nodded. “Just. If we begin this instant.”
Her chin jutted in determination. “We must do our best.”
Samson concurred. “We must focus on vineyards. Harvest the figs that are ripe today. All else must be let go.”
Patrick agreed. “Locusts can eat their weight in foliage in one day. When the monsters land on your pastures and begin to feast, we must set fire to the fields.”
I considered the loss of grazing land in Galilee and Judea alone. What would that mean to the livestock in the coming year?
Martha was somber. “The women can help.”
Patrick instructed, “Every hand, man, woman, and child must cut and gather palm fronds. And coat them with pitch.” He turned toward Martha. “The men must be fed and cared for.”
Martha took up the challenge. “Feed an army? This I can do.”
Samson tugged his beard in deep thought. Raising his eyes heavenward, he said, “We must pray as we work. Hell has opened and spewed forth destruction.”
Samson set two dozen men at work, cutting a firebreak between Faithful Vineyard and the north vines. They started at the top of the rocky hill, stripping away branches to separate that which we would fight to save and that which we would give over to the evil.
I knew the fig groves could ultimately survive the locusts and severe pruning. Samson marked the best trees. Fruit had ripened on the sunny west side. Three teams of two men each began harvesting ripe figs, placing them in clay jars, and leaving what was not ripe. Others followed with pruning hooks to hack off leaves and limbs and unripe fruit for fodder to feed my flocks.
Oxen dragged the dead wood into strategic piles heaped up and prepared for the torch.
Patrick began construction of the frameworks that would support our shield against the enemy.
While I saddled my horse, Martha organized the feeding of our workers.
I rode to the village. In the marketplace, news had already spread about the scourge that was descending upon all Israel. By noon I had hired seventy-two strong men and sent them to the estate, promising each a denarius for a day’s work.
Speculation about the cause of the scourge had begun. “God’s judgment upon Herod for the murder of John the Baptizer.”
“Aye. That’s it. The Baptizer lived on locusts and honey, they say. So the locusts are sent for revenge.” In Galilee the fields of Herod Antipas had already been devoured, but the vineyards of many righteous had also been consumed.
“Herod and the Romans will be after stealing any crops that are saved when their own are gone. Wish the Almighty would just smite the wicked for their crimes and not let all of us suffer ill.”
Though I understood their feelings, I knew the Lord had given us sound reasoning and ways to defeat such a plague. I said, “Come to help only if you have faith strong enough to stand and fight.”
When I returned home, I brought with me an army preparing for battle.
Chapter 18
The following morning there was still no sign of imminent doom. I rose before dawn after a fitful, sleepless night. To the west, hanging above the Mount of Olives, the star Vega shone like a blazing torch in the midst of King David’s Harp. I prayed for courage and strength. As I faced about toward where the sun would soon punch its way over the heights of Moab, the orange eye of Aldebaran and the kindlier twinkle of Capella studied me from the placid heavens.
It was the northern sky that drew my attention. The breeze in my face was barely a whisper. I sniffed as if trying to catch the odor of trouble above the aroma of blooming flowers and ripening figs.
Was there an acrid tinge to the otherwise sweet morning air, or was I imagining it? I had eaten roasted grasshoppers before and did not care for them. There was a bitter, almost metallic sensation connected with the taste and smell, but perhaps that was a result of the oil in which they were cooked.
Was I truly scenting a locust horde on the wind? Or was it merely my nervous mind playing tricks on me?
The men I hired to help defend the vines slept wrapped in their cloaks at the end of the rows in case the plague arrived during the night. Now it seemed as if I had paid for an expensive set of unneeded guests, some of whom had helped themselves to grapes and figs from my crop.
Martha awoke also and came to stand