"The girl is only fifteen. A month ago she got engaged to Joseph and soon she will have a child. "Who knows who made it for her. That the Holy Spirit has entered her, she says. Phe!" Old Chaim laughed harshly and reached for another pancake smeared with honey.
Esther pushed the bowl closer to him and sighed, "You're right. And that nephew of ours, that dunce, he acts like nothing. We locked them both in the barn so they wouldn't embarrass themselves. The baby was born. Well, look at that. The people that follow them!"
.
.
"And what gifts they bring them!" Chaim interjected enviously into the conversation. "I was watching them all bowing yesterday. Even some three kings from somewhere in the East came and knelt before the little one. They all say it's the Messiah."
"Yeah, they say he's gonna take over the nation of Israel one day!" Esther thought about that sentence. "Tomorrow you will go to the palace and tell everything there."
King Herod waved his hand angrily at Chaim's story. "You say Messiah? There will be no Messiah! I'll have all the Jewish scum slaughtered."
Chaim hurried home and immediately to the barn. "Joseph, take Mary and Jesus and run! Herod wants to kill all the little boys! "Leave these here," pointing to the poultry, the pen full of sheep, and the baskets full of strange things that were lined up along the wall. "It would only delay you on your journey...," he shuddered inwardly at the thought of the riches falling into his lap.
