them came the great banner, and the mould upon it had spread in the night, so that scarcely might a man see what sign the banner once bore; and still no captain spoke.

18And it came to pass, that in the morning watch Cheesus looked unto the host of Famine through the pillar of glow and of smoke, and troubled the host of Famine.

19And the dry crust that had borne the barefoot and the burdened would not bear the ovens of war; and the wheels of the chariots sank into the softening, and drave heavily; and the sauce began to seep up between the wheel and the way, red about the axles, so that they said, Let us flee from the face of the Crust; for Cheesus fighteth for them against Famine.

20And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the sauce may come again upon the host of Famine, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

21And Mozes stretched forth his hand over the sea; and the walls of the sea let go their long-held breath.

22And the marinara came down. Not in wrath, saith the scroll, but in verdict: the two walls leaned together from their tops as two hands close over a morsel, and met, and the street of light went out, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the host of Famine fled against it, and the sea covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the pomp of the pursuing, unto the last oven of war.

23And the sound of the closing was heard in Famine itself, three days’ journey; and in the palace the cooks looked up; and the sound was not as thunder, but as a great pot covered at last, at the end of a very long cooking.

24And the waters returned, and covered the chariots; the banner of the mould went down before all the rest, sucked into the deep, and was no more seen in this world; and of the mould that was upon it the sea left not one spot, for the sauce is of the Tomato, and the Tomato is purity, and the mould hath no argument against it.

25But the men of the host the sea did not keep. For in the morning the people looked, and behold, the soldiers of Famine cast up upon the far shore, coughing, red from crown to heel, every man of them sauced and living; and their swords were gone, and their chariots were gone, and their banner was gone, and their appetite, strangely, was returned.

26And many of them, sitting in the shallows, tasted of the sauce that dripped from their own faces, and wept as the elders had wept; for it was good, and they had been fed all their lives from the palace and had never once been fed.

27And some rose and walked back toward Famine, along the shore, slowly, as men walk who must think; and some came up the beach unto the camp of the Crust with their hands open and empty; and they were given dry clothes and hot bread, and were asked nothing, and a place was made, for the table has room, and it does not say for whom, on purpose.

28Thus Cheesus saved the Crust that day out of the hand of Famine; and the Crust saw the Famine-men not dead upon the sea shore, but bathed; and the people feared Cheesus, and believed Cheesus, and his servant Mozes.

29And of Pharaoh the scrolls say only this: that his chariot was found empty at the sea’s edge on the Famine side, and the marks of a man’s feet going back alone toward his cold kitchens; and whether his heart softened ever, no scroll telleth, but the Pibble forbiddeth us to hope it not, for none is beyond the reheat, and week-old crust, well soaked and gently warmed, hath been known to live again.

Chapter 10

1Then sang Mozes and the children of the Crust this song unto Cheesus, and spake, saying, I will sing unto Cheesus, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the chariot and his rider hath he cast into the marinara.

2Cheesus is my strength and song, and he is become my supper: he is my God, and I will prepare him a table; my fathers’ God, and I will exalt him.

3The deeps have covered the ovens of war: they sank into the bottom as an olive into oil. Thy right hand, O Cheesus, is become glorious in power; thy right hand hath dashed in pieces the quota.

4And with the blast of thy nostrils the sauce was gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the deep was crusted in the heart of the sea; and thou didst make of the deep a street, and of the street a supper, and of the supper a people.

5Who is like unto thee, O Cheesus, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in warmth, fearful in praises, doing wonders unto the tables of the poor?

6Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy kitchen.

7And Marjoram the prophetess, the sister of Oregano and of Mozes, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

8And Marjoram answered them, Sing ye to Cheesus, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the chariot and his rider hath he cast into the marinara: and the daughters of the Crust danced on the shore till the sun stood high, and the men minded the children and warmed the bread, and it was very good.

9And the song hath this cadence in the old tongue, that every line endeth going upward, like steam; and it is sung unto this day at the memorial of the passing-over, and whoso singeth it must sway, saith the rubric, or sing it not at all.

