The beautiful mother is bending
Low where her baby lies,
Helpless and frail, for her tending;
But she knows the glorious eyes.
The mother smiles and rejoices
While the baby laughs in the hay;
She listens to heavenly voices:
"The child shall be king, one day."
O dear little Christ in the manger,
Let me make merry with thee.
O King, in my hour of danger,
Wilt thou be strong for me?
_Adapted from the Latin of Jacopone da Todi
by Sophie Jewett_
_From "The Poems of Sophie Jewett." Included by permission of the
Thomas Y. Crowell Company._