f/fAinr.'riti <S,v .iv?,Ot?4, v?iy . I '
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NE l)i inlit, sunny morning
{s£§?\3 in the month oi Adar, at
jli tjs .*» the end of winter, short-
Ksvs?i'3 ly after the little town of
Nazareth, in Juden, was astir, there
trooped from ttit* village a crowd of
n < ;ry children, laughing for -beer
happiness, as if their hearts sang
Willi (lie Kong of dancing sunbeams.
Running and skipping along the
read they went, blithe and gay. un
til they came to a great tree by the
road.-ide, where they stopped, aid
clustering about a child in their
midst, proceeded to do a strange
thing.
They cast their mantles and tu
l ics from them to the ground and
1 rostrated themselves before the
<in<e in their midtt; then loft him,
nnd, running into a iield, gathered
flowers. He thai sr:t alone, a pen
she lonic upon liis youthful face,
li«d the appearance of an angel.
Soon the little playmates, their
JU'ms laden with blossoms, i< turned,
nnd weaving a wreath of glory flow
< vs. crov.i;t»(i his head.
Into bis hands they placed a seep
ter of burning gladiolus. And abou.
him they joyously scattered the
fresh, odorous blooms, and while
1 < smiled upon iln-in they pro
claimed the little playmate, Jesus,
the son of the village carpenter,
their king.
White they delighted in their wor
ship of their little playmate, alcng
the road ia the distance could be
seen two men coining, with heads
sorrowfully bent, carrying between
them the dead body of a boy.
"What has happened?" the chil
li ien cried.
Alas! responded •one of the men.
11k 1 child was playing • the forests
yonder and methinks. like many
iKiys. robbed the lies is of r.ome little
birds.
"}>resenily. climbing a tree, he
did put his hand into the nest, and
In! there was hidden a poisonous
serpent, that sank its fangs into
his flesh. He yuliered terrible agony
and. sliding from the free, lay until
he died. There we found him."
"•Come," the boys said, 'and tell
our kins."
Mefore the crowned one (hey
paused and told ihe story.
Rising, he said: "follow me."
Silently tbey wend; d their way
back to the woods. "Lead us to tho
tree," said lb,- child king. And
there paused.
"Oh. treacherous serpent. 1 com
mand thee to come down," he called.
And !o! above the nest appeared a
venomous head, arid soon the long,
gli; toning body of a deadly snake
came writhing down the trunk.
"Co, suck from that child's hand
all the poison thou didst place
therein from thy fangs,"
I" (he amazement of the beholders, who sank on
fir the set pent obeyed. Then, drawing away,
t writhed in the agony of its own poison and shiveled
to fiealn.
"Arise," said the child, laying his soft hand on the
tar«- or tho ono who n?emod dead.
A moment passed. Those nearby looked on breath
lessly. 1 hen the face of (lie dead boy broke into a
smile, as though he were having pleasant dreams, and
he opened his eyes.
It is related In the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy that
afterward the boy. Simon Zelotes. became one of the
diseipies of.l rsus.
Of the days and doings of ilie boy .festis in Nazareth
(lie loir gospels IHI us comparatively little. It was
natural, therefore, that, about this unknown existence
of the Adorable Child the Christians of the early church
de«-piy pondered and that the rich imaginations of mr
dieval times should have woven a vesture of tradition
ary lore.
The holy family returned from Egypt when Jesus was
old enough to walk. In many of the old pictures we
see the Divine ( liiitl leading a mule or clinging close
to his mother. Ol that early life in the land of the Pyr
amids, too, early tradition lias woven a pleasing fabric
of legends.
Among tl:o oldest of these is the ancient belief that
whenever the blessed Mary placed the clothing of the
holy babe upon trees to dry the barren limbs burst into
bloom.
Another is that when Hie child wandered into the for
est. where lions and panthers and all manner of wild
beasts lived, they enrne forth to do him homage.
Still another, that, during the (light from Bethlehem,
w( <n ll' rod pursued them, mountains opened to receive
Joseph .11.d Mary and t! e holy babe into a secure ref
upe, that on hot days, as they reposed under trees, the
boughs bent over to shield them from the sun, and that
as tluoy passed along (lowers sprang up in their path
way from the arid sand, and that the barren desert
bloouieeJ where they passed it.
It it, (old that when (hey journeyed through a forest
all the luces bowed low in wori hii of the Holy One that
passed b), and (hat only one i ree-—-the aspen—held
aloof. pro«*l and scornful. It - also related that the
babe gazed upon the tree aim. ttaat, overcome with ter
tor, it began to tremble, and aas trembled ever si-.
