Joseph looked at his wife and child.  Their faces were white in the moonlight.  To think that such as they had an enemy on the earth!  Flee!  But whither?  Where could the king not reach them?  His arm extended throughout the whole of Judaea.  We must not dream of going to Nazareth; he would be sure to seek us there.  Shall we go towards the land where the sun rises?  There dwell wild men of the desert.  Or towards the setting sun?  There are the boundless waters, and we have no boat in which to sail thither, where the heathens live who have kinder hearts than the grim princes of Israel.

“Wake them!” called the voice clearly and urgingly.  “Take them to the land of the Pharaohs.”

“To Egypt, where our forefathers were slaves, and were only delivered with difficulty?” asked Joseph.

“Joseph, delay not.  Go to the people whose faith is folly, but whose will is just, yonder where the waters of the Nile make the land fertile and bless it; There you will find peace and livelihood, safety for your wife, and teaching for the child.  When the time comes, God will lead you back as once He led Moses and Joshua across the sea.”

Joseph knew not whose voice it was; he did not seek to know, and doubted not his soul rested trustfully in the arms of the Lord.  He put his hand on the shoulders of his dearest one, and said softly:  “Mary, awake, and be not afraid.  Gather together our few possessions, put them in a sack, and I will fasten it to the beast Ishmael gave us.  Then take the child.  We must away.”

Mary pushed her long, soft, silky hair from her face.  Her husband’s sudden decision, the departure in the middle of the night, made her wonder, but she said not a word.  She gathered together their scanty possessions, took the sleeping child in her arms, and mounted the ass, who pricked up his ears and thought what a day’s work must be before him since it began so terribly early.  His former owner had not pampered him; his short legs were firm and willing.  They gave one last grateful look at the cave, the stones of which were softer than the hearts of the men of Bethlehem.  Joseph took his stick and a leathern strap and walked beside the ass, leading it, the ass which carried his whole world and his heaven, and—­the heaven of the whole world.

After going some way, they thought to rest under some palm-trees, not far from Hebron.  But the ass would not stop, and they let him have his will.  Then soldiers of Herod rode that way; they saw a brown-skinned woman with a child sitting on the sand.

“Is it a boy?” they called to her.

“A girl,” answered the woman.  “But strangers have just passed by, and I think they had a boy with them, if you can come up with them.”