The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-15

great spoked spindle as they turned 1t on axis. between wall and upright post to wind up the drip ping well rope. shook surly boards in firm refusal
 The couple passed between the narrow. tortuous streets nanked by wide mortared stone houses. their height enhanced by the coseness of the walls which let the intense bueness the fading sky glow afar as though seen from the depths of some canyon
 The streets. paved with broad. irregular fagstones smooth by generations before the time of Moses, wound along the beds of these gunies where the depths still shot with the deeping purple of the distant sky. and led and down through arches and dark overbuilt with sections of dwe- ngs at whose fronts long, flights of steps arose. sometimes safeguarded by frail. balustrades of wood. again inviting every accident of trip stumble
 Camels. horses. donkeys women and children crowd cd past another with all the argument and ob- jurgation of the excitable Orient the tumuit falling still only when one of the dominant Romans choosing his imperious way. made all fall back before him.
 Of the women leaning out curious from their win- dow embrasures where the heavy wooden shutter was eagerly swung wide the panorama of the streets. Joseph begged shelter. If only for his wife. sitting there the halted beast of burden. pale and hag- gard with the fatigue of her journey and with need for rest. such as every woman who saw her compre- hended.
 He begged it of women staring from their high stone steps, of women passing and bearing child on hip, by the bitter memory of their own experience
 But all shook unwilling heads; for all knew, even better tha~ the unwilling men, the annoyance at.end. ant upon such a lodger We moderns did not invent inhumanity we merely plagtarized
 It was full night now. the icy. clear. sparkling night of Palestine which can fau with cold as bit ing the nights of Europe.
 frosty stars white and glittering necked the dome above them In the east set high In that span gled arch like strange. magnificent jewel a single star ecpsed the radiance of its neighbors and seemed to bid them onward like a light of promise
 In the fields beyond the town. shepherds watching the hocks and warming red hands at newly built Ares carefully doed twigs and branches wondered the and hailed another and disputed over it, and debated whether they could reach 1t before
 Leagues distant. still speeding their eamels. three travellers from afar. lured by the same wondering hope hasened past inviting caravansaries to solve It's thrilling mystery
 Joseph daunted, desparing. repulsed every hand rtalzed that the woman he protected must nave place eany place. if only the bare freezing ground
 But a end of the city, marking the extremity fertile valley of Wady- -karouoeh. stretchea a spur of the Judean mountains. where series or caverns some of them shored up with beams ana tree trunks at times afforded shelter to the shepherds
 There they might find privacy. if nothing more; and fire of sticks warmth held within the cavern walls might mitigate the severity Of the cold
 It was all that remained for them. They plodded on the tired patient and the tired patient beast He helped the woman with such strong, gentle hands she alighted at the cavern's mouth He supported He fung the ready shawl upon the least uneven yard place. ,, ,.,a ...., l., her extremity of Mother Earth to bring humanity the salvation it had lost through another made ages before. out or the uni- versal clay. ~..,N = purity and while wise and simple has
 Then ,dawned the worlds first Christmas Day.