Only (!«>• .tspei. stood erect and free
Scot ninjt in join till? . oil-elf xK worship pure-
Hut see. h<- cast one look upon the tree
Struck to the heart she trembled evermore.
It is also told (hat when the holy family came In
sight of the sphinx the gicat beast told ti«> eternal se
cret, and as they passed the temples the oM gods fell
from (heir thrones.
And. eomlntr niirh to On.
Where stands the house of ria. its mighty trod
«"ul in lilack porphyry, prodigious, fen red
4 Fell from his seat
Some writers of old say that the holy child never'
vent to school. They love to write of his wandering
nlr.ne Into the forests and talking to the birds and in
seels. And they tell how dumb beasts were endowed
with epeech when lie was with them.
Many old legends concern the early schooling of the
boy Christ. It is related that when a child he was taken
to Zaccheus, who began to try to teach him the alphabet
'.My teacher," the marvelous boy is said to have
littered, "thou wouldst teach me, but I shall teach thee."
And then, while the old man listened, thunderstruck.
repeated an alphabet which the other had never
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1909.
learned, lie told
Zaccheus he had
lived from all
time and knew
all things. s£ae
cheus, amazed,
declared he could (each the child nothing.
Some of the legends, as unworthy as the minds that
created them, tell lliat the child struck his teacher dead.
Others tell >jf his inflicting playmates with death and
blindness. In the world of legendary lore, where one
finds stories ingenuously simple and charming, it is to
be expected, also, that there are crude and cruel tra
ditions.
According to some stories, the children of Nazareth
must have found Jesus a wonderful playmate. There
was hardly Kiiy wish of theirs which he did not fulfill.
'Hie day, it is told, some of the little ones wished for
fruit.
"Oh, hew T would like an apple!" said one.
"And I some figs!" rejoined another.
"How I would love some citron and grapes!" quoth
u (bird.
Jesus looked upon them and they all seeined so hun
gry and so anxious that he made a sign in the air and
spoke a mystic word. And lo!
A green sprout curled from the ground. Pale green
leaves burst forth. The plant rose up and up and up.
"Oh!" gasped all the children with great wonder, as
before their gaze the plant rose, higher and higher,
spreading out limbs-growing larger and stronger, and
blooming with flowers. Then the tree, as they looked,
bore fruit—apples and citrons, and grapes and figs and
whatever their hearts wished.
Here is another story of those childhood days:
A house was being built near (he small and modest
home of the holy family. One day a great uproar arose
and Joseph, stepping from his carpenter shop, saw that
a man had wallen from the roof and had been killed.
"Alas! Mary." he said, entering the shop, where Jesus
was playing, "a man has fallen and broken his limbs;
methinks he is dead."
Springing from the floor, the child, with an expression
of great solicitude on his face, rushed into the street
The little crowd parted before him.
lie peered into the white face of the dead man. Then
his voice rang clear and sweet:
"I say unto thee, arise and do thy work."
The dead man's eyes opened, the blood disappeared
from ills fire and his injuries healed. And he arose and
went back to his task.
At another time Jesus was playing with some chil
dren on a roof—one of those simple, childish games like
that of "tag" to-day. The children were very happy until
one, falling at full length, went tumbling over the para
pet. A cry arose. Peering over the stone wall, (he face
of Jesus turned white—his little playmate was dead
Imagine his distress when the parents of the child ap
peared and accused Jesus of having pushed the little
playmate over the wall! Imagine the anguish of Joseph
and Mary at the grave accusation! Then Jesus, turning
to the dead child, called:
"Zeno! Zeno! Arise! Arise. Zeno, and tell them if
1 cast thee down."
And 7.6n0 arose, laughing, clasping and kissing th«
hand Of Jesus, murmuring tenderly, gratefully:
"No, no! Thou didst not cast me down."
I'ntil his manhood, when he began his mission, it ia
believed he piled the trade of carpenter. Many, indeed,
are the stories of his life in {he carpenter shop of Naz
areth.
Many are the tales they tell of the wonderful things
he made when he was but a little boy. Precocious he
must have been, and early he became indispensable to
bis foster father, Joseph.
Joseph, we learn, from lliese legends, was none too
good a carpenter—that is, judged by the modern stand
ards of carpentering. Often he would cut pieces of wood
that were too long or too short: for his means of meas
urement were faulty. What, then, did Jesus do but take
the wood and stretch it or shorten it to the desired
length.
