“Can it be that a star has burst and fallen?” asked another, his tongue faltering.
“When a star falls, its light goes out.”
“I have it!” cried one, confidently. “The shepherds have seen a lion, and made fires to keep him from the flocks.”
The men next the speaker drew a breath of relief, and said, “Yes, that is it! The flocks were grazing in the valley over there to-day.”
A bystander dispelled the comfort.
“No, no! Though all the wood in all the valleys of Judah was brought together in one pile and fired, the blaze would not throw a light so strong and high.”
After that there was silence on the house-top, broken but once again while the mystery continued.
“Brethren!” exclaimed a Jew of venerable mien, “what we see is the ladder our father Jacob saw in his dream. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers!”
CHAPTER XI
A mile and a half, it may be two miles, southeast of Bethlehem, there is a plain separated from the town by an intervening swell of the mountain. Besides being well sheltered from the north winds, the vale was covered with a growth of sycamore, dwarf-oak, and pine trees, while in the glens and ravines adjoining there were thickets of olive and mulberry; all at this season of the year invaluable for the support of sheep, goats, and cattle, of which the wandering flocks consisted.