“You do indeed look sad, little brother: where is your pain?”
“In my eyes,” moaned the boy, pouring out the words with a delightful sense of relief; for he was sure they dropped into a pitying heart. “Beloved little Jesus, let me tell you that since I saw you last I have been wickedly injured. Now I have always a pain in my eyes: there are two flames behind them, which burn day and night.”
“I grieve for you,” said the Child with exquisite tenderness; “yet, dear boy, for all that, you might be ready for Christmas: but is there not also a pain throbbing and burning in your heart?”
“Oh, if you mean that, I am tossed up and down by vexation: I am full of hatred against that terrible Jasper. It was all about a miserable Christmas-candle he carried. I broke it by pushing him down. Tell me, was he right to fly at me like a wild beast? Ought he not to suffer even as I have suffered? Is it just, is it right, for the great man’s son to put out a peasant boy’s eyes, and be happy again?”
“Misguided Jasper!” said the Child solemnly; “let him answer for his own sin: judge not, little brother.”
Cristobal hid his face in his hands, and wept for shame.
“Shall I give you ten golden words for a Christmas-gift? Will you hide them in your heart, and be happy?”
“I will,” answered Cristobal.
“They are these,” said the Child with a voice of wondrous sweetness: “Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”
Cristobal repeated the words, a soft light stealing over his face. “I will remember,” he said, looking up to meet the pleading eyes of the Child: but, lo! the whole face had melted into the aureola; nothing was left but light. Yet Cristobal was filled with a new joy; and, as he opened his eyes, his dream—if dream it were—changed, becoming as sweet and solemn as a prayer. It seemed to him that the roof of the cottage glittered with stars, and was no longer a roof, but the boundless sky; and, afar off, like remembered music, a voice fell on his ear, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses.”