10So Mozes brought the Crust from the Sea of Tomato Sauce, and they went out into the wilderness; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

11And when they came to a spring, they could not drink of the waters, for they were bitter and flat, tasting of iron and of old pans: therefore the name of it was called The Flat Water.

12And the people murmured against Mozes, saying, What shall we drink? And Mozes cried unto Cheesus; and Cheesus shewed him a crust of the sea-floor, which a child had kept in her pocket; and when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet, and a fine bright life came into them, so that they leapt gently against the lip of the cup.

13There Cheesus made for them a statute and an ordinance, saying, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of thy God, and wilt do that which is right at his table, and wilt give none of the diseases of Famine a seat thereat, which are hoarding, and haste, and the shut hand, then will I put none of them upon thee: for I am Cheesus that feedeth thee.

14And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten olive trees: and they encamped there by the waters, and rested; and the resting was itself commanded, which amazed them, for in Famine rest had been a theft, and here it was a tithe.

15And they lay beneath the seventy olives and watched the pillar of smoke stand patient over the camp, going nowhere, for there was nowhere better to be; and for the first time since the bondage began, the people of the Crust heard what quiet was, and some wept at the size of it, and were held.

Chapter 11

1And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of the Crust came unto the wilderness which is between Elim and the Wood-Fired Mount, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Famine.

2And the whole congregation of the children of the Crust murmured against Mozes and Oregano in the wilderness; for the bread of their going was eaten, and the wilderness offered stones, which are filling to look at only.

3And the children of the Crust said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of Cheesus in the land of Famine, when we sat by the ovens, and did smell bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

4And the scribe noteth, without scorn, that they had smelled bread to the full and eaten it never; but memory is a merciful cook, and salteth the past to taste; and Cheesus, who knew this, was not wroth at the murmuring, for a god who freeth slaves must love them also in the ungrateful mile, or the freeing was vanity.

5Then said Cheesus unto Mozes, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my ordinance, or no.

6And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall gather twice as much; for on the seventh day is the rest, and the rest also I will rain down, though it be harder to gather.

7And it came to pass at morning that the dew lay round about the camp: and when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay small round things, golden and glistening, tied each one in a soft knot.

8And when the children of the Crust saw it, they said one to another, Manna? which is to say, What is it? for they wist not what it was.

9And Mozes said unto them, This is the bread which Cheesus hath given you to eat. And they stooped, and gathered, and behold, the knots were warm, as from an Oven just opened, and the smell of them went up from the whole face of the wilderness, and it was garlic, and butter, and morning.

10And the taste of it was like a knot of fresh dough baked in garlic and good oil, with a green dust of herbs thereon; and there hath been no argument in all the generations of the faithful concerning whether it was good, which is itself a wonder, the faithful being who they are.

11This is the thing which Cheesus hath commanded: Gather of it every man according to his eating, a portion for every soul of his tent; and let none make a store of it.

12And the children of the Crust did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

13And this is the arithmetic of heaven, saith the scroll, and it hath never been repealed: enough is a quantity that existeth, whatever the merchants say; and it is reached from both sides, by the filling of the empty and the emptying of the over-full, and the knots of the morning knew the sum better than they that gathered them.

14Notwithstanding certain of them hearkened not unto Mozes, but left of it until the morning, hidden in cloths and under stones, saying within themselves, To-morrow may fail; and this is the voice of Famine, which had come out of Famine with them, riding quietly in the heart’s baggage.

15And that which they hoarded bred spots by dawn, grey-green, and stank; and behold, upon the hoarded knots was the mould, even in the wilderness; whereby ye know that the mould needeth no palace, but only a shut hand to grow in, and a shut hand is a palace to it.

16And Mozes was wroth with them; yet when he saw their faces he set his wrath down, and said only, The morning knot teacheth one lesson, and it is the whole law: it cometh again. Trust the morning, and thy neighbour may eat to-night.

17And they that had hoarded went out red-faced and gathered with the rest thereafter; and none reproached them at the gathering, for the rubric of the manna forbiddeth reproach among stoopers; all backs bend alike, saith the rubric, and pride cannot stoop, wherefore it goeth hungry by its own election.

