in this world, if one can only call
it forth; chords divine that will vibrate with wonderful harmony. It
only needs an angel's hand to touch the trembling strings."

"Did you see the choir of angels overhead, grandfather?"

"Nay, I saw nothing. The brightness was too dazzling for mortal eyes.
We all stood there, with downcast eyes, listening spell-bound to the
wonderful melody, until the chorus ceased, and the echoes, one after
another, died away, and the glory faded out of the sky and the stars
came back again, and no sound was heard but the faint voice of a young
lamb, calling for its mother.

"The first to break the silence was my father. 'Come,' he said, in a
solemn voice. 'Let us go at once to Bethlehem, and see this thing
which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.'

"So the sheep were quietly gathered into the fold at the tower, and we
hastened to Bethlehem. Never shall I forget that journey by night. We
spake not many words, as we traveled swiftly the twenty furlongs; talk
seemed altogether tame; but now and then my father broke forth in a
song, and the others joined in the chorus. We were not so spent with
running but that we could find voice for singing; and such words as
these of the prophet were the only ones that could give voice to our
swelling hearts:

"'Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth;
And break forth into singing, O mountains;
For the Lord hath comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

"'How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings,
That publisheth peace,
That bringeth good tidings of good,
That publisheth salvation.'

"It was midnight when we climbed the hill to the little city of
Bethlehem; the constellation Cesil, called by the Greeks Orion, was
just setting in the west. We knew not whither to go. We had only the
sign of the angel by which we should know the infant Messiah. He was a
babe of one day. He was lying in a manger.

"'Let us go to the inn Chimham,' said my father. 'It stands on the
very spot where King David was born. Peradvanture we shall find him
there.'

"Over the entrance to the court of the inn a lantern was swinging from
a rope stretched across from post to post. Guided by its light, we
entered, and found the courtyard full of beasts of burden, showing
that the inn was crowded with travelers. In the arched shelter of the
hostelry as many as