Betwixt two beasts.”
In amaze the shepherds listened, and in amaze they talked together when the shining angel had gone.
Pointing to a brilliant star, one of them declared it was a token to guide them “where the young Child lay.”
“Hie we thither quickly;
If we be wet and weary,
To that Child and that Lady,”
another urged. And so descending from the stage-field, they began their journey to Bethlehem, a journey represented by the space between the two pageants.
On the other platform meanwhile a charming scene was disclosed. There was the stable at Bethlehem, with its broken roof, and within the stable Mary in a long blue robe knelt beside the manger, at which, with their kind, patient eyes, an ox and an ass were also gazing.
Now the shepherds had arrived, and finding themselves in the presence of “that Child and that Lady,” they bent low their knees, and began to talk to the Baby Jesus as though they loved Him, and as though He were a child of their own to whom they had brought tiny presents.
“Hail, comely and clean; hail, young child!”