’Twas to be up before the day,
So that the lintel beam might bear
The blood-marks for the coming year.
Mary. Look! There are stains already there!
Carpenter. I’ll wash them off!
Mary.—
Nay, let them stay!
This blood, I trow, was shed to-day
To take some mortal’s guilt away.
(The two men have lifted the door and set it to stand against the middle post of the doorway where it makes the form of three crosses standing together.)