make a good shepherd. These single wolves are cowards. It is always
safe to face them. When they come in packs, it is quite another thing.
But this fellow will keep at a safe distance for the rest of the
night, you may depend. Let us go back to our shelter and call the
sheep together."

It was several minutes before Stephanus and Joseph could collect the
sheep that the wolf had scattered; but at length, with the aid of the
dog, who was not a very brave specimen, and who had taken to his heels
when he saw the wolf coming, they succeeded in driving them into a
safe neighborhood, and then, with their blood quickened by the
adventure, they sat down again beneath the overhanging rock.

"You said, grandfather, that you always spent this night with the
flocks in the fields. Why this night?" asked the boy.

"Do you not know, my boy, that this is the night of the year on which
the Lord Christ was born?"

"Oh! yes," answered the lad. "My father told me as we were walking
hither today, but I had forgotten it. And you were with the sheep that
night?"

"Aye."

"Where was it?"

"Here, on this very spot."

The boy's eyes began to grow and fill with wonder and there was a