paleness of her narrow shoulders. Her head was bowed in the lap of her
Maker as if she had been beseeching Him always.

The robin was overwhelmed with terror. All his chirpiness was gone.
"Dear God," he quavered, "I beg Thy forgiveness. I have come when I was
not bidden."

He paused, hoping that God would encourage him. When God took no notice,
he felt himself to be the most insignificant and impertinent of living
creatures. He spoke again, lest the silence should kill him on the spot.

"I have brought glad tidings--at least, we on earth think they are
glad. The Woman, whom Thou didst cast out for eating the fruit that was
forbidden, has been very sick. She has been sick since April till just
before day-break this morning, when she miraculously recovered. At her
side she found lying a little thing--such a little thing--so like
to Thyself, oh, God. It has bandy legs and arms no thicker than Thy
smallest finger. It has a baldy head, about the size of an apple, with
threads of gold spread over it like floss. It has a pink, wee face and
a rose-bud of a mouth. It's eyes are like patches of Thine own blue
Heaven. And it's soft and cuddly. The Women calls it her 'Belovedest.'
And it smells sweet like the flowers we used to breathe in Eden. We
didn't know what it was. Even the Man didn't know. He summoned the
animals to come and find a name for it. While they were sitting on their
hind-legs, behold, it awoke and told us that its rightful name was baby.
And now, oh, God, we birds and animals want to have babies. We're all
trying to find out how it happened. And I want to find out most
especially, because----"

"A baby, thou sayest! What is a baby? I, thy Creator, know nothing of
it. The last thing I fashioned was the Woman, who has brought this deep
shame upon Us."

God had spoken through His hands very softly, yet His voice was like a
great wind blowing. It took the robin some seconds to recover from the
shock. By the time he was ready to answer, the angels were rustling
through all the glades of Heaven and the Virgin was gazing at him with
wistful intensity.

"What is a baby!" he said audaciously repeating God's words. "It is a
little Man and a little God. Surely, Thou knowest?"

"I know nothing," God thundered, letting fall His hands from before His
face. "Be gone."

When the hurricane of sound had ended, the robin found himself hovering
in the gateway between the jasper walls, where the sheer drop which lies
betwe