Читать книгу Star Over Bethlehem: Christmas Stories and Poems - Агата Кристи, Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie - Страница 11

The Naughty Donkey

Once upon a time there was a very naughty little donkey. He liked being naughty. When anything was put on his back he kicked it off, and he ran after people trying to bite them. His master couldn’t do anything with him, so he sold him to another master, and that master couldn’t do anything with him and also sold him, and finally he was sold for a few pence to a dreadful old man who bought old worn-out donkeys and killed them by overwork and ill treatment. But the naughty donkey chased the old man and bit him, and then ran away kicking up his heels. He didn’t mean to be caught again so he joined a caravan that was going along the road. ‘Nobody will know who I belong to in all this crowd,’ thought the donkey.

These people were all going up to the city of Bethlehem, and when they got there they went into a big Khan full of people and animals.

The little donkey slipped into a nice cool stable where there was an ox and a camel.The camel was very haughty, like all camels, because camels think that they alone know the hundredth and secret name of God. He was too proud to speak to the donkey So the donkey began to boast. He loved boasting.

‘I am a very unusual donkey,’ he said, ‘I have foresight and hindsight.’

‘What is that?’ said the ox.

‘Like my forelegs – in front of me – and my hind legs – behind me.Why, my great great, thirty-seventh time great grandmother belonged to the Prophet Balaam, and saw with her own eyes the Angel of the Lord!’

But the ox went on chewing and the camel remained proud.

Then a man and a woman came in, and there was a lot of fuss, but the donkey soon found out that there was nothing to fuss about, only a woman going to have a baby which happens every day. And after the baby was born some shepherds came and made a fuss of the baby – but shepherds are very simple folk.

But then some men in long rich robes came.

‘V.I.P.s,’ hissed the camel.

‘What’s that?’ asked the donkey.

‘Very Important People,’ said the camel, ‘bringing gifts.’

The donkey thought the gifts might be something good to eat, so when it was dark he began nosing around. But the first gift was yellow and hard, with no taste, the second made the donkey sneeze and when he licked the third, the taste was nasty and bitter.

‘What stupid gifts,’ said the donkey, disappointed. But as he stood there by the Manger, the baby stretched out his little hand and caught hold of the donkey’s ear, clutching it tight as very young babies will.

And than a very odd thing happened. The donkey didn’t want to be naughty any more. For the first time in his life he wanted to be good. And he wanted to give the baby a gift – but he hadn’t anything to give. The baby seemed to like his ear, but the ear was part of him – and then another strange idea came to him. Perhaps he could give the baby himself....

It was not very long after that that Joseph came in with a tall stranger. The stranger was speaking urgently to Joseph, and as the donkey stared at them he could hardly believe his eyes!

The stranger seemed to dissolve and in his place stood an Angel of the Lord, a golden figure with wings. But after a moment the Angel changed back again into a mere man.

‘Dear dear, I’m seeing things,’ said the donkey to himself.‘It must be all that fodder I ate.’

Joseph spoke to Mary.

‘We must take the child and flee.There is no time to be lost.’ His eye fell on the donkey.‘We will take this donkey here, and leave money for his owner whoever he may be. In that way no time will be lost.’

So they went out on the road from Bethlehem. But as they came to a narrow place, the Angel of the Lord appeared with a flaming sword, and the donkey turned aside and began to climb the hillside. Joseph tried to turn him back on to the road, but Mary said:

‘Let him be. Remember the Prophet Balaam.’

And just as they got to the shelter of some olive trees, the soldiers of King Herod came clattering down the road with drawn swords.

‘Just like my great grandmother,’ said the donkey, very pleased with himself.‘I wonder if I have foresight as well.’

He blinked his eyes – and he saw a dim picture – a donkey fallen into a pit and a man helping to pull it out. . . . ‘Why, it’s my Master, grown up to be a man,’ said the donkey. Then he saw another picture . . . the same man, riding on a donkey into a city. . . .‘Of course,’ said the donkey.‘He’s going to be crowned King!’

But the Crown seemed to be, not Gold, but Thorns (the donkey loved thorns and thistles – but it seemed the wrong thing for a Crown) and there was a smell he knew and feared – the smell of blood; and there was something on a sponge, bitter like the myrrh he had tasted in the stable....

And the little donkey knew suddenly that he didn’t want foresight any more. He just wanted to live for the day, to love his little Master and be loved by him, and to carry Him and his mother safely to Egypt.