SECOND WOMAN.  That is strange.  What woman is that?

FIRST WOMAN.  A woman that is about to give birth to a child; and I think it would be well for her, another woman to be giving care to her.

SECOND WOMAN.  That is the same woman I am in search of in the same way.

FIRST WOMAN.  I did an unkindness to her, and grief and shame came on me after, and I thought to make up for it if I could.

FIRST WOMAN.  Oh, that is just the same thing I myself did.

SECOND WOMAN.  That is a wonder.  I will tell you how it happened with me; and you will tell me your story after that.

FIRST WOMAN.  I will tell it.

SECOND WOMAN.  That is good.  I was one evening a while ago getting ready the supper for my husband and my children, when there came a man and a young woman to the door, and the woman riding an ass.  They asked a night’s lodging of me.  They said it was up to Jerusalem they were going.  But, my grief! the husband I have is a rough man, and there was fear on me to let them in; I was afraid he would do something to me, and I refused them.  They said to me they were very tired; and they pressed so hard on me that I told them at last to go out and sleep in the barn, in the place the flax was, and my husband would not have knowledge of it.  But about midnight my husband was struck with sickness, and a great pain came on him of a sudden, as if his death was near.  When I thought him to be dying, I was in dread; and I ran out to the people I had put in the barn, asking help from them.

FIRST WOMAN.  God help us!

SECOND WOMAN.  God help us, indeed!  And when the woman that was lying on the stalks of flax heard my story, it is what she did:  she took a flock of the husks of the flax that were on the floor, and said to me:  ‘Lay that,’ she said, ‘on the place the pain is, and it will cure him.’  Out with me as quick as I could, and the husks in my hand, the same as they are now.  My husband was on the point of death at that time; but, as sure as I am alive, when I put the husks on him, the pain went away, and he was as well as ever he was.

FIRST WOMAN.  That is a great story!

SECOND WOMAN.  And when I ran out again to bring the woman in with me, she was gone; and I heard a voice, as I thought, saying these two lines:—­

    ’A meek woman and a rough man;
    The Son of God lying in husks.’

FIRST WOMAN.  You heard that said?

SECOND WOMAN.  There was grief and shame on me then, letting her from me like that, without giving her thanks, or anything at all; and I followed her on the morrow, for I said to myself that she was blessed.  I heard she was gone to Bethlehem; and I followed her to this stable; for I thought I could be helpful to her, and she in that state.  They told me she was not in the inn; and that there was no place at all for her to get, till she came to this stable.

FIRST WOMAN.  Is not that wonderful?  You said the truth when you said it was a blessed woman that was in it.