The city of Bethlehem stood on a hill. Below the town, with its steep
narrow streets and white walls, were gray olive orchards. Below the
orchards were gardens bright with flowers. Below the gardens lay green
meadows, and beyond these pasture-lands that stretched away to the
wilderness plains where little patches of grass grew among the bushes
and between the great rocks. There were caves among these rocks where
wolves used to skulk and sometimes robbers hid. 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. 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.
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.
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