Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXIX. The Bambino
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
Don Salvatore deposited the cradle in its
shrine and left the Bambino in the charge of my
womenfolk after most detailed recommendations
to watch over him and see that he had all he
wanted. Elisa’s children played about on the
floor the whole day to keep him company and at
Ave Maria the whole household kneeled before
the cradle reciting their prayers. Giovannina
poured a little more oil in the lamp for the night,
they waited for a while till the Bambino had
fallen asleep and then they went away as silently
as they could. When all was still in the house I
went up to the nursery to have a look at the
Bambino before I went to bed. The light from
the holy lamp fell on the cradle, I could just see
him lying there smiling in his sleep.
Poor little smiling child, little did he know
that the day should come when all of us who were
kneeling by his cradle should abandon him, when
those who said they loved him should betray him,
when cruel hands should tear the golden crown
from his brow and replace it by a crown of thorns
and nail him to a cross, forsaken even by God.
The night he died a sombre old man was
wandering up and down the same marble floor where I
was standing now. He had risen from his couch
roused in his sleep by a haunting dream. His
face was dark as the sky overhead, fear shone in
his eye. He summoned his astronomers and his
wise men from the East and bid them to tell him
the meaning of his dream, but before they could
read the golden writing on the sky, one by one
the stars flickered and went out. Whom had he
to fear, he the ruler of the world! What
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
