The First Christmas
Colum, Padraic
i8o THE COMMONWEAL December 23, 1925 THE FIRST CHRISTMAS By PADRAIC COLUM B OYS, O Boys," said the First Shepherd, "this season is very severe! I'm in dread to stand on my feet," said...
...I wasn't out of the house since the time you saw me...
...I know you now," said Mac...
...Well them that's born to it know the hardship...
...So he went over to them, and he made a circle round them with his staff, saying the spell he made up— "Let there be round you a circle, as round as the moon— Let you lie stone-still till it be done...
...If you kill it they'll hear the sheep bleat," said Gill, his wife...
...Stolen, did you say...
...Well," said he, "if I had been there I'll engage I'd have been blamed for something...
...But come and look around you...
...I tell you that if there was a harrow under me I wouldn't find it hurting me," said the Third Shepherd ; and he lay down...
...Is there anything on ye that isn't good...
...When Mac went into his house, Gill, his wife, was spinning by the fire, and the children were crowding hungrily around her...
...Two honest men that we are known to...
...We're abroad east and west, day'and dark, without rest or comfort, and for all our striving we're near out of the door with the poverty...
...What's ill-spun comes out badly," said the Third Shepherd...
...They laid down their staves and they went outside...
...He's in the shackles in earnest...
...Come in," said he to them then, seeing that they were for pushing by him...
...Then he passed on, singing— "Hail, comely and clean...
...And my hands are perished too...
...We're friends and neighbors, you know...
...There is, in troth," said the First Shepherd...
...You'll take our house out of sorrow tonight," said he...
...Do ye see how they've swaddled his four feet in the middle...
...Our respects to you, ma'am," said he to Gill, "and our blessing on what's in the cradle...
...Let us go seek Him," said the Third Shepherd...
...As poor as we are, and as simple as we are, we, the shepherds," they said, "would be the first to find Him when He appeared in the world...
...He stood up, and he looked to the fold and he looked on the shepherds and their boy who were lying there...
...It's the stroke of my crook I'll give him," said the Third Shepherd...
...What prophecies do you speak of, Mac...
...Give us a day's work here,' says the landlord...
...No wonder we're that way," said the Second Shepherd, "far them that are above us are keeping us down...
...You have a name for something, Mac," said the Third Shepherd, "and if you travel so late people will say that you Ye for stealing a sheep...
...It's Mac, I declare," said the Second Shepherd...
...Do you see Mac...
...said he then...
...Your 182 THE COMMONWEAL December 23, 1925 heart would melt if you had to be listening to her groans...
...Hard or soft, salt or fresh, there's no flesh here except the child in the cradle...
...How is your wife...
...said the Third Shepherd...
...I'll sleep if I was to lose fourpence by it," said the Second Shepherd...
...God save ye," said he...
...the rush-candle was lighted, and the children gathered around the fire...
...So he went from them then, leaving the shepherds talking together, one saying that he would go before the other to the pasture with his sheep, and that they all should meet before evening at The Crooked Thorn...
...We'll strike you down, and we'll leave you for dead," said the First Shepherd...
...I dreamt that he came before us in a wolf's skin...
...This twelvemonth I hadn't such a taste for mutton as I have now...
...No wonder that I heard a shepherd say—'We that are watching at night may well see strange sights.' " It was then that the shepherds saw him, and they called out to him, asking him who he was...
...And these are the men that were spoken of in the prophecies," said Mac, "and now they'd beat a poor man in his own house...
...It means a wife...
...The bit to eat is always late in coming to the serving-boy," said the lad...
...Who stood for him...
...And you, Mac," said he, "lie down beside me and put your cloak over the two of us...
...But watch me now so that I won't have the name of stealing anything on you...
...She's by the fire at home, poorly enough, amongst a houseful of children...
...said he...
...I'm a man going on a journey," said Mac, the vagabond...
...High hanging to you," said the First Shepherd to him, "you're thinking of your stomach early in the night...
...God knows we had enough in the house, but then we must eat as we bake...
...If I made a complaint I'd get every one of you goal...
...I don't care who spies now," said Gill, Mac's wife...
...It is as true as steel what the prophets spoke," said one to the other...
...I'll lie down too...
...Lay on him, men...
...Before anyone in the parish I was out of my sleep this morning...
...They that watch at night may well see strange sights...
