He gave his tiny white burden into the keeping of one of his companions and turning, hurried back to the cliffs, while the others went ahead to Bethlehem. He knew it would take much longer to make the climb than it had taken for the descent, and a fear seized him that perhaps jackals had broken upon the flock and he might reach the fold too late to save the sheep. But as he moved forward the mounting of the first cliff seemed no task at all. Hands invisible seemed to lift him up the mountain way, and he reached the sheepfold easily and quickly.
A great relief came. The flocks lay silent, stirring only when a lamb or ewe moved a white leg and turned as it slept, but there was no sign or sound of danger, not even the howl of a jackal away on the mountain side or the moving shadow of a panther creeping stealthily upon the fold. Then he knew that in truth God was watching over the sheep, and that the lamb had probably cried out in wonder, even as he and his brethren might have done.
Secure in the thought that the flock was safe, he started down the mountain toward Bethlehem, musing upon the strange things that had come to pass that night. His comrades were far ahead, and he knew he could not overtake them. Perhaps already they had reached the town and found the place of the Child, while he yet had a long way to go. But his feet sped over the spaces and he swung lightly along, the shaggy skin of his shepherd’s cloak flapping as he went. He was not sorry he had gone back, even though it meant he must journey alone, for there was a peace in his heart that could not have been there had he gone ahead hearing the cry of a lamb.
At last he reached Bethlehem and asked one of the soldiers who guarded the gate, “Where is it that the Christ is born?”
“The Christ?” the man repeated like one dazed. “He is not in Bethlehem. Better get you back to the hills, which is the place of shepherds.”
Ben Ezra stood firm.
“He must be here,” he insisted, “for so sang the angels at Bêt Sahûr, saying, ‘In the city of David,’ which is Bethlehem.”
Whereupon some of the guardsmen smiled and pointed to their heads, and some laughed jeeringly.
There was one, however, a tall, gentle-faced archer, who smiled and spoke kindly, “They say a man child has come to the stable beyond the khan, where Joseph ben David the Nazarene and his wife have taken shelter. You might try there.”
The shepherd nodded and thanked him, his dark eyes moistly tender and in his face a light that silenced the mockers.