home went He,
And said, I have been in yonder town
As far as you can see."

Some versions give 'As after you can see.' Jesus repeats the story
precisely as it has been told, with His request to the children and their
rude answer. Whereupon Mary says:--

"Though You are but a maiden's child,
Born in an ox's stall,
Though art the Christ, the King of Heaven,
And the Saviour of them all.

"Sweet Jesus, go down to yonder town
As far as the Holy Well,
And take away those sinful souls
And dip them deep in Hell.

"Nay, nay, sweet Jesus said,
Nay, nay, that may not be;
There are too many sinful souls
Crying out for the help of Me."

On this exquisite close the carol might well end, as Mr. Bullen with his
usual fine judgment makes it end. But the old copies give an additional
stanza, and a very silly one:--

"O then spoke the angel Gabriel,
Upon one good St. Stephen,
Although you're but a maiden's child,
You are the King of Heaven."

'One good St. Stephen' is obviously an ignorant misprint for 'one good set
steven,' _i.e._ 'appointed time,' and so it appears in Mr. Bramley's book,
and in Mr. W. H. Husk's _Songs of the Nativity_. But the stanza is
foolish, and may be dismissed. To amend the text of the children's answer
is less legitimate. Yet one feels sorely tempted; and I cannot help
suggesting that the original ran something like this:--

"But they made answer to Him, No:
They were lords and ladies all;
And He was but a maiden's child,
Born in an ox's stall.

"Sweet Jesus turned Him round about,
And He neither laughed nor smiled,
But the tears came trickling from His eyes
To be but a maiden's child. . . ."

I plead for this suggestion: (1) that it adds nothing to the text and
changes but one word; (2) that it removes nothing but the weak and
unrhyming 'Like water from the skies'; and (3) that it leads directly to
Mary's answer:--

"Though you are but a maiden's child,
Born in an ox's stall," &c.

But it were better to hunt out the original than to accept any emendation;
and I hope you will agree that the original of this little poem, so
childlike and delicately true, is worth hunting for. "The carol," says
Mr. Husk, "has a widely-spread popularity. On a broadside copy printed at
Gravesend,"--presumably the one from which '