...Oh, and I had a dream that's worse than all...
...said Mac...
...Who's there...
...I wish I had run until I had lost my woman...
...It was then that their serving-boy came to them, and he whining for his supper...
...In Bethlehem, between two beasts...
...Catch hold of my hand, someone," said Mac when they came to him...
...We've missed the mark," said the Second Shepherd...
...I'm obliged to you for drawing near to me," he said...
...Where is the Child...
...We'll have to take them cunningly...
...A boy he is," said Mac, "and a lord might be proud to have him for a son...
...By your leave, I'll leave something with the child," said the First Shepherd...
...I can't stand up...
...Go out again, you," said she, "and keep near them, so that they won't think you had any hand in carrying away their sheep...
...God save the three of you...
...Open...
...The shepherds were there, but Mac stood between them and the threshold...
...Manus tuas commando Pontio Pilato...
...I dreamt that there was another youngster in our house since the cock-crow...
...He went to the fold and opened the hurdle and a sheep came out to him...
...The night was wearing on when a clatter came to the door...
...Out, thieves, outl" said Gill...
...Of God's Son in Heaven he spoke the word," said the Second Shepherd...
...Be civil-spoken to me...
...If you find sheep, goat, or cow here I'll let you put me under a harrow...
...It would be a miracle, I say, if we could thrive at all...
...Our good sheep that's stolen...
...My wife's brought another one home to me...
...Then," said Gill, "we'll put more wrapping around the sheep and keep it in the cradle...
...December 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 181 So the shepherds and their boy slept, and after a while Mac, the vagabond, rose up, saying to himself —UA man that's in want might take something now...
...and before Mac could stop him, he was at the cradle...
...O hired men," said the angel, "be gentle with each other, for God is your friend...
...Colum is founded on the Wake field Nativity Play.—The Editors...
...After that the shepherds asked the boy to sing a ballad to them, and after he had sung one ballad and another, the First Shepherd said— "I could sleep on a furze-bush...
...I feel as light as the leaf on the tree...
...The child is sleeping...
...A sheep stolen...
...Come and sit by the fire with me, Mac," said the boy...
...This is false work," said the First Shepherd...
...Aye, and then they'd come here and take me," said Mac...
...we have to be doing this and that for them, and our own fields, little as they are, have to be left as fallow as the mud floor at home...
...And when that was said to him he came near them...
...The foregoing story by Mr...
...He's marked amiss, God between us and harm," said the Second Shepherd...
...But they had raised their hands against him when they heard the hymn that we now call Gloria in Excelsis...
...It's Mac...
...The man that's married is the worst off," said the Third Shepherd...
...If ever I wronged ye," said Gill, turning round to the shepherds, "I pray that I may eat what lies there in the cradle...
...You're not so far from them now...
...Mac, here's a plan," said Gill...
...Will ye not speak soft over a sick woman's head...
...The child was changed by the fairies," said she...
...I'm in dread to stand on my feet," said he, "for my two legs might break under me, they're that stiff with the cold...
...Our labor's lost," said the First Shepherd, "and we may as well go home...
...So he went back to where* the shepherds were, and he lay down beside the boy...
...My neck's lain wrong...
...Is the child a boy...
...Mac came to his door and knocked at it...
...Your dreams make you wild...
...and he and his wife went and tied the sheep up...
...They were talking like this, three shepherds out in the plain in the middle of winter, as they kept watch over the flocks that were around them...
...When he wakens up he skips in a way that would delight you...
...What the devil is this...
...In troth, this is our sheep...
...And I'll lie by the wall and cry out as if in my pains, and if we don't baffle them that way never trust to me again...
...Wait for me," said he, "I'll leave sixpence in the cradle...
...night came down...
...I'm harassed with walking the moors...
...I saw it done myself as I was sitting there by the fire...
...It's a good plan," said Mac, "and a woman's advice helps in the end...
...You should have asked one of us," said the Third Shepherd...
...Then anyone who wants to keep his own had better look after it...
...It's Mac, is it...
...I wonder when I see the people dressed up, for I wouldn't know when Sundays or holidays come around, I'm that bent to the hardship...
...I take it badly enough...
...Tell me that first," said the man of the house...
...Peace, woman," said Mac to her...
...said Mac...
...Come here, Mac, and tell us your news...
