Long, long ago, on the green hills of Bethlehem, a little shepherd boy tended his sheep.
Ruddy and strong was little David, for the sun gave him rosy cheeks, and the bracing wind made him long to run races with his own shadow, just from pure happiness.
Many a time he lay on the soft grass, gazing up at the blue sky, dotted with fleecy white clouds—white as his own lambs. Many a time, as he led his flock homeward at evening, he saw the sun sink in the gold and crimson west, and, as the dusk deepened, the great round moon rise above the hills, flooding the world with silvery light.
With all this beauty around him, do you wonder that he was good and happy?
One day, while David was watching his sheep in the field, Samuel, the High Priest of the Lord, appeared before Jesse, David's father.
On a very wonderful errand had he come.
He told David's father that the Lord had chosen one of his sons to be the new king of Israel, because Saul, the old king, was no longer fit to rule.
"Call all your sons before me," said Samuel, "that I may anoint the Lord's chosen one."
Oh, how proudly Jesse called his eldest son!
Tall, and straight, and strong, he stood there, looking every inch a king.