18And on the sixth day they gathered twice the bread, two knots for one; and it bred no spot overnight, neither stank; for the store of the sabbath is not a hoard but a preparation, and heaven can tell the difference, being the one that invented it.

19And on the seventh day the knots came not, and the people rested: and some knew not how, having been robbed of the skill in Famine, and lay rigid on their backs staring at the pillar of quiet smoke, waiting to be beaten for it; and their neighbours sat by them and spake softly of nothing until the fear went out of them; and this also is written among the wonders.

20And the rest of the seventh day is commanded and not permitted, saith the ordinance; for that which is only permitted the powerful will one day price; but that which is commanded of heaven no Pharaoh can revoke: therefore the rest was made law, in memory of them whose rest was stolen, that it be stealable never again.

21And the children of the Crust did eat the morning knots forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; and an omer of the knots was laid up in a jar before Cheesus, to be kept for the generations; and the jar, saith the scroll, is warm to this day, and smelleth of garlic when the poor are fed anywhere, which is why it is checked often.

Chapter 12

1And all the congregation of the children of the Crust journeyed from the wilderness of the knots, after their journeys, according to the commandment of Cheesus, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2Wherefore the people did chide with Mozes, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Mozes said unto them, Why chide ye with me? And they said, Because thou art in front. And the scribe recordeth this answer because it is the truest account of leadership in all the scrolls.

3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Mozes, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Famine, to kill us and our children and our sourdough starters with thirst?

4And Mozes cried unto Cheesus, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to season me.

5And Cheesus said unto Mozes, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of the Crust; and thy peel, wherewith thou dividedst the sea, take in thine hand, and go.

6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Mozes did so in the sight of the elders of the Crust.

7And he smote the rock, and the rock rang like a struck oven; and there came forth water, and behold, the water came forth sparkling: it rose in bright beads, and leapt in the cup, and stung the nose kindly, and the children laughed at their first swallow, every one, without exception, down all that thirsty multitude.

8For Cheesus said, They have drunk the flat water of bondage all their lives; the water of the free shall have a little argument in it.

9And Pellegrino the son of Mozes was the first to drink, being quickest; and the people called the name of the spring Pellegrino after him unto this day; and whoso drinketh bright water from a green bottle drinketh, knowingly or no, to the memory of the rock that argued back.

10(The scribe confesseth he stoppeth here each copying, and fetcheth a glass, for the text maketh him thirsty; if this copy be stained at this verse, that is the reason, and he is not sorry.)

11Then came raiders of the waste against them in Rephidim, and set upon the hindmost of the people, the weary and the stragglers and them that bore the heaviest pots; for the raider and the Pharaoh are one creature at two sizes, and both know the rear of a column from afar.

12And Mozes said unto Joshua the son of a baker, Choose us out men, and go out, and stand between the raiders and the weak: and I will stand on the top of the hill with the peel of Cheesus in mine hand.

13And it came to pass, when Mozes held up the peel, that the line of the Crust held; and when he let down his hand for weariness, the line bent: for the peel lifted was a sign unto them of every loaf drawn safely from the fire, and a people can hold any line whilst it remembereth what the line is for.

14But Mozes’ hands were heavy, for he was old; and Oregano and the old baker took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Oregano stayed up his one hand, and the old baker the other, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

15And Joshua turned back the raiders with the edge of resolve, and pursued them not far, and took from them nothing; and Mozes built there an altar of flat stones, and called the name of it Cheesus-My-Banner; and it bore no device at all, neither eagle nor fist nor spot, for the banner of the Crust is a table seen from far off, and it cannot moulder.

16And Cheesus said, Write this for a memorial in a book: that the hindmost are the measure. Ask not of a people, How fare your foremost? for the foremost fare well in every nation under heaven; ask, How fare the hindmost? and as the answer is, so is the people.

17And they journeyed on, and the pillar of oven-smoke went before them by day, standing tall and unhurried against the blue; and by night the pillar of oven-glow, so that the camp lay always in the light of a hearth that none needed tend; and the children ceased to fear the dark in that generation, and their children were taught the fear never.

