Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/194

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Joseph was a carpenter, and made of wood nothing except yokes for oxen, and ploughs, and implements for turning up the soil and suited for agriculture, and made wooden bedsteads. And it happened that a certain youth desired him to make a couch six cubits long. And Joseph ordered his boy to cut the wood with an iron saw, according to the measure which he had sent. But he did not keep to the dimensions given him, and made one board shorter than another. And Joseph in anger, began to think what he must do in the case. And when Jesus saw him thus angrily thinking, and not able to remedy what had been done, he addressed him with a consoling voice, saying, Come, let us take hold of the ends of each piece of wood, and lay them together end to end, and let us put them level and pull them to us, for we shall be able to make them equal. Then Joseph obeyed his command, for he knew that he could do what he would, and Joseph took the ends of the boards and put them against the wall and even together, and Jesus held the other ends of the wood, and pulled the shorter piece towards himself, and made it equal to the longer piece. And he said to Joseph, Go on with thy work, and do what thou hast promised to do. And Joseph did what he had promised.