“Look at my lion!” cried another. “He is so big and strong, he could eat up your dog in a minute.”
“Ho!” said a third. “My man here could whip your dog, and kill your lion with his sword, so he is the best of all.”
Mary Mother smiled, and praised the dog, the lion, and the man. Then she said, “And what has my little Jesus to show me?”
“I have made some little gray doves,” said Jesus. “See! here they are!”
“And what can they do, my little one?” asked sweet Mary, as she stroked the boy’s curly head.
“I think they can fly!” said little Jesus. “Fly, pretty doves!”
He clapped his hands, and up flew the doves like a soft gray cloud. Then fluttered round the child’s fair head, and lighted for a moment on his shoulders and his hands; then they spread their gray wings and flew up into the sky, and were seen no more.