THE LANDSWOMAN
December, 191 8
Christmas Eve
GIRL who was so u~ly as to be almost wholly unpleasing sa.t
. on the topmost step of a buildin!( of eutrancing beauty. The
ch1ld herself (for in years she was little more) was dirty and
unkempt and her face was pinched and wan with discontent ar•d a
restlessness which was not ~ood to see. The steps on which she
sat were cool and •mooth and were made of finest marble. They
led up to the wrought stoue entrance, which was guarded by
slender pillars of marble, many hued, exquisite. She was gazing
intently through the half-open door, through which there came a
shaft. of light and the sound of chanting in monotone, so low as to
be almost like a single note that wns whispered. The atmosphere
was charged "ith a mystery and a beauty which she did not
undorotand, for she was a very ordina.ry girl and did not trouble
about such things.
The cathedral (for such the building was) was long and full of
gre"t shadows. At the end of the shadows burned a cluster of
lights so brilliant that they well-nigh blinded her. Tiy their !i:rht
she could see a floor of red and blue ; she saw also pillars of
marvellous beauty that stretched up towards the vaulted roof
as if they ye~>rned over something that was up there, and were
l?st in dim space. They were all of marble and in colouring were
llke grey-blue pebbles in a mossy stream. Great white arches
glistened and called aloud to her in their spotless purity, and
before them, flanked by a crimson curtain, was a ire at throne of
gold set upon the mosaic floor.
nefore the throne stood the solitary figure of a man. He was
clothed in gorgeous robes, for he was the servant of the Most
High. He was chanting in low ~tnd reverent tones, and it seemed
to the girl that all his being yearned like the slender pillars
toward• Something that was suspended up there where the
shadows of the roof came down to meet the lights from t.he golden
throne. The priest "a" wise and great and had many friends
amongst those who were rich and powerful in the world; moreover, he was much beloved and admired. Great gifts had been
given him for his church, and so it came to pass that he stood in
beaut~ to worship Him Who was greater and humbler than himsr If.
The child looked up from her huddled and undignified position
by the pillar and from her dirt and her rags that she mJght see
what it was that hung there so still and PO entrancin!(ly white.
And she saw that it was also the figure of a Man. So silent, so
solitary was the Figure upon the cross on the golden disc, and
His arms were stretched out as if He called and His eyes were half
closed as if He were in pain.
·
Around Him and above Him and below Him were the. things
of beauty that were made for Him by the men for whom He
suffered-the floor of mosaic and the marble pillars that were
like to pebbles in a mossy qtrearn; the !od with eyes of ndoration and vearned that he
might reach Him by the work of wen's hands and' men's brains.
Now it ha,, been said that the little girl hy the slender pillar
was very ugly and unr!ean, and it must also be told that she was
unr.lean within as well as without, for 'ihe was not. n ~ood li ttle
girl. Out there, in the rough and tumble of the streets, she had
known many things that it were better for her not to have known
and . had <1one many thhigs that were ugly . She had stolen
that she mi~ht not starve, had lied that she might live, and
had done even sadder things t han these that her heart might
not brenk, for she was not greatly loved nor admired.
Rut the night- was the night of Christmas Eve, and perhaps
it was the sight of the happy faces (whose owners she wa t ched
as they. went into the big shops and came out laden with the
good things that money can buy so that they might take them
to enjoy in the.ir quiet. homes) that had awakened in her the spark
of ~tn 1deal of happiness and quietness for herself. She ban
had not.ions of t he l