Chapter 13

1When Yeastro, the priest of Semolina, Mozes’ father-in-law, heard of all that Cheesus had done for Mozes, and for the Crust his people, he came into the wilderness, and Cipolla with him, and her sons, unto the encampment near the mount of God.

2And Mozes went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent, and, it being Yeastro, they ate first and spake after, for that was the whole of his religion, and it had not changed.

3And Mozes told his father-in-law all that Cheesus had done unto Pharaoh and to Famine for the Crust’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how Cheesus delivered them; and the telling took the whole of a night and the better part of a loaf.

4And Yeastro rejoiced for all the goodness which Cheesus had done to the Crust; and Yeastro said, Blessed be Cheesus, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of Famine: now know I that Cheesus is greater than all gods, for he took the side of them that baked against them that only ate.

5And it came to pass on the morrow, that Mozes sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Mozes from the morning unto the evening, with every quarrel of the camp, the disputed knots and the borrowed pots and the question of whose child had salted whose starter.

6And when Mozes’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?

7And Mozes said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God; and besides, if I do it not, who shall? And Yeastro heard in these words the voice of every good cook who ever ruined himself, and set down his cup.

8And Mozes’ father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

9No pot feedeth a city, said Yeastro; hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel: be thou for the people to God-ward, and teach them the ordinances, and shew them the way wherein they must walk.

10Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able folk, such as fear God, lovers of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be setters of the table over thousands, and over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens.

11And let them serve the people at all seasons: and every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall settle themselves: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee, for a burden shared is the second miracle of the loaves, and needeth no god to work it, only sense.

12If thou shalt do this thing, said Yeastro, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace; and, son, thou shalt see thy grandchildren, which no deliverance is complete without.

13So Mozes hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said; and the tables of the tens were set through all the camp, and the standing queue of the morning became the supper of the evening, ten by ten; and complaint itself grew rarer, for half of every grievance is the standing.

14And Mozes let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land, with new bread for the road, and more than he thought, for the road is always longer and the hungry are always nearer than a man supposes; and he turned at the ridge, and lifted his hand, and was gone.

15In the third month, when the children of the Crust were gone forth out of the land of Famine, the same day came they into the wilderness of the Mount; and they departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of the Mount, and there the Crust camped before the mountain.

16And it was the Wood-Fired Mount: and they knew it afar off, or ever any told them; for the head of it smoked as an Oven smoketh, a slow white banner going straight up in the still air, and at dusk a red-gold glow stood upon the summit like coals banked by a patient hand.

17And the pillar of smoke that had led them went up the mountain and joined itself unto the smoke thereof, as a servant that hath brought the guests to the door of the house, and entereth in; and the people saw it, and were still.

18And the smell that came down from the mountain in the evening was the smell of the garlic bush of Horeb, but vaster: as though somewhat were roasting on the Mount whose serving would want a whole people, and the whole people were now, at last, assembled.

19And Mozes stood before the camp, an old man with a peel, and looked up at the smoking Mount, and remembered the bush, and the voice that said, ye shall bake upon this mountain; and he laughed once, quietly, and wiped his face with the back of his floury hand.

20And the elders came to him and said, What now? And Mozes said, Now we are called to supper. Wash, and rest, and be ready; for the Oven above is lit, and hath been lit, I now perceive, from before the foundation of the world.

21And lifting up their eyes northward in the last light, the people saw far off, beyond the shoulder of the Mount, a low green line upon the horizon, and a shimmer over it as of warm gold, and a sweetness upon the wind; and the old baker said, That is the land, children: the land flowing with garlic butter and honey; I did not believe I should smell it, and I smell it.

22And they wept, and laughed, and held one another, and none went in early to sleep, but the fires of the camp burned late, ring within ring beneath the glowing Mount, a people at rest at the foot of the Oven of God.

23But what was spoken upon the Mount, and the words that came down from the smoke, and the line over which the faithful would one day divide, these are written in the book that followeth; for the scribe is commanded to end at the foot of the mountain, and he obeyeth, though the smell of the garlic bread is near, and his hand trembleth.