...If I've done any trespass, you may strike me down," said Mac...
...It never came into my mind to put as much as a farthen in his hand," said the First Shepherd...
...They were in dread and they were in gladness when they saw the sheep that he carried in with him...
...Do ye hear how she goes on...
...If the prophecies don't come to pass now they'll never come to pass...
...It was then that Gill sprung out of the bed and came to them...
...They were making it ready when Mac, the vagabond, came to where they were, all wrapped up in his old cloak...
...Send a yoke and a horse there,' says the steward, and if we refused either of them, we'd be between the mill-stones...
...Look at the devil in his eyes...
...Get your weapons, men...
...Rip up the house then," said Mac...
...So then the shepherds asked him to their fire, and he came and sat with them by it, and they gave him a share of what they had, and he ate his supper with them...
...I'm a man sent on a journey by a great gentleman," said Mac...
...But still Gill lay by the wall, and still Mac sat by the cradle and sang lullaby into it...
...Tonight is born a Child that will free Adam's race...
...Since Noah there were never such floods...
...You're good companions...
...I see him looking out at us," said the First Shepherd...
...Waken up, Mac...
...I must go home...
...Then they put it in the child's cradle and covered it over...
...Easy, easy, Gill...
...The cabin they stood in was all filled with light, and they saw an angel of the Lord outside...
...Our sheep is stolen," said the Third Shepherd, "and it's our business to look about it...
...You brought an ill mind, into my house," said Mac...
...Goodbye to ye," said he as they stepped across the threshold, "we won't be lonesome for you when you're gone...
...My foot's asleep," said the First Shepherd, wakening up...
...He hadn't closed the door before one of the shepherds said—"Did you leave anything for the child in the cradle...
...said she...
...You rock it and sing lullaby...
...He sweats and strives while his masters take their ease...
...hail, young Child That is born this night of a maiden mild...
...They went from that house and towards Bethlehem...
...Mac, open the door," said one outside...
...4As sharp as a thistle, as rough as a briar!' Could you tell me the meaning of that riddle, honest men...
...Who's making that stir...
...Mac, your child has got a snout on him...
...And maybe it were better that we were watching at night," said the First Shepherd, "instead of being here...
...Over your heads my hands I lift, Out go your eyes, your sight I shift...
...Before the night is over we'll have meat on the coals," said Mac...
...May his steps be happy," said the First Shepherd...
...Come...
...There are some that think you were there," said the Second Shepherd...
...said Gill, his wife...
...There's Mac lying down by the boy...
...Storm and wind and rain," he> was saying, "I never saw the like of it...
...said Mac...
...We'll tie it up and hide the live sheep in the child's cradle...
...And after a while he said —"I'm as good a man's son as any of them...
...We were four," said the Third Shepherd, jumping up...
...But Mac said to him— "Go away...
...My wife wasn't up since she laid down there...
...I'm glad I'm not in any way beholden to your friendship," said Mac...
...I was never a shepherd," said he, "but now I'll learn the trade...
...But he went and opened the door...
...What will we do about it...
...Gill, it's Mac," said he, and she opened the door, and he came in and stood on the floor of the house...
...His hire is late in coming to him, and there's a good hole made in it if he makes a slip at all.1' "When it's ready you'll get your supper with the rest of us," said the shepherds...
...H#e spoke of a Child that is lying in Bethlehem," said the First Shepherd...
...He might go into the fold yonder and steal a sheep...
...God help me that has so many children and such little earning...
...All day then they kept the stolen sheep in the child's cradle, and the knife to kill it wasn't taken into Mac's hand...
...I'm a man that has to keep moving," said Mac...
...The boy kept watch...
...However the game goes they'll blame me," said he, "I believe they'll come after me here and that soon...
...Lord, I've slept well," said the Second Shepherd...
...He went back into the house then, and he said— "Mac, don't take it badly that I've come back...
...The star shines above Him...
...My brain will jump off me listening to my poor woman's complaints," said he to the shepherds...
...and he put the sheep across his shoulder...
...A good plan, good woman," said Mac...
...Gill spoke...
...I'll work a spell on them first," said he...
...God save my child from the hands and eyes of ill-wishers," said Gill...
...You'll split my heart with your moaning...
...I bid ye go there," said the angel...
Vol. 3 • December 1925 • No. 7
