Page:Christmas stories (IA christmasstories00faul).pdf/106

 “I know,” said the boy, as he looked lovingly down upon the little lamb which he was still holding in his strong young arms, “we can give this lamb—Snow-white; it is the purest and whitest little lamb from our flock. I love it and it is the best that we have to offer, and surely the good Father in Heaven knows that we are bringing our gift of love to the King.”

“The boy is right,” said the old man. “This baby lamb—the purest of the flock is truly our gift of love.”

And so the shepherds went in haste down the hillside, the boy holding in his arms the baby lamb. Once it bleated softly, “Ma-Ma-a-a,” as though it called its mother, and the boy seemed to hear the mother-sheep on the hillside calling out, “Ba-ba-a-a,” as though she were calling her baby.