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Updated: May 22, 2025
It was much later before Dahvid fell asleep, for his head was full of dreams, and the stories of wonderful days to come that his mother had told him. But at length he joined the rest in healthy slumber. Suddenly it seemed to each of them that something had passed over him, and touched him lightly on the cheek. The older men raised themselves on their elbows, but Dahvid sprang to his feet.
So the shepherds who guarded their flocks in these wild pastures dared not leave them alone. One clear beautiful night, many centuries ago, four shepherds were watching their flocks on these pastures. Samuel, Ezra, Joel, and Dahvid were their names.
It was a steep and slippery way, but Dahvid plunged down with no thought of anything but the sheep. Loose stones gave way and he lost his footing. At the bottom he picked himself up unhurt, and there beside him were two wolves quarreling over the wounded sheep.
One of them slunk away at sight of the boy, but the other had a taste of blood and sprang at Dahvid, missing his throat but sinking his teeth into his leg. Then Dahvid, as the beast turned to spring again, struck him a heavy blow on the head with his staff and killed him. His own wounds were bleeding and painful, but he turned at once with caressing words to the sheep.
"Brothers," he continued, "a wonderful thing has happened to us. It has been a long, long day since angels have spoken to men." Then he girded his shepherd's cloak about him and seized his staff. "Come, Ezra, Joel, Dahvid, let us be going." "Going where?" asked Ezra and Joel. "Why, to Bethlehem to see the Child. Did not the angel tell us the sign?
"Are you not glad that you tend sheep in Bethlehem instead of some distant place?" "Why, Dahvid?" asked Samuel sleepily. "Because it is in Bethlehem that the King we have been looking for so long is to be born. I have been reading it in the prophets only today." "Have you only just heard of that?" asked Ezra sourly. "No," replied the boy hotly.
Abraham was old and rich, and did not work any more, but hired Dahvid, whose family was very poor, to care for his sheep. The flocks of the four shepherds were lying quiet on the plain far below the city, and near by Samuel, Ezra, Joel, and Dahvid lay wrapped in their shepherds' cloaks. "Samuel," said Dahvid, rising upon his elbow. "What is it, Dahvid?" asked the other in a deep voice.
"I have heard my mother tell of it ever since I can remember, and I have read it over and over again. Samuel!" "Yes, Dahvid?" "Do you think we shall ever see the promised King?" "I do not know, my boy," the older man answered sadly. "We have waited long, and there seems little hope for Israel now. But he will come some day, he will come some day. Why do you ask, Dahvid?" "I cannot tell.
Let us go at once to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." "There be many mangers in Bethlehem," objected Ezra. "I know not how we shall find him," said Joel. "It is a vain search, I fear," and he drew his cloak about him and reached for his staff, "but I will go with you if you say." So they started, Samuel, Ezra, and Joel but Dahvid stood still.
Samuel, Ezra, and Joel were strong men, no longer young, with shaggy eyebrows and brown beards; Ezra's was short, Joel's long, and Samuel's streaked with gray. They owned the flocks which they tended. Dahvid was a boy with ruddy cheeks, bright eyes, and strong lithe limbs. He cared for the flocks of old Abraham.
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