People told
Slransro talon of those hid days—now, at his toil,
roucninf; a plank, it stretched to rightful length.
Or shortened at his will—the dead wood quick
To live ajyaln and serve him. I
In those days, it is related, Joseph was awarded a
commission to make a throne for a king at Jerusalem.
It was to be an elaborate affair, as all thrones are, with
great arms and twisted legs and grotesque carvings—one
of those things only kings like to sit in.
Jesus spent much time watching Joseph hewing and
carving the wood. Joseph worked patiently from morn
ing until night ,and the work required two whole years.
And then, imagine the poor carpenter's disappointment
when it was taken to Jerusalem and he discovered that
it was too small for its place.
Alas! he had made a grave error. Yes, they had
given him the right dimensions, but, as it often happened,
itnd carpenters do still, he made the mistake. Two en
tire years of labo? wasted! The poor man was discon
srJnle.
"Hut why wee pest thou?" asked
•lesus, who was with him. "This
is readily amended. Re at peace."
Then he directed Joseph to hold
one. end of the throne, while he
took hold of the other. Both pulled,
and behold! the throne assumed
the proper size.
One Sabbath morning, with a
half-dozen playmates, the child
Jesus, one old legend runs, went to
play by the banks of the River .Tor
dan. There had been a heavy rain
the night before, and the tall trees
were still dripping and the sand
was wet.
Sitting on the sand, the little
ones began to fashion, children
wise, animals of various kinds.
Jesus, fashioning dogs and cats and
all manner of wild things, raised
his hand and spoke—and, 10, the
animals of sand lived and moved.
The children shouted. Their
laughter of delight rang through
the fresh morning air. Some of
the animals ran away, others were
changed into sand again.
Then digging his small hands In
to the sand, the child said:
"I'll make 12 sparrows."
And he sat them in a row be
fore his?.
By this time several Pharisees.
,vho had seen the children playing
happily on the Sabbath, returned
with Joseph, whom they said
should censure Jesus.
"Thou are breaking the Sabbath
my child," said the old man.
The child pondered, looked at the
birds of his creation, then rising,
he
Clapped His bands an<3 In!
They chirruped, spread their wlngsr.
and Hi w away.
in these old legends there Is a
great deal of the fanciful, the leg
end of the boy and the animals of
sand shows the quaint, conceits of
the early Christians, who delighted
in miracles and whose imagination
was excited by this unknown period
of the Saviour's life.
One can well imagine him as a
child wandering away from Nazar
eth, all alone, and sitting by the
Jordan or forest streams and com
muning of the great things that
came to him.
He could not have been like oth
er children, for he was wise beyond
his years. One can see him, as
fair as ihe lilies and roses them
selves, caressing the flowers as he
parsed by in the meadows of Ju
dea, and of his sitting crowned in
an aureole of sunbeams, listening
to the divine rapture of the birds
singing their morning hymns.
He must of fen have been alono
for with the petty quarrels of the
other children of the town, with
the little rivalries of his relatives,
he could have had little sympathy-
Doubtless as a child, his poet's soui
soared into the skies, and his seer'«
vision saw the future In the cumu
lus clouds. All great souls live alone, and ars lonely in
the midst of men. About a beautiful life humanity loves
to build legends, and the simple life which leads to spir
itual greatness must to men be made unusual with a halo
of miracles.
Many stories are told of the child Jesus having raised
people from the dead in the little known days of his
childhood. It is related, 100, that when his parents took
him to Jerusalem —on the same journey when he had
the famous discussion with the learned doctors in the
temple—he paused at the sight of Jerusalem, and a spir
it of prophecy revealed to him its doom.
Prophetic Beethoven.
lias anyone remarked on the startling resemblance to
the sharp toot of a motor horn of those four-times repeated
double notes in Beethoven's "Second Symphony," which
demonstrates how a great imaginative genius may be far
ahead of his contemporaries? The classic example 1#
Shakespeare and the telegraph. When these familiar notes
are heard in the symphony the audience may be seen to
look anxiously over the shoulder and prepare to cut and.
run.—London Chronicle. .
All Going Out.
Judge (sternly)— Three times in a month! What do you
make of this, sir?
Rastus (apologetically)—' Deed I doan make nuffin". You
fellows up here seem to be de only ones dat get any "cuni
ary profit out of hauling me up.—Puck.
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