That’s Bear and Lion coming. They’re tired and sleepy. (BEAR and LION enter. Bear carries a bee-hive; Lion, a large bone.) BEAR Ooff! Ooff! Where’s a hollow to sleep in? GNOME Ask Tree. TREE Welcome, Bear! Break a bough for your pillow. WOLF (Edging away) Hi! Not my tail! LION Ah-yarrr! I’m tired of killing. Where can I bury my bone? GNOME Ask Tree! TREE Welcome, Lion. Lay your head on my roots and rest. LION Yarrr! It’s a night of cold. You kill nothing, Bear: how do you keep so fat? WOLF His belly is full of wild honey.— Here! he’s soft and round: Keep him in the middle. BEAR Three are warmer than one. Go to sleep. (WOLF and LION lean against BEAR. Slowly all fall into slumber and low snoring.) THE THREE (Murmuring together) Hi-yo!—Ooff! Ooff!—Ah-yarrr! ELF And why do you wish the star to come, Tree? TREE Because of my dream. GNOME What dream? TREE Because I have dreamed a new star will come in the night; And will gather all the old stars out of the heaven To sparkle upon my branches. And there they shall sing all together. And in the midst of them the new star Shall laugh aloud, Shall laugh like a young child, And my boughs shall be as sheltering arms to make him a home. And there we shall dwell no more, dreadful in the desert, Where wild beasts kill one another, and weary of killing; And there shall be no more lonely things; But there shall be carolling of stars and a young child’s laughter; And I shall be the angel in his home. ELF The wild beasts are fast asleep. GNOME Nothing is stirring in the world. ELF Yes: look! I think I see— GNOME Where? ELF Don’t you see—there! through the dark: It is moving towards us. GNOME I think I hear some one singing. ELF It is drawing nearer. TREE O my dear dream! ELF AND GNOME Is it the new star? TREE Yes; but it has fallen down out of the heaven. It has made itself very small and lowly. It has made itself into a little lantern, To light the feet of them who wander in the wilderness. ELF See! GNOME Hark. SECOND ACTION (The Lantern in the Desert) _AISLE I: A PATHWAY INTO THE WILDERNESS_ Moving toward the Tree, a Procession enters singing. First comes JOSEPH in white. He holds high a tall staff, from which a swinging lantern shines. Behind him comes, in pale blue, MARY, attended by SHEPHERDS in white. These carry lighted candles and long crooks, and they are ranged about a MANGER, borne in their midst. [Sidenote: _Carol 1. Joseph’s Carol_] JOSEPH _As Joseph I was walking,_ _I heard an angel sing:_ JOSEPH AND SHEPHERDS “_This night shall be the birthnight_ _Of Christ our heavenly King._