Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/54

48 Nay, my darling knows them already : She wishes for something true ; So I'll tell her a sweet, strange story, Old, yet forever new. Once, in the past's dim ages, In a country far away, On just such a starlit night as this, An Infant in slumber lay. But not in a costly cradle Was the Baby hushed to rest ; Not on a downy pillow Was his pure white forehead pressed. It was a dismal stable ; Nestled upon the hay, In a dark and narrow manger, The new-born Infant lay ;