ot to Naomi, the daughter of
Samuel the weaver.

As she swayed back and forth, torn by her misery, there came to her,
like balm upon a wound, the familiar, comforting words that her mother
and father had used over and over of late, to soothe the little girl's
pain and to encourage hope in the sad hearts of them all.

"I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah
In the land of the living.
Wait for Jehovah:
Be strong, and let thy heart take courage;
Yea, wait thou for Jehovah."

Naomi rose to her feet. The startled pigeons withdrew a short way and
stood watching her curiously with their hard, bright eyes. About her was
the soft sunlight, over her head the deep blue sky.

She turned her sightless face toward Jerusalem and spoke as if to a
friend present.

"Yea, Lord," said the little Jewish girl in simple faith, "I will wait
for Thee, and for Thy Messiah who will open the eyes of the blind.
Surely when Messiah cometh I shall see. And until then, I will wait and
pray for His coming. I will wait."

On the outer stairway that led from the ground to the roof stood Ezra,
breathless, his hand pressed against his side. He had run all the way,
without stopping, up the steep lanes from the Bethlehem stable, and now,
pausing to rest an instant before speaking to Naomi, he could not help
overhearing the last words she said.

"So thou wilt wait?" he whispered, his breath coming in gasps. "Thou
wilt wait for His coming? Nay, my little sister, thy time of waiting is
over. The Messiah is here! The Christ is born! O that I might shout it
from the housetop, that my father and mother and all the world may know
that the Lord hath kept His promise and the Messiah hath come!"

Ezra's whole heart and soul were full of a great new hope, and the sight
of Naomi's tear-stained face and groping, outstretched hands made him
long to tell her the good tidings at once.

But the boy's love for his unhappy little sister made him wise beyond
his years.

"If I tell her, and it does not come to pass as she wishes, it will
break her heart," he argued. "The Messiah is but a tiny Baby now, weak
and helpless. It may be He must grow to manhood before He can heal the
blind, the deaf, and the sick. Who knows? Not I. I will not tell her
yet."

So Ezra clattered noisily up the remaining steps of the stairway,
calling out:

"Naomi! Naomi! Where art thou? Oh, here thou art! Are thy sandals well
tied? For I have come to