There on the straw the mother lay

Wan and white,

But her look was so holy and rapt and mild That it seemed to shed a marvellous light,

Faint as the first rare gleam of day, Around the child.

It was as other children are

Saving for something in the eyes,

Starlike and clear and strangely wise— Then came a sudden thought to me

Of a lamb I had found on the waste afar; Lost and sick with hunger and cold,

I had brought it back in my arms to the fold For tender ministry.

Dawn had flooded the east as a wave When we left the cave;

All the world suddenly seemed to be Young and pure and joyous again;

The others lingered to talk with the men, Full of wonder and rapture still;

But I hastened back to the fold on the hill To tend the lamb that had need of me.

112