The Shepherd of Hermas

And they were glad and took them up, and took away all the stones, and put them whence they had been taken. And after all the stones had been taken up, and there no longer remained a stone round the tower, the shepherd said to me: Let us go round the tower and see if there is any defect in it. And I went round it with him.

And when the shepherd saw that the tower was beautifully built, lie was very joyful; for the tower was so built that when I saw it, I envied its building, for it was so built, as if it were all one stone, without a single joint in it, and the stone appeared as if it had been hewn out of a rock, for it seemed to me to be a single stone.

And I also walked with him and was glad when I saw such good things. And the shepherd[*](The clearing of the neighbourhood of the tower) said to me: Go and bring lime and a light clay, that I may fill up the marks of the stones[*](Apparently the meaning is that the holes left in the ground where stones had been taken out were to be filled up and levelled.) which have

And I did as he commanded and brought them to him. Serve me, said he, and the work will soon be completed. So he filled up the marks of the stones which had gone into the building, and commanded all round the tower to be swept, and be made clean.

And the maidens took brooms and swept, and they took away all the dirt from the tower and sprinkled water, and the place of the tower became joyful and very beautiful.

The shepherd said to me: Everything, said he, has been made clean. If the lord come to visit the tower, he has nothing with which to blame us. When he had said this he wished to go away.

But I took him by his wallet, and began to adjure him by the Lord to explain to me what he had shown me. He said to me: I am busy for a little and then I will explain everything to you. Wait for me here till I come.

I said to him: Sir, what shall I do here alone? You are not alone, he said, for these maidens are here with you. Give me then, said I, into their charge. The shepherd called them and said to them: I entrust him to you till I come, and he went away.

And I was alone with the maidens, and they were merry and gracious towards me, especially the four more glorious of them.