Every inch of floor space in Samuel's little house was occupied that night when the soft quilts were spread out, and the family and their guests lay down to rest. Naomi and Jonas were cuddled in a corner next their mother. But when Ezra came in late from feeding Michmash, the dim light of the little oil lamp, that burned each night in all but the poorest of Jewish homes, showed him a floor so crowded with soundly sleeping guests that he knew not how to reach his own bed spread at his father's right hand.
"Father!" whispered Ezra.
"My son," answered Samuel in a cautious voice.
"Father, it is so crowded here I would fain spend the night with old Eli in the fields with the sheep. They are encamped below the khan in the Fields of David. May I go? Old Eli said but yesterday that I had neglected him of late."
"Go, my son. Give greetings to old Eli, and God's peace attend thee."
So Ezra slipped out under the dark starry sky to join the shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.