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Page 6
"Is it on earth?" he panted. "Is it on earth?"
He struggled to his knees. He had heard of miracles and wonders of old,
and of the past ages when the sons of God visited the earth.
"Glory to God in the highest!" he stammered again and again and again.
"Glory to the great Jehovah!" and he touched his forehead seven times to
the earth.
Then he beheld a singular thing. When he had gone to sleep a flock of
sheep had been lying near him on the grass. The flock was still there,
but something seemed to be happening to it. The creatures were awakening
from their sleep as if they had heard something. First one head was
raised, and then another and another and another, until every head was
lifted, and every one was turned toward a certain point as if listening.
What were they listening for? Zia could see nothing, though he turned
his own face toward the climbing road and listened with them. The
floating radiance was so increasing in the sky that at this point of the
mountain-side it seemed no longer to the night, and the far-away paeans
held him breathless with mysterious awe. Was the sound on earth? Where
did it come from? Where?
"Praised be Jehovah!" he heard his weak and shaking young voice quaver.
Some belated travelers were coming slowly up the road. He heard an ass's
feet and low voices.
The sheep heard them also. Had they been waiting for them? They rose one
by one--the whole flock--to their feet, and turned in a body toward the
approaching sounds.
Zia stood up with them. He waited also, and it was as if at this moment
his soul so lifted itself that it almost broke away from his body--
almost.
Around the curve an ass came slowly bearing a woman, and led by a man
who walked by his side. He was a man of sober years and walked wearily.
Zia's eyes grew wide with awe and wondering as he gazed, scarce
breathing.
The light upon the hillside was so softly radiant and so clear that he
could
[Illustration with caption: "Zia's eyes grew wide with awe and wondering
as he gazed, scarce breathing"--Page 38]
see that the woman's robe was blue and that she lifted her face to the
stars as she rode. It was a young face, and pale with the pallor of
lilies, and her eyes were as stars of the morning. But this was not all.
A radiance shone from her pure pallor, and bordering her blue robe and
veil was a faint, steady glow of light. And as she passed the standing
and waiting sheep, they slowly bowed themselves upon their knees before
her, and so knelt until she had passed by and was out of sight. Then
they returned to their places, and slept as before.
When she was gone, Zia found that he also was kneeling. He did not know
when his knees had bent. He was faint with ecstasy.
"She goes to Bethlehem," he heard himself say as he had heard himself
speak before. "I, too; I, too."
He stood a moment listening to the sound of the ass's retreating feet as
it grew fainter in the distance. His breath came quick and soft. The
light had died away from the hillside, but the high-floating radiance
seemed to pass to and fro in the heavens, and now and again he thought
he heard the faint, far sound that was like music so distant that it was
as a thing heard in a dream.
"Perhaps I behold visions," he murmured. "It may be that I shall awake."
But he found himself making his way through the bushes and setting his
feet upon the road. He must follow, he must follow. Howsoever steep the
hill, he must climb to Bethlehem. But as he went on his way it did not
seem steep, and he did not waver or toil as he usually did when walking.
He felt no weariness or ache in his limbs, and the high radiance gently
lighted the path and dimly revealed that many white flowers he had never
seen before seemed to have sprung up by the roadside and to wave softly
to and fro, giving forth a fragrance so remote and faint, yet so clear,
that it did not seem of earth. It was perhaps part of the vision.
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