ingdom
should have no end, and His name should be Jesus. He also told her of
her cousin Elizabeth away in Hebron, to whom a little son was promised.

Then Mary said these beautiful words to the angel:

"Behold the hand-maid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy
word," and the angel went away into heaven.

Mary was so full of wonder at the angel's words that she set out on a
journey to see Elizabeth. It was eighty miles to Hebron, but it was
early summer, and as Mary went through the green valleys and fruitful
plains, and along by the flowing Jordan, she thought about the angel's
words, and prayed to God to make her good and wise. She was not
afraid, though the journey was four days long, for she knew God was
with her.

On the fourth day she passed Jerusalem, the Holy City, and went on and
up into the Hebron Hills to the house of Elizabeth. When they told to
each other the wonderful words of the angel Gabriel they were full of
joy, for they knew that the coming of the Christ was near, and that the
Lord had trusted them with the heavenly secret. They were filled with
the Holy Spirit, and Mary broke out into a beautiful song of praise.

Mary stayed three months with her cousin Elizabeth, and learned many
things, for the old priest and his wife were wise and good. When she
went back to Nazareth she told no one of her vision, not even her
mother or Joseph, the good carpenter, whose promised wife she was. But
the angel came one night to Joseph and spoke to him through a dream of
the Holy Child that was to be born.

Now Joseph and Mary were of the family of King David, and they knew
that the prophets had long ago talked of a King who was to come and
restore the kingdom, and reign on the throne of David. They even told
where he was to be born, in Bethlehem, the "City of David." And though
the Jews had become the servants of the Romans, yet it was time,
according to the promise, that the new King should come and set them
free, and many were looking for His coming.

Perhaps Joseph and Mary thought of these things when the time came for
them to go to Bethlehem, for the Emperor of Rome had made a decree that
all Jews should be enrolled, that he might know how many were in his
empire. So all Jews, who had gone to live in other parts, returned to
their own tribe and city to be enrolled among their own people.

When Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem they found it full of people who
had also come home to write